This month, we are introducing a great charcuterie maker, based in Washington State. This fantastic producer mixes old world Italian expertise and inspiration but also a nod to the strong German influence in their home town.
Born out of a long standing and successful hospitality provider, running restaurants and eateries, the team say that they had their first “aha!” moment(s) in 2000 when they travelled to Italy in search of “real food, simple food, true food.” Part of that voyage of discovery was experiencing the cured meats, handmade in small Tuscan towns by expert curers using centuries old style techniques and recipes.
In April 2008 they opened the doors for “cured” in a retail space that opened up below the restaurant, originally selling gourmet meat products made by outside sausage companies wanting to capture the same quality and feel as those speciality meat shops in Tuscany.
Visconti’s restaurant began in its Leavenworth location upstairs from the Leavenworth Brewery. When the brewery decided to close its doors in 2002, they saw an opportunity to fulfil the passion that ignited in Italy a few years earlier. Driven by their experiences and inspiration in Italy, they worked hard, pouring their passion into getting USDA permits and converting the basement of the building to create all of their own hand crafted in-house salumi.
Cured is now Visconti’s USDA inspected producer of artisan handcrafted Italian and northern European dry cured and old world fermented salumi. Using only traditional recipes. They now offer more than 30 varieties of award winning salami, sausages and jerkies. You can find them online at www.curedbyvisconti.com or drop in at; 636 Front St C, Leavenworth, WA 98826, United States.
Despite initial nerves, the guys have grown and grown as they say; “as we continued forward, it just felt right – it clicked. The right ideas, the right people, the right products.” Going from strength to strength, in 2012 they created the Leavenworth Sausage Garten, where they were able to cook up their best housemade sausages right there along with authentic German beers in the Bavarian style setting that the town is known for.
Cured by Visconti’s now offer more than 30 varieties of award winning salami, sausages and jerkies… “we will see where it goes from here and it just keeps getting better”.
