Spaccio is Terroni's central kitchen, an artisanal hub, eatery and storefront all in one. This massive, industrial space in Corktown has been a dream of owner Cosimo Mammoliti's for over five years.

With ten businesses, including their wine agency Cavinona and their online store La Bottega di Terroni, this restaurant group has become a household name in Toronto. With some of the best pizza and pasta in the city, it's no wonder that everything that comes from under the Terroni umbrella is made especially for Terroni, by Terroni staff.

When conceptualizing the idea for Spaccio, or Terroni Sud Forno Produzione e Spaccio, Mammoliti needed a production space purely out of necessity. Because they make everything from their sausage to bread to pastries to pasta and pizza dough, daily and mostly by hand, it seemed only natural that the Terroni family needed a central hub for production.

"Its nothing new that's happening here, this has been happening for many years," says Mammoliti. "For example, the bread-making was made out of both of the bakeries at Temperance and Queen Street, the pasta was made for the last 20 years in the basement at Adelaide Street. The gelato was made at Queen Street upstairs, so I'm just putting everything together," says Mammoliti.

The Food

"It's not industrial. It might be an industrial space, but everything is made by hand," said chef Daniel Mezzolo, the executive chef across all Terroni locations. Mezzolo who oversees all the production in Spaccio is confident that the reason Terroni is so successful is due to their consistency and having a central production space helps them to achieve that. Spaccio is also overseen by Giovanna Alonza, Sud Forno's executive chef, Terroni's executive pastry chef Armando Palmieri, Luca Rotatori their head baker and head savoury chef, Sid George.

The Spaccio kitchen develops all the ingredients that encompass the Terroni menu, but they also provide takeaway and eat-in options for their Corktown customers. "Fresh, every single day, that's our philosophy," says Mezzolo. And with the amount of moving parts in this space, you can see their dedication to make sure they live up to that mission statement.

The cafe's display counter is filled to the brim with assorted pasta shapes, freshly baked pastries, as well as a selection of Italian versions of viennoiserie, like their flakey almond, chocolate, and classic cornetto.

Over the counter, they also have a selection of ready-made sandwiches, salads, and slices of thick crust Roman-style stirata pizza. Spaccio also has a market element where they are selling packaged Terroni goods. Amongst items like their pepperoncini and terrali crackers, they will also be selling jars of their famous Sugo, bolognese and amatriciana sauces, as well as take-home frozen lasagnas, stuffed pasta and mini versions of their tiramisu and budino desserts.

The funghetto ($6) is one of Sud Forno's signature salads — with bow tie barley, freekeh, celery, oyster and button mushrooms, pecans, parmigiano and piave, baby kale, lemon and Evo dressing.

The contadino panino ($10.95) is a classic Italian bite. The fresh-baked baguette comes with genoa salami, roasted red peppers, and sheep's milk cheese.

Spaccio is also making a selection of pasta dishes daily. Check the chalkboard when you arrive to see the pasta of the day. The rigatoni alla bolognese is a Terroni mainstay. Their beef and pork bolognese is a staple throughout the city. Soon Mammoliti hopes to promote a pasta e vino special for $20 flat and a pizza e bierra special for $10.

There will also be a small, yet curated list of Italian wines by the glass and bottle ranging in price from $40 to $100.

The Space

With over 16,000 square feet of production space, this colossal Italian commissary is pumping out hundreds of products every day. Supplying to all seven restaurants and bakery locations across the city, Spaccio is set up like a well-oiled machine.

From the pasta-making area in the front to the giant room of standup mixers in the back, there is a station for everything. The pastry section is the most hands-on. Bakers are set up along the giant steel work station rolling out mini bombolone and dipping biscotti in lemon icing.

The pasta station is also filled with busy workers either rolling pasta by hand threading it through one of the three industrial-sized pasta makers. The Gnocci is all made by hand and you can find women in the back of the kitchen kneading the potato starch and flour to make Terroni's pasta dumplings.

The oven is quite a mechanical feat. With space to bake over 300 loaves of bread at a time, it has a conveyer belt that feeds the loaves, or pizzas, into the oven and then retrieves them when they are ready to rest.

There is also a massive sausage, sauce and stock making area. Here, all the ground sausage for pastas like Terroni's famous tonerelli norcina and garganelli geppetto are put through the grinder and stored.

The front of the space is for the customers, while the back of house is made to service all of the Terroni establishments. The storefront sells a selection of fresh pasta, pastry, and packaged goods, along with a selection of daily pasta that you can eat onsite or take to go.

There is also a casual upstairs dining space, where the team plans to hold private pasta making classes on the massive 10-foot dining table. With ample space, this will surely become another event space for the Terroni group, as well as a new hangout for Corktown's young professionals.

By: Nicole Richie Posted on: Mar. 6, 2020