This Old-School North Carolina Italian Market Has Been Serving Beloved Deli Favorites For More Than 30 Years
This place has the kind of reputation that turns lunch into a local group chat argument.
Mention the deli and suddenly everybody has an order, a favorite, and a completely unnecessary amount of confidence about which sandwich is “the one.”
That is how you know a spot has reached legendary status.
For decades, this North Carolina market has built its name on old-school Italian deli energy, the kind that makes a sad desk lunch feel personally offensive.
The food does most of the talking.
Still, the real entertainment comes from watching people order like they are defending family honor.
One person swears by the same sandwich every time. Another insists you have been doing it wrong for years.
Somebody else is already halfway through theirs before the debate even starts.
At that point, the only sensible response is to order more food.
Consider it conflict resolution, Italian deli edition.
Walk In For A Proper Old-School Deli Counter
Before looking anywhere else, give the deli case a proper once-over. Mortadella, Genoa salami, soppressata, pepperoni, capicolla, pastrami, roast beef, turkey, ham, and prosciutto are all available by the pound.
Cheese choices include provolone, mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, Swiss, cheddar, Muenster, and American. That makes it easy to build tomorrow’s lunch while somebody behind the counter works on today’s.
Prepared salads add even more temptation. Macaroni salad, pasta salad, antipasto salad, potato salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, and egg salad all appear on the current menu.
Stuffed cherry peppers filled with prosciutto and provolone bring another classic Italian deli favorite into the case. Nothing about the setup needs fancy staging.
It works because the counter feels busy, practical, and familiar. People step up knowing exactly what they want, while first-timers usually need another minute.
That extra minute is dangerous. You notice another cheese, reconsider the amount of salami you planned to buy, and suddenly a quick stop has turned into a full deli order.
More than three decades of business have given this Wilmington counter the kind of confidence that comes from doing the same simple things well for a very long time. You will find the market at 1101 South College Road in Wilmington.
Order A Sandwich Before The Shelves Distract You
Place the sandwich order early, because wandering the grocery aisles first can completely destroy your concentration.
Cold options include the Italian Combo, roast beef, pastrami, Genoa salami, soppressata, mortadella, prosciutto, turkey, capicolla, and fresh mozzarella with roasted red peppers.
Most can be ordered on a roll or upgraded to a larger wedge when lunch needs to be serious. Hot sandwiches keep the menu firmly in Italian American comfort-food territory.
Meatball, chicken Parmigiana, and eggplant Parmigiana remain reliable choices, and those Parmigiana dishes can also come plated with pasta. Breakfast gets an unusually generous time slot too.
Egg sandwiches, bacon and egg, sausage and egg, Taylor ham and egg, BLTs, and grilled cheese stay available well into the afternoon. Weekday breakfast service currently stretches until 6 p.m., while Saturday runs until 3 p.m.
That means a late craving does not automatically force you into lunch. Once the order is in, then start browsing.
By the time you finish inspecting pasta, ravioli, olive oil, and cheese, your sandwich should be much closer to ready. It is a far better strategy than reaching the counter ten minutes later and realizing you forgot to decide what you actually came to eat.
Stock Up On Pasta, Sauces, Olive Oils, And Desserts
A quick lunch stop can easily become a pantry run once the grocery shelves start getting involved. Pasta, sauces, olive oils, cheeses, antipasto items, cookies, and Italian specialty products fill the space around the deli.
Frozen options make the temptation worse. Picone sausage and John’s Ravioli are among the current take-home selections, giving you an easy way to plan another meal without cooking everything from scratch.
Fresh mozzarella can disappear into the basket almost automatically. So can a bottle of olive oil or a package of pasta that looked more interesting than the one already sitting at home.
That focused selection is part of what makes shopping here enjoyable. Instead of walking through endless supermarket aisles, you are surrounded by products that fit the same Italian deli identity as the sandwiches coming from the counter.
Regular customers also mention tomatoes, sausages, fresh pasta, cold cuts, oils, cheeses, and cookies among their usual purchases. You could come in for lunch and leave with enough food to cover dinner, tomorrow’s sandwich, and coffee the following morning.
Nobody planned that when they parked the car. That is exactly how specialty markets win.
One shelf catches your eye, then another, and suddenly the grocery bag matters almost as much as the sandwich.
Taste Why Wilmington Has Kept It Busy Since 1994
Long before the deli became a Wilmington fixture, Chris and Tommy Guarino were growing up around Italian American food in Westchester County, New York. Their grandparents came from Sicily and Naples, and meals remained a major part of family life.
When the brothers eventually moved south, they found themselves missing the type of neighborhood Italian deli they had taken for granted back home. Instead of continuing to complain about it, they opened one.
A Taste of Italy began in 1994 without either brother coming from a long professional restaurant career. Friends and relatives with deli experience helped them learn the business, while family recipes gave the menu a foundation.
Wilmington responded. Decades later, the same South College Road shop still combines sandwiches, prepared meals, groceries, catering, deli meats, cheeses, and desserts under one roof.
That longevity matters because restaurants rarely survive on nostalgia alone. People have to keep coming back and spending money.
In this case, the original idea was simple enough to last. Give Wilmington a proper Italian American deli with food that felt familiar to the family running it.
More than 30 years later, customers are still lining up for the same general reason the brothers opened the place in the first place.
Bring Home Enough For Dinner Without Cooking
Some nights deserve baked ziti without earning the pile of dishes that usually comes with it. That is where the prepared-food side of A Taste of Italy becomes especially useful.
Take-and-bake options currently include baked ziti and hand-rolled meatballs, while house sauces can handle an easy pasta dinner at home. Larger prepared selections expand into eggplant Parmigiana, chicken Parmigiana, stuffed shells, and other Italian American favorites.
Catering trays take the same idea even further. Lasagna, stuffed shells, pasta dishes, chicken Marsala, chicken Francese, and chicken Parmigiana can cover gatherings where nobody wants to spend the whole afternoon cooking.
Smaller households can simply grab one or two prepared items instead. That flexibility is what makes the market feel practical rather than purely nostalgic.
Lunch may be the reason you walked through the door, but dinner can leave with you in a separate bag. Recent customers continue mentioning meatballs, ravioli, sausage and peppers, and prepared pasta dishes as regular take-home choices.
It is the kind of shortcut that still feels personal. You are not peeling plastic from a supermarket tray and hoping for the best.
The food comes from the same Wilmington deli that has been feeding customers since the mid-1990s. Heat it up later, add a salad if motivation returns, and dinner is done.
Save Room For Italian Cookies And Bakery-Case Temptation
Dessert has an annoying habit of looking much more reasonable once you are standing directly in front of it. Cannoli are among the easiest choices to justify here, with both mini and full-size versions currently available.
Tiramisu, cheesecake, chocolate mousse, and brownies add more ways to make the final bag heavier. Italian cookies deserve their own consideration because they solve a completely different problem.
A cannoli handles dessert now. A box of cookies gives tomorrow morning’s coffee something to look forward to.
That distinction matters when deciding how much self-control is actually necessary. Recent customers continue calling out cannoli and tiramisu, while both remain part of the regular dessert lineup.
Availability can vary as the day moves along, so checking the case before ordering everything else is not a terrible strategy. At least then you know how much appetite needs to be preserved.
Nothing here requires a separate bakery stop across town. Fresh mozzarella, deli meat, prepared pasta, sandwiches, ravioli, and dessert can all leave through the same front door.
That convenience may be part of the reason repeat customers develop such specific routines. One person always grabs cookies.
Another refuses to leave without cannoli. Eventually, dessert stops being an impulse purchase and becomes part of the order everyone assumes is happening anyway.
Make Lunch Feel Like A Little New York Detour
Order a wedge, listen to the counter chatter, and the New York influence starts making sense without anybody needing to decorate the room like a movie set. Chris and Tommy Guarino brought that influence with them from Westchester County.
Their menu still reflects the Italian American deli culture they knew growing up. Prosciutto, mortadella, capicolla, Genoa salami, fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, meatballs, and chicken Parmigiana all fit naturally into that tradition.
Taylor ham even appears on the breakfast menu, giving anyone from the New York and New Jersey orbit another familiar reason to smile. Sandwiches are available on rolls or larger wedges, letting lunch remain manageable or become something you may need to finish later.
The room itself stays casual and active. Some customers are waiting on sandwiches.
Others are ordering cold cuts by the pound or grabbing prepared food for home. Somebody is probably staring too long at the cheese case.
That constant movement gives the market more character than a carefully staged theme ever could. Wilmington is very clearly where the business belongs now, but the food still carries the brothers’ upstate New York background.
You do not need a plane ticket for the detour. You just need enough appetite to handle the sandwich you are about to order.
Leave With Deli Favorites You Will Already Want Again
By checkout, the original reason for stopping may barely resemble what is actually sitting in your bag. A sandwich has joined a container of salad.
Fresh mozzarella somehow made the cut. Maybe there is ravioli for later, a jar of sauce, some meatballs, and a cannoli that absolutely was not part of the plan.
That is the real strength of A Taste of Italy. It gives people several reasons to return instead of depending on one famous menu item.
The deli counter handles lunch. Prepared food covers dinner.
Grocery shelves solve pantry problems. Desserts create entirely new problems of their own.
Regular customers eventually build routines around favorite orders, which is exactly how a neighborhood market becomes part of everyday life. Current hours make that easy during the week, with the doors open until 7 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Saturday service ends at 6 p.m., and Sunday remains closed.
After more than 30 years, the Wilmington shop no longer needs to feel like a hidden discovery. It has become the sort of place people mention automatically when somebody asks where to find a good Italian sandwich.
The strongest compliment may be what happens after the first visit. You leave this North Carolina favorite already knowing what you are getting next time, while also knowing there is almost no chance you will stick to that plan.
