Kimberly Hannam and Ryan Getner started selling their peameal bacon sandwiches at farmer’s markets across Toronto over 4 years ago – Sorauren, Downsview, Annex and Leslieville, to name a few – but now the pork has come to rest, quite literally, at their first permanent location in the Junction, aptly named, When The Pig Came Home.

“Ryan has almost a sick obsession with BBQ”, Hannam says with a chuckle, on a stuffy day in late summer, sitting by the sunny front window of their Dundas West Shop. “The deck at our house has always been an arrangement of barbeques.”

(IMAGE: JASON FINESTONE)

Ryan is Polish and Danish, Kimberley Caribbean, so the mix of flavour profiles and a cross section of experimentation summarizes the style of sandwich fillers they sell.

Their menu is small and built around the peameal bacon, which is cured in-house, sliced thick and fried in duck fat, before being piled onto a chiabatta bun with maple aioli, tomato and kale. At $5, it’s become an all-day staple for them, with the option of adding cheese, smoked bacon, or a fresh, locally raised egg from the Aangen Community Centre in the Annex for a buck each.

(IMAGE: JASON FINESTONE)

“The peameal was really where it all started for us,” Hannam recounts. “We started selling ribs [at the farmer’s markets] but the market opened at 9 a.m. and nothing sold till closer to noon. We needed to come up with a different item for the breakfast crowd – there’s no better Hogtown staple.”

The shop does occasionally carry ribs as a weekly feature, doused in sauces like St. Louis style and Korean. And their jerk chicken is also highly coveted – catering orders can be called in for whole chickens done jerked, BBQ’d, chalet style or even customized with flavours like honey garlic or Korean style.

(IMAGE: JASON FINESTONE)

While the peameal characterizes the shop in so many ways, their porchetta and smoked meat sandwiches have not gone unnoticed.

The porchetta ($9) starts with rolled Perth County pork shoulder, wrapped in pork belly and rubbed with fennel, lemon and rosemary before being slow roasted, sliced, and layered atop Thuet’s pain au lait with rapini (+$1), tomato, olive oil and crunchy crackling. There’s a selection of local and French mustards to choose from, as well as housemade hot sauces that are worth experimenting with.

While Toronto operations often fall flat when appropriating Montreal smoked meat, When The Pig Came Home has adopted a distinct and defining approach. They use Top Meadow Farms grass-fed beef cheeks and smoke them for an hour with their own Montreal style seasoning, which you can also buy at the shop. It's then cut thick and the collagen rich, caramelized tranches of beef cheek are laid down on Prairie Boy sourdough with original French’s Mustard and served alongside picked zucchini. The shop now smokes through 90-plus pounds of beef cheek in a week.

(IMAGE: JASON FINESTONE)

Aside from the trio of sammies and specials, the shop sells a selection of charcuterie, terrines and cheeses. Some made in house and others sourced from near and far, like Perth County, Niagara, Italian prosciutto di Parma and chorizo from Spain. A “family famous” potato and kale salad, pickled things, sauces rubs and oils line fridges and shelves.

They also have a butchery fridge, with “happy meat, that’s naturally raised” – beef from Wellington County and PEI Prime grassfed, Perth County pork, and Willowin Farms chicken from Zephyr, Ontario. Beef is aged Japanese style, and they’ll cut to your desired thickness – trimming the fat/age before weighing and repurposing the trimmings for all-natural dog chow.

Burger lovers can even request custom grounds and mixes like ground beef with smoked bacon.

When naming the shop, the couple wanted to add in the moniker “delicatessen – it means “fine foods” and it’s exactly how we want to be known.”

Published on: Oct 19, 2016