The Italian Store

They sell all my favourite Italian products — my San Marzano tomatoes, my chemical free beans, and Illy Espresso Pods! The trek out is always a pain, but if you make a morning or afternoon out of it, it can be quite lovely. They have delicious lunch service as well for great prices. You can get a sausage or veal on a bun with lots of meat, sauce, and veggies. They also have great prices on their fresh pizzas. My favourite though? An Italian donut and their nutella cappuccino. I think about it constantly.
They make a great fresh pizza dough as well that I frequently buy — makes for a yummy pizza. Their cheese is also much cheaper than anywhere else I’ve been, as well as their gnocchi.
They are my benchmark for Italian canned goods and other products, I can’t go anywhere else now.

I had such high hopes. I heard great things. The menu all looked so good. I finally settled on the lasagna because who doesn’t love a good lasagna? Well, I think it has been sitting there for at least Infinity years, because the noodles were completely soaked through. It was basically a pile of wet flour. There was almost no meat. And stingy with the cheese.
So disappointing. So gross. Never again. I might never eat lasagna again. It’s now ruined for me. I would’ve given only one star, except that the calzones looked pretty. I should’ve gotten one of those instead.

A great one-​stop shop for groceries and a quick bite to eat. If you are in need of Italian food this is a good place to know of.
They have a small cafeteria style area with hot foods served daily. There’s a decent selection of Italian subs, salads and even a couple of pastas. The lasagna is a popular one as it can sell out if you’re not early. Most people take lunch to go so there’s most likely a seat available even at the most busy of lunch hour rushes.
There is a deli and pastry counter with a good selection of goods. I had the best pecan tart I’ve ever tasted here. Also, their deli meats are vast.
The grocery section isn’t huge by any means but you’ll be able to find everything you need to cook a typical Italian dish.
All in all it’s a good place. It would have gotten 5-​stars had they more parking stalls. If you’re there in a lunch hour expect to park on the main road.

Heard about this little gem for years, driven past a few times, never made the time to stop in. Until recently. Now I can’t stop myself and seem to drop in almost weekly since it’s not too far from home.
A deli on one side full of Italian delights and a small restaurant on the other side perfect for lunch. On one particular visit we enjoyed the gnocchi, pizza and a bocconcini salad. And some gelato. And a coffee.
Another time we grabbed a bunch of antipasto items and focaccia bread (holy delicious) for camping.
They also sell fresh made pizza dough, which we have also purchased and they specialize in imported items. A great little place to check out.

I’ve been coming to The Italian Store (aka Scarpone’s) for many years now for their amazing lunch and their unbelievable selection of items in the attached grocery store. Very simply put, it’s a great place to stop for lunch if you’re in the area for some delicious Italian food. The pastas and gnocchi are top notch with the perfect tooth and tangy homemade sauce. Soups are also very good and they change daily.
Later in the week, they also make arancini (fried risotto balls), tasty and crispy with that fluffy, creamy interior that you get from a really good risotto. All in all, the lunch here is solid and I am still a fan.
The grocery store carries imported items from Italy and Europe. With a full deli, they also offer a plethora of meats and gourmet cheeses for whatever you crave. If you get there early, they also sell freshly baked foccacia that are still warm and aromatic from the fresh rosemary and olive oil. Grab one of those and some dried chorizo and thank me later.
If you’re a home winemaker, they also sell supplies for whatever you need. In fact, they have a lot of everything for the home or professional kitchen. I love to visit and just poke around the store to see what’s new.
Pros: Great lunch selection of homemade food, an awesome deli
Cons: Lunch can get busy around noon
Overall: a great experience. Take your time.

A must stop destination for Calgary food lovers. Call it Scarpone’s, call it the Italian Store, call it Great West importers, whatever you want to call it, this is the place for your Italian staples and a few otherwise impossible to find items.
Shopping here, at the importer/​wholesaler means you’ll cut out the middleman (grocery store or specialty store) and pretty much always find the lowest price here.
The selection of deli meat and cheese isn’t quite as varied as some of the other shops, but the price can not be beat and the quality is top notch.
Our weekly stop and shop almost always includes: dried tortellini for soup (at $ 1.50 per bag less than the center street Italian shops), a couple cans of fire-​roasted tomatoes (a pantry staple), a block if pecorino or parmigiana (at a phenomenal price), great dried pasta, a couple bags of Let’s Pasta frozen butternut squash or pear and Gorgonzola ravioli (the only place to find this awesome Lethbridge produced product in Calgary), bulk sausage meat (bagged without a casing), various nut and olive oils, cured meats (including the only cured hog jowl, guanciale, I’ve seen in western Canada)…the list goes on.
The attached lunch counter has a great selection of hot items, though you’ll want to get there early to avoid the lunch rush.
The only thing I’d still go elsewhere for is baking. While generally pretty good (especially the Italian donuts), cannoli and other sweets are certainly not the best in the city.

I hadn’t been here in awhile but was drawn to return because I noticed that they put up an exterior sign that you can actually read from northbound Deerfoot Trail. I walked in this afternoon and was excited to see that the store has undergone some major renovations. They have modernized the deli, lunch counter, Cappuccino & Gelato Bar and the check-​out tills. It looks great and even though it has lost a bit of that old, authentic Italian feel, I’m more enticed to eat here.
The lunch counter was putting away the hot food around 3:15pm so I decided to buy a Tiramisu cup. It wasn’t as good as I’d expected and thought it was overpriced. I’d recommend getting a slice or purchasing a cake instead. This doesn’t impact my overall impression and suggest you check it out if you’ve never been or haven’t seen the upgrades. Anytime I’ve stopped by it’s proven not to be the zoo that Lina’s Italian Market can be.

Now that I have eaten most of the things I bought at the Italian Store, I can provide a bit of an update.
Pear and gorgonzola ravioli: Big dissapointment. I feel like the package was mislabelled and all I got were raviolies filled with ricotta cheese.
Fresh pizza dough: Great! I was able to make three 10″ to 12″ dia thin crust pizzas. I made two immediately, and then froze the remaining dough and made the third pizza the following weekend. Dough is very good, and I even got the previously frozen dough to bubble up when I cooked it on a pizza stone.
Lemon shell filled with lemon sorbet: Amazing. Worth every penny!
I’m still a fan of the Italian Store.

As my fiancé is from Bosnia, we frequent any store that sells European foods. The Italian Store is a regular stop, as the prices aren’t too astronomical, and the selection is usually consistent. Anyone who has had to shop for European foods will tell you that consistency is a nightmare. While understandable given the import/​export industry and their mess on a good day, it’s still very frustrating to not find what you saw last week.
The Italian Store excels at keeping a consistent stock of various items. They always seems to have the feta cheese we like (yellow bucket, red lid, no idea what it’s called). And they have a lot of the deserts from my fiancé’s home country.
Now The Italian Store also has deli items, although we’ve never purchased any. They also have a sit-​in eatery, which we’ve also never enjoyed. But both sections are routinely busy, so they must be doing something right. If you’re looking for European or Italian foods, The Italian Store should be your first stop!

This is my favourite Italian grocery store in Calgary. Their prices are pretty reasonable for the most part and the food is pretty fresh. I usually go there to buy fresh pizza dough. It’s about $ 2.50 or so for a 1 lb bag. One bag can make at least 2 – 3 medium size thin crust pizzas.
They have very good selection of quality italian cold cuts and cheeses. As well, their fresh herbs are very good priced. They also sell some gourmet frozen pasta. They also have a huge selection of grocery items that are at a fair price too.
They also have a café selection with a variety of hot food items that you can eat there. I’ve never tried the hot foods yet.
A lot of local Italians frequent this place so that’s a very good sign. I usually like to go to places where the people «in-​the-​know» go.