Christine Gardner/Staff A shopping trip to Jimmy’s Italian Food Store in Old East Dallas, yields an assortment of Italian wine, specialties and products that are unique to the area and exclusive to Jimmy’s. Jimmy’s own private label products include coffee and preserves. Visit Jimmy’s at Christmas for Italian chocolates and beautifully packaged panettone Christmas cakes.

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In Italian, mangiare bene means eat well, and if you want to eat and drink like an Italian, a shopping trip to Jimmy’s Italian Food Store is mandatory. In Old East Dallas, east of Interstate 75 and north of Interstate 30 – you simply exit N. Fitzhugh off of 75 North and head east to the intersection of N. Fitzhugh and Bryan Street.

You will immediately recognize that you are traveling through an old part of town, but it seems appropriate to find an old world Italian grocer tucked back in this part of town. It would certainly lose part of its charm if it was located in a strip mall or modern shopping center.

Walking into Jimmy’s even feels like your walking into one of the markets in Italy. The first time I went there, just months after I returned to Texas from Sorrento, Italy, I walked through the doors and my longing to go back to Italy actually subsided.

It’s a very small market and the aisles are tight, but you could honestly spend an hour or two browsing the imported products, perusing the large selection of Italian wine and admiring the deli counter filled with Italian cheeses, meats and olives, along with ready-made meals and sandwiches made from old family recipes.

The store was opened in 1966 by the father-son team of James and James DiCarlo. They had been in the grocery business in Dallas since the mid-1940’s and moved into the Bryan Street location in 1966. It was named Jimmy’s after the senior DiCarlo died soon after its opening.

Son, James, and wife, Marie, made the store a family business with their two sons, Mike and Paul, and later their many grandchildren still carry on the tradition.  Marie was known for her meatballs, which are still one of the bestselling items in the store.

Originally, Jimmy’s carried Italian specialty items only during the holidays, but in 1997 the brothers, Mike and Paul, decided to expand the Italian inventory and focus on the family heritage.

Jimmy’s has survived the East Dallas neighborhood changes, the recent passing of James in 2013 and Marie in 2005, as well as a fire in 2004 that almost destroyed the store. Through the commitment of family and their loyal following of customers, Jimmy’s has carried on through the years and continues to offer an assortment of Italian wine, specialties and products that are unique to the area and exclusive to Jimmy’s.

Mike and Paul have also made a commitment, in recent years, to support many Dallas area producers that provide quality bread, gluten-free items, sauces and produce. They have also created Jimmy’s own private label products that include coffee and preserves.

In a recent visit to Jimmy’s, I spoke with Mike DiCarlo about my favorite things to purchase at the store, and some things he recommends that perhaps I haven’t tried.

Housemade Italian Sausage, Meatballs, Lasagna: All three are made from DiCarlo family recipes and big sellers for the store. The sausage comes in mild or hot and the meatballs are hand-rolled. Mama Marie used to make them for the store every day.

Over 500 Italian Wines: Featuring wines from all 20 Italian regions, Jimmy’s offers one of the largest and most varied Italian wine selections in the U.S.

Pastosa Handmade Frozen Pasta: Made in Brooklyn, Pastosa is hard to find outside of New York and Florida. In production since the early 1960’s, the company features fresh pasta, round and square ravioli, manicotti, tortellini, gnocchi and stuffed shells. Made with high quality cheeses, flour and other ingredients, their pasta represents a time-honored New York tradition created by three generations of the Ajello family.

D’Assisi Extra Virgin Olive Oil: For more than a century the Azienda Agricola D’Assisi has been producing extra-virgin olive oil of superb quality by using olives grown in its family-owned olive grove on the hills of Casalduni in Southern Italy near Naples.

The olive picking process is entirely manual to preserve the highest integrity of the fruit; the grinding of the olives takes place in certified oil mills within eight hours from the picking and the oil is obtained with a continuous-cycle cold extraction process.

Luigi Mungioli has gone to great lengths to bring his family’s high quality olive oil to the U.S. His grandfather tried once before over 100 years ago, but hard times in Italy made it difficult to export. The family just began distribution in the U.S. and primarily in the Dallas area. It is used in many Dallas area Italian restaurants, but is primarily sold to the public at Jimmy’s.

La Pasta de Martelli: A line of pasta is produced by the Martelli family in their own
pasta factory in Lari, in the hills
of Pisa in Tuscany. They create only five cuts of their high quality dried pasta that is made by slowly kneading the best durum wheat with cold water. Their rolling and cutting method gives the pasta a rough texture. It is then dried at a low temperature for about 50 hours. The result is a tasty and porous pasta which allows the sauces to be absorbed well. Only the members of the family work in the factory and they combine long years of professionalism with their passion for keeping alive the pasta-making tradition.

San Marzano Tomatoes: Highly sought after and often imitated canned tomatoes are from the San Marzano Valley in Southern Italy. Jimmy’s carries five authentic brands of canned tomatoes that are from the region near Naples, Italy.

When the first tomatoes where brought to Italy in the 1700s, the seeds were a gift to the kingdom of Naples which is part of the Campania region. A central location for tomato cultivation, the rich volcanic soil combined with the Mediterranean heat and humidity provide optimal growing conditions.

The European Union granted D.O.P status (Denominazione di Origine Protetta, or Protected Designation of Origin) to the growers in the San Marzano valley to protect the name from imitation and false labeling. Real cans of San Marzano tomatoes will have the D.O.P. seal that certifies authenticity.

Italian Deli Counter: Jimmy’s offers a variety of Italian imported cheese, charcuterie, dried mushrooms, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and marinated cipollini onions. They also have a menu of made-to-order sandwiches that can be ordered to-go or eaten in the wine room behind the kitchen. This is a lunch hotspot for people who work in the Deep Ellum and East Downtown area. Jimmy’s is well known for their Italian Subs, Muffalata, and, my personal favorite, the Prosciutto Panino. You can even get a bottle of wine off the shelf to enjoy with your meal. Don’t forget dessert. Jimmy’s also makes cannolis, Italian cakes and cookies.

Hard to Find Italian Ingredients: When I go to Jimmy’s it’s usually for wines that I enjoyed in Italy and ingredients that I can’t find in Tyler and haven’t seen anywhere else but Italy. There’s the finely ground 00 flour that give Italian baked goods, pastries, pizza crust and pasta that trademark texture that is airy on the inside, but crisp on the outside.

I also found the cans of cooked wheat that is used in my favorite Italian pie recipe. It is an Easter pie that is a tradition in Southern Italy called Pastiera de Napoletana. It has a shortbread crust and a filling of milk, eggs, ricotta, can of cooked wheat, lemon and orange essence. When I was learning how to make it I thought it would be awful because of the cooked wheat, but the end flavor was divine. I would share the recipe but the measurements are in metric. When I make many of the recipes I learned there, especially the desserts, I pull out the kitchen scale.

I also go to Jimmy’s to stock up on San Marzano tomatoes and other canned tomato products for making marinara. The selection of pasta is phenomenal and they have a selection of cuts that are difficult to find.

They also have great prices. Many specialty food stores have considerable markup, but Jimmy’s doesn’t take advantage of the customers willingness to pay high prices for rare finds. The Parmigiano-Reggiano is $9.95 a pound, and because they cut it fresh and turn their wheels faster, the flavor is better than any I’ve bought in an American grocery store.

I also love to visit Jimmy’s at Christmas because they have all of the Italian chocolates and the beautifully packaged panettone Christmas cakes. Christmas in Italy is a grand sight and the way they package all of the traditional Christmas treats is more beautiful than some of the décor.

Everyone I know who shops at Jimmy’s has their favorites and, if you go, I’m sure you’ll find your own. I am glad that Mike pointed out some of the Jimmy’s favorites that I had not discovered. Next time, I will bring a bigger cooler and be sure to get some of Mama’s Meatballs, a pan of lasagna and if he has it in stock and some of those amazing Piedmont steaks. My mouth is already watering. See you soon, Mr. DiCarlo.

Jimmy’s Food Store, 4901 Bryan, Dallas, Texas, 75206. Hours: Monday through Saturday, 9 am to 7:30 pm. Phone: 214-823-6180