D'Amore's Mercato, Edmonton, AB

D'Amore's Italian Mercato - A Little Amore for the South Side
Independent grocery stores, though notable exceptions buck this rule, have been conspicuously absent from Edmonton's landscape. Indeed, it's all too easy to succumb to the Big Box Stores' siren song of low prices and "everything from a twelve pack of winter tires to a case of peaches" under one roof. This mentality underscores this city's historic overemphasis on suburban development rather than TLC for inner city neighbourhoods, and reliance on private vehicles instead of public transit. These individual concepts are all woven together, like the strands on a braid, and it takes more than several generations (and many terms in public office) to reweave these tresses into a 'do wholly new.
But, as easy as it is scoff at this trope, a quiet revolution is brewing. "Three years ago, something changed." This statement pervades Edmonton's food community, as if a culinary climate change instigated a return to simpler, hands-on fare. Small, meticulously honed restaurants popped up; antidote to a glaring, blaring plethora of franchises. Independent grocers and deli followed. D'Amore's Italian Mercato will be part of this velvet revolution. The original D'Amore's Italian Deli blossomed on the north side as far back as the late 1970s - a family run affair passed from father to son. I had the great pleasure of meeting Albert D'Amore when I wrote for Vue Weekly, and marveled as his uncanny ability to fit a grocery section, a deli, frozen foods (all house-made, I might add), catering, and a sandwich shop into a space of little more than 1000 square feet.