Small Biz Spotlight: Culinary Delights/Spalla's Chicago Italian Beef

Alex Palterman, of Natick/Evergreen neighborhood, has owned Culinary Delights for the past 13 years.

Culinary Delights serves Spalla’s Chicago Italian Beef in Natick.

It opened as a primarily Russian/Eastern European grocery and deli, and stayed that way for about 10 yrs. Many still refer to it as “the Russian store.”

Cara Spalla, of Natick/Wethersfield neighborhood, is the manager and creator of the Chicago-style menu that “has everyone talking.”

Spalla’s has been rated number 1 in Natick for the past two years on Yelp, and recently the Phantom Gourmet filmed a spot for its 2016 season.

In early 2012, Palterman decided to expand his offerings and added the Chicago-style menu to his European deli and prepared foods.

“To date, we offer an interesting combination of unique foods,” he said.

The Chicago menu features hot dogs, hot sandwiches, freshly made salads, home made soups, meatballs, chili and mac and cheese and Italian ice, and also home-style old-world foods such as lamb and chicken kebabs, stuffed cabbage rolls, pan-fried sea bass, and lots of home-made soups and salads - in addition to a wide variety of imported grocery, candy, dairy, fish and deli items.

“We had a couple of family/friends help us as we grew, but they are off to college or careers,” he said. “So now we are facing another boom after our clip airs on Phantom in January, and we’ll be promoting dinners and family takeout dinner packages soon, so we need to build a little more team.

When did you open/launch? Culinary Delights opened in Dec. 2003 and the Chicago-menu launched in May 2012.

What made you decide to open this type of business? I was a professional chef who yearned for my own deli, closer to home and to my then-young children, and in Natick, because its residential and commercial employee population is so diverse. Being near Mathworks, Cognex, several car dealerships and many more commercial areas tees us up to many ethnicities. Being at the crossroads of Routes 9 & 27 offers easy accessibility from the Mass Pike, Route 30 and Route 128.

What do you like best about it? We truly enjoy seeing the smiles of delight when people eat our food... Whether it brings back memories of a grandmother’s cooking, or the Chicago food one may have grown up on or are even tasting for the first time, we are serving experiences, in addition to freshly-made, from-scratch food. The number of Chicagoans and midwesterners that drive out for “the real thing” on weekends is terrific.

Biggest struggle? Getting the many neighborhoods of Natick to brave crossing Route 9 to visit us! Once people have tried us, they definitely come back.

What do you see for the future? Our goal is to become a destination shop that people come to for things you can’t get just anywhere...Like you plan a trip to Woodman’s of Essex, or once ventured out on “a trip” to Revere Beach’s Kelly’s, we want to be the place people drive to and food worth driving for. Additionally, we are hoping to launch a food truck in the spring.

Politics and small business: how does government affect your business? We are delighted with Natick’s support of small businesses via the Natick Center Associates and participate in its programs whenever we can.

Know a small business that deserves the spotlight? Tell us about it at charlene.arsenault@patch.com.