Not sure why I never posted about the newish Alimentari Aurora, but we went in January and they had great sandwiches. Wanted to post about it but just slipped my mind.
Aurora was named after the owner Dario’s grandmom. Its your corner (mostly) Italian (gourmet) supply store that also serves a limited lunch menu (and now dinner as well). We came on a weekday. Its a small shop. We came around 11:30 and got to chat with Dario a bit.
He was born around Turin in the North, but have family connections in the southern end of the country. The man was an interesting character. He used to teach in a college in the city. Obviously he’s not doing that any more. He’s friendly, and articulate. Asked about what Italian restaurants he liked in the city, he said he didn’t really eat Italian in the city because they were kinda meh. Pushed a bit further, he said he liked Cosentino’s Cockscomb. He said La Ciccia’s fine, but every neighborhood restaurant back home is similar (sorry @Chowseeker1999 
). Well, I am glad the man was picky, and it showed in his paninos.
Since the lunch menu is essentially a panino with meat, a panino without meat, and a couple of dessert options, so we tried everything plus some more.
Dario sure took his dear time. He made clear to us lunch would only be available at noon, the advertised time, even if we ordered at 11:30. Not really sure why, since the lunch looked to be already ready. We were in no particular hurry, however, so we were happy to chat with him for half an hour and browse.
Those paninos were fabulous. They were some of the best sandwiches I had in recent memory. Forgive my crappy pictures as they don’t really show much inside the sandwiches. We were too busy eating.
This was the panino with coppa, arugula, with a lemon vinaigrette and 36 month aged parmesan. First, as you can see, the bread was great. Too bad I forgot to ask him who baked his bread. The combination of the ingredients just worked really well with the savoriness / saltiness from the coppa, peppery taste from the arugula, and of course, good, nuanced aged parmesan.
I was a little weary about the vegetarian panino since I am not a vegetarian, but I definitely didn’t miss the meat one single beat with the panino with lacto red cabbage, vadouvan mustard, arugula and mozzarella. That mustard was just divine. The cabbage was pickled just right.
If I had to nitpick, the paninos were small. So make sure you buy enough.
The cassata:
The pear galette:
Its been a few months so I don’t really remember much about the baked goods other than that they were decent. The paninos remained the highlight.
Dario butchering the Fiasconaro torrone for us.
We also talked about panettone. He suggested the one of the Fiasconaros. I happened to have the Nocciole- not the exact flavor he suggested- just a few weeks ago then. Good panettone.
Also got a few slices of the culetello made from mangalitsa pigs. We asked for four. He just gave us another slice for free and shoved it to us for us to try in the store. Pigs with nuance…
Finally, we got some aranciata rossa from Tomarchio to wash it all down. That drink was addictive.
The various provisions:
Looks like a fantastic little spot, and the sandwiches sound wonderful.
But I’ll take what I can get here in the States! 
