Step Inside This North Carolina Italian Market For House-Made Sausage, Fresh Bread And A Taste Of Old-School Italy
Mamma mia, this is supposed to be a grocery run?
One new North Carolina Italian market opened in 2026 and immediately made “just grabbing a few things” sound completely unrealistic.
The place stretches across 9,000 square feet, with enough food under one roof to turn a shopping list into a full afternoon. House-made sausage still anchors the operation, carrying forward recipes with roots in Sicily and years of old-school butcher experience behind them.
Then the bread comes out warm.
Now we have a situation.
Fresh pasta waits nearby, dinner can be packed up for later, and sitting down for a proper meal suddenly seems far more sensible than going home.
The business itself dates back to 2009, but this expanded location takes the original idea much further.
You may arrive with reusable bags.
You may need reinforcements.
Browse A Traditional New York-Style Italian Market
Black-and-white floors, tall shelves of imported groceries, refrigerated cases, and a full butcher counter give the Matthews store a classic neighborhood-market feel.
Enzo’s Italian Market describes itself as a New York-style Italian market, reflecting founder Enzo LoRe’s background as a butcher in New York.
The new Matthews location spreads that idea across roughly 9,000 square feet, more than six times the size of the original Stallings shop.
Fresh produce joins imported dry goods, cheeses, cured meats, prepared antipasti, sauces, oils, pasta, desserts, and refrigerated specialties throughout the market.
A bakery and patisserie occupy another section, while the Caffè and Osteria give shoppers the option of eating before or after filling a basket.
Current market hours run Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., with Monday closed.
Pick Up House-Made Sausage From The Butcher Counter
Sausage has been part of Enzo’s identity since the earliest Stallings days, and the Matthews butcher section gives it plenty of room.
House-made hot and sweet Italian sausage remain staples, joined by New York-style pinwheel sausage and specialty varieties that have developed their own following over the years.
Broccoli rabe pinwheel sausage was already considered one of the market’s top sellers before the Matthews expansion, while earlier Enzo’s selections have also included combinations such as porcini mushroom with sun-dried tomato.
The larger store adds an expanded fresh-meat counter with cuts such as ribeye and strip steak alongside the sausage selection.
Popular made-from-scratch items are also stocked in a self-service refrigerated area, which makes it possible to grab familiar favorites without waiting at the counter.
Enzo’s Italian Market still uses the recipes associated with founder Enzo LoRe, even though preparation has been centralized as the business expanded to three locations.
That distinction matters: the sausages remain house-made specialties of the company, but they are no longer necessarily produced inside the Matthews building itself.
For shoppers planning sausage and peppers, Sunday sauce, or an easy sheet-pan dinner, this remains one of the clearest reasons to bring a cooler bag.
Follow The Smell Of Fresh Bread Toward The Bakery
Freshly baked semolina loaves give the bread section one of its strongest draws, with several flavors currently offered beyond the traditional version.
Three-cheese, olive, and Italian garlic semolina breads were among the varieties highlighted when the Matthews store opened, giving shoppers an easy reason to leave more room in the basket.
The larger bakery and patisserie also carries individual pastries, full cakes, biscotti, cheesecakes, and other desserts, making this section far more substantial than a shelf of packaged cookies beside the register.
One detail has changed as Enzo’s has grown: the company now works with a bakery to keep bread and dessert production consistent across its three stores rather than baking everything inside each individual location.
Enzo’s Italian Market has expanded its bakery selection considerably since Greg and Rania Tigani took over in 2022, when fresh breads and desserts became a larger part of the business.
A semolina loaf works just as well beside dinner as it does sliced for sandwiches with cured meat and cheese from the neighboring deli cases.
Shop Imported Italian Pantry Staples For Home
Rows of pasta shapes, jars, tins, oils, sauces, and preserved vegetables give anyone who enjoys cooking plenty to inspect before reaching the refrigerated cases.
Imported Italian ingredients remain central to Enzo’s Italian Market, and expanding to multiple locations has allowed the company to buy more products directly through importers.
Olive oils, aged cheeses, canned tomatoes, specialty sauces, olives, spreads, dried pasta, Italian sodas, and pantry goods fill out the market alongside fresh produce commonly used in Italian cooking.
The selection also moves beyond basic spaghetti and marinara.
Refrigerated ravioli has appeared in varieties such as pumpkin, cheese, smoked chicken, and goat cheese with roasted tomato, while specialty dried shapes offer something different for recipes that need more than a standard box of penne.
Parmigiano Reggiano, mozzarella, burrata, cured meats, and antipasto ingredients make it possible to build out an entire meal without visiting another grocery store.
The Matthews location benefits most from the larger footprint, which was designed specifically to carry a broader range than the original Stallings shop.
Browsing without a rigid list works particularly well here because the most interesting purchase may be an unfamiliar pasta shape or imported ingredient that was never part of the original dinner plan.
Choose Fresh Pasta And Prepared Meals To Take With You
Dinner can be almost finished before the groceries ever reach home.
The Matthews selection includes more than 20 frozen and take-and-bake meals. Choices include lasagna, baked ziti, chicken Parmesan, stuffed shells, gnocchi, tagliatelle, and several ravioli varieties.
Fresh pasta sheets are used in Enzo’s meat lasagna, while other refrigerated and frozen pasta options give shoppers shortcuts that still connect directly to the market’s recipes. Prepared sauces, meats, and side dishes add even more ways to assemble dinner without starting from scratch.
Enzo’s Italian Market has long made prepared foods a major part of its business, but the expanded Matthews location gives those items considerably more display space.
Production is now handled through a centralized kitchen rather than every dish being made behind the counter in Matthews, an adjustment made as the company grew beyond its original one-store operation.
The recipes and house-made specialties remain part of Enzo’s, while the larger production setup keeps popular trays available more consistently.
For a busy evening, a take-and-bake lasagna and fresh loaf of semolina bread can cover most of the work before the oven is even turned on.
Grab A Classic Italian Sandwich From The Café
Lunch brings many of the deli-case ingredients together between slices of bread. The current Caffè menu includes an Italiano layered with ham, salami, capicola, mortadella, provolone, roasted peppers, lettuce, and tomato on a semolina hero.
A Supremo combines prosciutto, soppressata, fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, basil, and tomato, while the Parma keeps things simpler with prosciutto di Parma, mozzarella, tomato, and basil.
Hot sandwiches add chicken cutlet and chicken Parmesan to the mix, and soups, salads, pizza, and pasta give anyone who does not want a sandwich plenty of alternatives.
Espresso drinks, tea, Italian sodas, and gelato round out the daytime service. The Caffè is unique to the larger Matthews concept rather than the original Stallings market, giving Enzo’s Italian Market a genuine dine-in lunch option inside the same building where customers shop for imported groceries.
Current hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Friday through Sunday, with Monday closed. Eating before shopping has one obvious advantage: the sandwich can handle the hunger before an empty stomach turns every loaf, pastry, and package of pasta into an essential purchase.
Stay For Pizza Or A Full Sit-Down Meal
By evening, the same building works more like a restaurant than a grocery stop. The Osteria serves dinner rooted in traditional Italian recipes and Italian-American classics, with pasta, meat dishes, and rotating regional specials.
The Caffè handles pizza earlier in the day, with choices such as classic cheese, pepperoni, meat lovers. Lunch pasta options currently include spaghetti pomodoro, penne Alfredo, and chicken Parmesan with spaghetti, giving the daytime menu more weight than sandwiches alone.
Enzo’s Italian Market designed Matthews as its first location with full-service in-store dining, and most of the Osteria seating extends into a temperature-controlled patio area. Dinner begins at 5 p.m.
Tuesday through Saturday and at 4 p.m. Sunday, closing with the market at 9 p.m. on weekdays and Saturday and 8 p.m.
Sunday. That schedule makes it possible to arrive for a full meal and still browse the grocery shelves afterward, which is a much different experience from the compact original market that opened in Stallings back in 2009.
Take Home Enough Italian Favorites To Stock The Kitchen
A well-planned basket can cover several meals without repeating the same flavors twice.
House-made sausage might become dinner with peppers one night, fresh or frozen ravioli can handle another, and imported pasta, sauces, cheeses, cured meats, olives, and semolina bread leave plenty of options for everything in between.
Prepared trays make the easiest additions when time matters, while the bakery provides pastries and cakes for anyone determined not to leave dessert behind.
The Matthews market is the largest Enzo’s Italian Market location, but the original Stallings shop remains open at 4420 Potter Road for shoppers whose route takes them closer to that side of the Charlotte area.
Its hours are different, with a shorter Tuesday-through-Sunday schedule, so the two stores should not be treated as interchangeable when planning a visit.
Matthews offers the broader experience, staying open later and adding both the Caffè and Osteria alongside the expanded grocery operation.
Founder Enzo LoRe’s original idea was much smaller when he opened in 2009, but the core combination has survived the growth: Italian sausage, prepared foods, bread, imported groceries, cheeses, and deli specialties meant to go home with the customer.
A full basket simply gives that old-school North Carolina market idea more ways to reach the dinner table.
