Spinelli's Bar Italia - Edmonton

The staff are friendly and patient as you try to make up your mind - lots of delicious choices! They have great coffee. The grocery section of the store is well laid out and the fresh produce is high quality. Lots of choices here too. Very clean.

For 40 years, Edmonton's "Little Italy" has made real, old foods live on: a zillion varieties of cheeses and meats from here (Edmonton makers), there (all over Canada and the Hemisphere), and everywhere (Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East) sit behind glass awaiting your acceptance of a sample taste: I once counted 14 types of feta alone, and if you loved mamma mia's hard, dark pepperoni, try this sample. That's what rich sausage really is, so enjoy. Freezers filled with partridge, grouse, salmon, cod, crustacea, and, yummy Pinocchio's sorbets and ice creams, local excellence and so fresh. As other nationalities emigrate, their fav foods greet them or arrive shortly after, and Arab and African, Chinese and Vietnamese shoppers move through lines where clerks once called out prices in Italian. Stay, eat, enjoy: coffee is superb and strongly flavoured, pastries tasty and reasonably priced, "torpedo" sandwiches in hard crosty long rolls and packed with the deli's products are filling beyond reason. Bakery-fresh breads and pita and nan -- yes, there are competitors... you see, Spinelli has a South Edmonton location and a wonderfully large new West Ed one that is hard to find a seat in. Pizza, fresh veggies grown nearby, soups like grandmother's. Wow, I'l half-Italian and all in love with Spinelli's. All 3 but especially my neighborhood's incredibly successful West Ed cafe, and I'm salivating awaiting a new one coming soon to Calgary. Spinelli's is my go-to cafe and food store. Stay tuned for the Calgary opening. I have a new belt....

When this Italian grocery branch of the well-known store in the city first opened, they had just a small section of it designated for a light lunch or coffee. They have expanded that area a bit, and it is now easier to find an empty chair. You eat on one of a parallel row of long counters and sit on rather high stools---not the most comfortable of settings (but that's how the Italians do it much of the time in Italy!).But what comes out of their kitchen makes up for the cramped space. There are 8 types of thin-crust, Roman-style pizzas made fresh daily in their big oven (which looms in the background!). One type is always vegetarian. There's a daily featured pizza that changes monthly. I had this: a really flavourful one garnished with candied pecans and green onions (rather unusual, but excellently cooked).My friend chose a thinly shaved ham sandwich and a bowl of minestrone. The sandwich she found good, but the minestrone didn't have a lot of the traditional vegetables in it, like green beans, but was instead filled with lots of potato chunks---which she's allergic to. The soup was too thick and starchy, and not really how a true minestrone should be made. The waitress (extremely busy and rushing around, as all the staff were) was very understanding and agreed that the soup was much too potato-heavy. She kindly substituted an Italian Wedding soup.The place is a pretty good replication of a crowded, noisy, chaotic cafe in an Italian city centre. You always see and hear middle-age and elderly folks speaking Italian here, which is a good sign. The place is so popular that, on a previous visit, I saw the singer k.d. lang here enjoying a (vegetarian!) pizza and coffee with friends.This is the place to go for delicious coffee, as only Italians can make it---12 different types, to be exact!It's called "Spinelli Bar Italia" because the Spinelli family opened the first of their three groceries in the city in 1959.

The renovations have eliminated the risk of not getting a seat in the morning. They have many different paninis and croissants. I do not like the lack of reduced prices for refills of coffee. Gets a little noisy closer to noon hour. Bigger selection of pastries than Duchess and the prices are lower, too. I had the premade cold sandwich thinking it was lower priced but it was as much as the freshly made ones (confusing labeling). I will frequent this place now.

Just re-opened after a lengthy shut down due to renovations. Same great food, plus Pizza and a deli/food section. Not too impressed with the high stool seating, but guess it makes more seating room. Nice atmosphere and great service.