Calabria Pork Store

I called on Monday morning, Nov 30^th and talked to the owner. I asked him if I could receive some sopressata by Friday (I live in California). He said no. I explained to him that my nephew had passed away, every time he would go to New York he would always stop at the Calabria pork store to buy Sausage, cheese, etc. This was his favorite store, it would have been meaningful if I could serve it at our reception after the funeral. I further questioned why he couldn’t just put some in a box and Fed Ex it to me. His reply was NO, MAYBE NEXT TIME and then hung up!
I was so hurt and furious I called him back and told him, for my nephew there is NO F****** next time and hung up.
Written by Anthony G

Ok, so after traveling from Manhattan to the Bronx on Halloween sitting in a ton of traffic, we went to this store for salami and cheese. After ordering prosciutto, sweet salami, and culatello based on the reviews that I read here along with two cheese and spending over $ 50, I came home to find that the culatello was missing from the bag. Also, the guy behind the counter could have been a little friendlier and more helpful, although, I can not say that he was outright rude either. Totally disappointed and a waste of $ 20 and two hours of my time traveling to this place after reading the reviews. Not sure that I would travel all that way again. While the items are good, I wasn’t overwhelmed and will probably stick to DiPalo’s. So folks, learn from my experience and check your bags to make sure that everything that you paid for is in there.

I don’t know why this place keeps its original name. They should just call it the meat cave. Calabria is one of a kind because – at least to my knowledge – it is the last Italian meat store in NYC to be allowed to hang its homemade dried sausage from the ceiling. And boy oh boy, do they hang it from the ceiling. The pictures here don’t do it justice; literally the entire customer area has sausage hanging over it. Suffice to say, vegan options are sparse here; but if you want a variety of homemade Italian sausage, it’s hard to do better than this.
The dried sausage is the biggest attraction here as expected. Available as soppresata or regular dried sausage, hot or sweet, as a chunk or a link (they sell by the half-​link too), it is sublime. Not too much spice, packed with porky flavor, there are few I’ve found that can measure up. This isn’t even to speak of other dry sausages they make (cacciatorini for instance), the variety of fresh pinwheels and links in different flavors, or other imported stuff that they have. They even have specialty items like Nduja (a soft, spreadable spicy sausage), which are nigh impossible to find otherwise in the NY metro area – let alone homemade. The countermen here are experienced as you can expect and very efficient; they do a good job of asking the right questions to package things the way you want (ready for the freezer, slicing for the dry salami, etc.). One other thing about this place that makes it dangerous to visit: there are always free samples available, and the countermen are happy to provide others if requested. Expect to spend money coming in here; thankfully not too much though as prices are very reasonable (even less on average than other Italian pork stores).
I just counted that I used the word sausage in some form at least 15 different times in this review. Do glad that this is still open on ever-​shrinking Arthur Avenue. This place is a treasure and I will never be kosher because of it.

Calabria closes early Sunday and IMO is the best meat shop in the butcher-​heavy Belmont.

Calabria Pork Store has been a mandatory stop on our trips to NYC. We’ve always enjoyed the enthusiastic and helpful banter of the counter people. This time, however, we were greeted by a grumpy clerk who seemed to be completely disinterested in answering questions. The salamis are as good as ever, if a bit pricey, but this man most certainly costs the owner some sales whenever he’s with a customer. My usual $ 100 expenditure was turned into a $ 25 «let’s just get out of here» experience.

holy meat danglers, batman! This is a great supply store and not only because of their obvious product, the sausages that are hanging from the ceiling. They also have olives, cheese, and pastas, basically you can do most of your shopping for a banging italian meal all in this place.
The soppressata here is great tasting, though it has a tough skin to peel compared to other sausages I’ve eaten (it sort of flakes off in bits rather than coming off as one long string)

We could not resist coming in here after seeing all of the meat hanging in the window. The man working the counter here was incredibly friendly and gave us huge samples of pretty much everything! The salami hanging above was to die for, the sample was so good that we bought one. The bocconcini was fresh and soaked in olive oil and spices, couldn’t help but get lots of this as well! I was so impressed by the hospitality of the staff here and of course the meat and cheeses are to die for! Very helpful staff.

Are there more than five stars possible? Hands down the best pork store on the block. Unfortunately, it has been a while since I’ve been here but I made a promise to myself to get here more often. The Sopressata, Capicola, fresh links, the flat hot Sopressata… it’s all good! No, it’s all great! True sausage making tradition right in front of your eyes with loads of sausage hanging from the ceiling in various states of the curing process. They still do it old school.

Fantastic Italian butcher in Bronx Little Italy Arthur Ave. They have an insane amount of sausages hanging from the ceiling. I have never sen anything like it. Also lots of other great Italian items.

Really excellent pork store. In addition to meats, they also have prepared salads and dried pastas, etc. I generally try to make the trip before the holidays– love their braciole and their dried hard sausages are amazing. Plus Mr Publius Senior demands the good Italian stuff if he’s over…
Knowledgable staff is eager to help you if you’re not sure what you need.

Amazing hot sopressata. This will be the only place worth getting it from.

#1 in NYC IMO. They will also make you a sandwich if you bring them a roll/​hero. All fresh meats cured by them.

I went there on 12÷19÷14 and spent over $ 100.00 in Dry Sausage $ 80.00 in Sweet & $ 25.00 in Hot Sausage, Impressed with the friendly Hispanic kid who sliced the product for me and I slipped him $ 5.00.
Calabriia are hell bent on $ 12.99 a lb. for all their products. 7 days later the product went bad and I had to throw OUT 60% of it. I will pay tolls and buy my provisions in Astoria, Queens

This is how you scare your vegetarian/​vegan friends. We came with a large group on the way to Storm King, and the sheer pork smell kept some of our party out. They have all kinds of great stuff at this shop, including a huge jar of spicy anchovies (which are great on pizza, btw!) but the star of the show is the hot and spicy soppressata. It’s super fatty and flavorful, but the skin on it seems to be pretty tight, and hard to peel off. If you can get past that, though, it’s reasonably priced at $ 14 for 2lbs of soppressata. It’s worth a visit just for the sheer porkiness of the store, and personally, I enjoyed the smell! But i know it’s not for everyone.

Delicious nice and hot & spicy soppressata. Also must tries are their Chili rubbed calabrese table cheese and their N’duja (orange spreadable sausage). Polite, helpful employees. I will be back for more!

The super hot sopressata soooooo good, love it. Spicy and fresh.

Woa! I am amazed. This spot has cheeses and a full butchers case of meats and sausages. Each better looking than the next. It is easy not to notice because I was hypnotized by the sausage hanging covering the whole ceiling. Sweet, hot, fennel, extra hot… you name it. I tried the sweet soppressatta and the fennel sausage. Both were really good. I will be back to try more.

I am writing an update to this one because while Calabria has been great in the past my recent experience left a lot to be desired.
I went in early December as I normally do to gather sausage for Christmas. Though this year they had pretty much no hot or extra hot soprasatta that were really ready. They were all super soft. I found a few sweet ones that barely were OK and as the clerk went to weigh them he dropped them all on the floor. Then went and just thought it was OK to still give me the same ones.
I eventually left without purchasing anything. If they think it’s OK to drop them on the floor right in front of you and then still sell them to you without even an apology imagine what the practices must be like behind the scenes.

This could quite possibly be my favorite store in the world, ever. Like, if I got to choose my last meal, each of the 37 courses would come from here.
The star of the show is the housemade hot sopressata that adorns the ceiling. I cannot recommend this enough. They also make an awesome housemade mozzarella here, that can be up to like 2lbs per ball. In addition to cured meats, they also have some of the best fresh sausages you will ever find. I recommend either the hot italian sausage or the broccoli rabe sausage. Pair these with the fresh noodles from Borgatti’s, and you are in business, sir.
Seriously, if I could give just one review more than 5 stars on Unilocal,only one review ever, this would be my 6* review. This is the best sausage party I’ve ever been to.

Pork Store.
End of review, enough said.
Really though, this place is awesome. If you like sausage, this is your place. So far I’ve tried the sweet sopressata, pepporoni and salumi. All have been perfect. I’ll definitely be returning to try some different stuff, especially the extra spicy sopressata.
Just as a precaution, they slice their meat SUPER thin… so if that’s not how you like it, make sure to specify that you want it sliced a little thicker.
Also, when you do yourself a favor and go check this place out, bring me back something!