Boccalone

Get the meat cone. The general one has mortadella, fennel salumi, and capicola. Not a huge fan of the mortadella but the rest was melt in your mouth good. I would recommend getting a custom meat come and switching out the mortadella for the lardo if you want to be naughty

The five star rating is for their products, HOWEVER, this location is a production facility and NO LONGER offers any retail sales. They are at Lake Temescal on Saturday mornings and of course, at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

This Place wins both on quality and customer service. I picked up a large salami at their ferry building location, but they forgot to tell me that it should be unwrapped after I got home. A few weeks later, when I opened it, it smelled a bit off. I called the main office in Oakland, and Stephen called me back. After talking with me about the problem, he sent me a brand-​new salami by federal express. I’m not sure if the first one was really bad, but I am a lifetime customer now. Awesome company

Mark Pastore and Chris Cosentino run some awesome cured meats biz. Tasty salty pig parts is also an excellent catch phrase that describes what they do perfectly. The only bad thing about this factory is the area’s got some ladies of ill repute all over the streets, but then I guess if you want some hookers with your sausage, this is perfect for you!

THIS.
I had a sample slice of Sopressata at the Embarcadero Farmers Market Just like that scene in Pixar’s Ratatouille, I was immediately transported to my 8-​year old self, trying authentic salami for the first time in the company of my relatives in Italy.
I suppressed the urge to shout SELL ME ALL YOUR MEAT and just bought one salami as I was traveling light.
But I will be back.
With a wheelbarrow.

Super chill and unpretentious for such a nice shop in a relatively trendier-​than-​usual spot in Oakland. We grabbed a medley of cured meats, including ham and prosciutto in a lovely paper cone.
We devoured it within minutes. Then, we got really thirsty. But they didn’t offer any water, just some lil’ snacks to clear your palette.
They really should have water.

Boccalone has their factory on international where fresh meat is hawked dally on the streets in the wee hours. Boccalone’s meat is different, it’s cured the old fashioned way. how? don’t know. probably a close held secret.
Boccalone is artisan italian cured meats. they have similiarities to chinese cured pork products in that both use fat to draw out the flavors from pork.
locale: temescal farmers market
sampling: capocoll: (¼ lb $ 8)
–fatty, salty, and a sinfully delish taste
foodnotes:
–samples freely dispensed, ala crack?
–very fatty, very delish
–will probably avoid extended contact since it’s not so healthy.
–don’t want to push my lipitor luck too far.

So glad this operation is in Oakland! The aromas of their sausages being cooked takes me back to the quaint cafes in Italy, France, and Germany. It’s difficult to put into words, but the experience is one for the senses. What’s strange is that I don’t eat a lot of meat (No, not even close to being vegan), but when I do indulge, it has to be good and it has to be high-​quality. I get that at Boccalone. You might cringe at this suggestion, but I recommend you try the Blood Sausage. Boccalone’s took me back to when I first tried it in Chacroute in the Alsace. Simply wonderful. I just wish they had a store near their plant. I love the Ferry Building, and it’s not a bad drive or BART ride, but it would simply be more convenient!

Sitting across the street from Boccalone, at the Black and Silver Burger place having Laotian roast pork!!! Boccalone is in the heart of pork heaven: carnitas on the weekends at Jalisco’s, Banh Mi on the corner (bbq pork sandwich), and Boccalone’s wonderful artisanal sausages. It’s a lot easier to get their product at the SF Ferry building, but I’m proud that Pastore produces everything here in the neighbohood.
Four cuisines that feature pork in all it’s cooked glory… what could be better?

Spreadable Salami.
’nuff said

Real meat. «Tasty Salted Pig Parts.» I really enjoy eating the products, and I found these guys when I started asking in restaurants where they got «Tasty Salted Pig Parts» like this from. Invariably, those special pig parts I was partial towards came from Boccalone (In a blind taste test no less :)

Tasty Salted Pig Parts. Now that is speaking my language! I tried them first at JC Cellars during their urban wine tasting weekend. They have salumi Saturdays. I think I am in love.

We’re through our first satchel of lovely pig products from Boccalone and I’m in love. My favorite of the batch was the orange fennel sausage, followed closely by the proscuitto cotto — I ate it on bread with nothing else and I never do that. I can’t wait until the next pick up in a week or two.

My sweetie gave me a Piglet membership to Boccalone for V day (ain’t she the dreamiest?). After three months of regular swine supply, here are my thoughts.
The nicest, coolest people in the meats business. Okay, I don’t know that many people in the meats business, but the whole crew at Incanto on Saturdays shoots good vibes from their eyeballs.
Pretty much all the products are delicious, especially the pâté, head cheese, and the soppreseta (especially the soppreseta). I can’t think of a single miss, but I will say that blood sausage is not necessarily everyone’s thing.
The products contain a pretty high amount of fat. This corresponds with extra deliciousness, but only for those products that you don’t cook. I may be wrong, but I don’t really see a point in overdoing the fat in the Italian sausages and breakfast sausages. A lot of fat rendering out with those sausages. Still tasty, but makes cleanup a little bit of a pain.
Sometimes I wished I had a deli slicer. Cutting the products by hand worked for the most part, but sometimes the thinness brought by a slicer was missed. Probably most true for mortadella (have your tried to cut a big round by hand, pretty close to impossible, at least with my clumsy knife skills).
«I am only one man.» This was probably the biggest reason I did not renew my membership. I love eating piggy, but I also have a job where I eat at the office a fair amount, dinner out with sweetie and friends, and the like. I will say I am a pretty sporadic grocery shopper (if it’s not frozen, I probably won’t buy it). If you cook meals at home on a regular basis, no big deal, but if you are like me, the regular flow of meat can be. .. stressful.
The good news is that most of these issues will be solved when Boccalone makes it into the Ferry Building. Yep, you heard right. There will also be a new membership system, where you get to choose your products and the frequency of pickup. When I need something every day, Lucca will be there, but if I want something extra special, I can make the hike over to Boccalone.

Yum Yum Yum!

If you’re looking for proper artisan pork products, then you have got to try this place out. The fat content is off this charts, but so is the flavor. The mortadella is killer. I am also a huge fan of their stylish graphic design.
The only thing that might be a problem is that this place is kinda exclusive. And the membership options aren’t that flexible. What am I going to do with all this meat?! I love meat but this is a little too much. If I ate everything then a heart attack would easily ensue. Until then, I’ll just be a fan, not a cult member.

The gentle flow of water down an overflow stream slows time. A warm wind can’t quite cool the prickles of sun-​sweat on the back of your neck so you move down the bench, deeper into the shade. Shadows and sun through a Black Oak’s leaves shift over your body. Take a deep breath, you’ve arrived in this moment and all that matters is here and now.
Open the beautifully simple brown box. Smell that? That’s mortadella — spicy, subtle, garlic, rich. It’s so light, sliced so thin, it’s almost like cotton candy. Slivers of pistachios add delicious texture to the velvet smooth meat.
Piled on top of a water crackers, it is marvelous alongside a hard cider. The deep, complex flavor fills all the spaces between your teeth, and even after you finally allow yourself to swallow, you can find vivid memories in your mouth. When you’re done torturing yourself, pile up another slice — would you like this one on a fresh, crispy, clean baguette? Maybe with a tiny bit of soft cheese, or scraping of butter? Here, bite into this strawberry first — the bright aroma, the sweettart flesh, the crunchy seeds. Now, more Mortadella… or another treasure in the box?
Boccalone is an excuse for a picnic. We hit Alameda Natural Grocery for fruit and cheeses and wines and a really good french cider (you gotta try it), then swing by Boccalone for whatever heavenly surprises await, and instantly turn toward our favorite park for a four or five-​hour picnic of exquisite indulgence.
Is there a better way to spend a day?

The offerings from the Boccalone artisans at Incanto are fantastic. Every other Saturday from 10am to 2pm, Salumi Society members and non-​members can purchase all good things delicious from the boar and piglet. And, samples are always available (my favorite part!). The staff is friendly as our the local cured meat lovers.
We picked up our first little bag of savory treasures before the holidays and were silly with delight when we got home. Our brown box included spicy Italian sausage, Pat di Campagna, Soppressata di Calabria, and pancetta. The portions were enough for two adults and two kids — we just added pieces to many of our dishes for the following two weeks. However, the pat was too good and devoured soon after arrival.

I was on a mission this morning, driving along the streets of Oakland to the actual home of Boccalone. Not the fancy surroundings of Noe Valley but the gritty industrial heart of Oakland. My roommate in college worked at the Columbus Salami factory and I have an uncle who is a pig farmer I know my pig.
We had mortadella on rolls today for lunch. This is not the fatty bologna tasting mortadella you are familiar with, spiced with fennel it was excellent. I can’t wait to work my way through the rest of the salty tasty pig products…

As both a Noe Valley resident and a HUGE fan of «tasty salted pig parts» I was literally salivating about the chance to try this place. While I was definitely pleased with the variety of what they’re offering so far, they’re going to need to either step up their quality or tone down their prices.
First of all let’s talk about the salty pig parts themselves. So far I’ve had a chance to try the fresh Italian sausage, whiskey fennel salami and the supposedly spicy soprasetta de calabria. In case you hadn’t figured it out by now, the spicy soprasetta wasn’t that spicy. Most disappointing was that both salamis had an extremely high amount of fat — probably at least 50%. While that was tasty and welcome when we served it during the Patriots-​Cowboys game to a bunch of unpicky football fans, I don’t know if I could recommend either on a fancier antipasti plate at your next dinner party. I like fat in my pork products as much as the next guy and recognize that you do need some for that buttery flavor and texture, but this was way too much.
We also threw the fresh Italian sausage on the grill and while I was generally pleased with it, my girlfriend’s portion had quite a bit of gristle in it. I didn’t happen to notice any in mine, but there was definitely some in hers as well as in both of the dry salamis.
The other key issue here is value. While I’m willing to pay top-​dollar for top-​quality, Boccalone hasn’t quite hit the mark just yet. In addition to selling some of the meats such as the whiskey fennel salami individually, they seem to be gearing towards trying to bulk their products in to «sachettos» which retail for $ 29 for the smaller Piglet size and $ 49 for the larger Boar size. They claim that they’ll only be offering these individually without membership as they’re available, but with membership costing an ADDITIONAL $ 174 for 3 months on the Piglet and $ 294 for 3 months on the boar I just can’t see any non-​restauranteurs signing up for this much salty pork anytime soon. Think about it — that’s $ 261 for 3 months of charcuterie, and not even spendthrift Noe Valley gourmands such as myself are going to jump on that.
They’re only selling at Incanto every other Saturday right now, and when we went this past weekend none of the many salespeople, including the owner, could give us any kind of convincing sales pitch on why to sign up for this membership, despite us offering them several chances to do so. Unless they’re counting on people buying each other memberships as gifts (think Omaha Steaks) then I don’t know how this business model is going to survive.
On top of that we wound up buying the $ 29 sachetto which featured the soprasetta, Italian sausage, coppa and mortadella. I would never buy mortadella otherwise and would rather spend my money on something more interesting than coppa, so I’d say to keep buying just the stuff that sounds good invidually until they get it right.
But hey, as far as gifts go I’d take these guys over Omaha Steaks any day.