Rosario's - Old-School Gourmet Italian Deli

Rosario's Deli - 22-55 31st Street, Astoria, NY 11105

718.728.2920

N/W Train to Ditmars Blvd (last stop)

I stumbled upon Rosario's yesterday afternoon on my way to Key Food. On a mission to get good brie and light snacks for our dinner guests Lauren and Keith, I peeked inside and liked what I saw. After my great experience, I'll definitely be hitting it up again for quality specialty foods.

Upon walking in, I immediately saw that this was a traditional, old-school, Italian deli--cured meats and cheeses displayed by the deli counter and neatly stacked shelves of specialty pasta, sauce, olive oil and various chocolates, both domestic and international. The staff is hospitable and really seem to know their customers--they're nice Italian guys who smile a lot and spend time with customers, making small-talk.

Browsing through the shelves and the deli section of Rosario's, I was impressed with their goods:

• Gourmet pasta and olive oil
• Mozzarella bufala so fresh, it was still warm
• Eurocrem, which is similar to Nutella but in addition to hazelnut, it also contains milk creme
• Fresh pizza dough, which you can take home to make your own pie
• All types of Baci chocolates
• Specialty sandwiches made-to-order (i.e. mortadella, fresh mozzarella, lettuce, tomatoes and roasted peppers--$4.95)
• Other specialty snacks such as Serendipity 3 Frozen Hot Chocolate Mix

I ended up buying a block of Le Chatelain Camembert, which is a creamy French cheese that's very much like a brie. Our guests seemed to like it a lot and I cut up half of it yesterday and the other half I saved to bake and garnish with strawberry preserves ($4.99). It was hard to pass up the Serendipity Hot Chocolate Mix so that went into my basket too for a whopping $4.99. It's a specialty product after all, so I was OK with paying a premium.

Rosario's will remain on my must-list in the future and if you haven't been there yet, I urge you to stop in--you'll be glad that you did.