Sausage links three generations of family

Date: September 1, 2005

Lynda Percival
Close-Up Correspondent - Salt Lake Tribune

"We're making sausage on purpose," said Paul Colosimo.

That may seem like an odd statement unless you consider that Colosimo's buys only quality cuts of pork to make their sausage. Most other sausage makers use byproducts and leftover meat.

   "So much sausage is a dumping ground for meats that don't make it into hamburger. The more seasoning you put in, the more masking it does and you can dump a lot of off-cuts," he said. "We don't do that here."

   Colosimo's makes 35 different kinds of sausage, on purpose, at its Sandy store. Some popular varieties are bratwurst, black pepper and Colosimo's Original Italian Mild. Along with sausage, you can buy take-and-bake lasagna, imported Italian pastas, olive oil, cookies and sodas.

   The store is also a deli, where it serves up pastas, salads, calzones and sandwiches for lunch. Save room for dessert, as Colosimo's employs its own pastry chef, Cynthia Uberty. She makes all pastries, such as tiramisu, Italian cookies and chocolate tortes, daily at the store.

   "She makes this carrot cake that is unbelievable," said Colosimo. "You eat it and you don't need glasses for a week. It's got like eight pounds of carrots in it. It's just wonderful."

   Someone in the Colosimo family has been making their Original Italian Mild sausage for at least 80 years, probably longer. In 1923, Grandpa Ralph opened a grocery store in Magna. Ralph's sons, Gale and Ernie, took over and it evolved from a general grocery to a specialty meat store. The brothers invented, patented and sold a grinder attachment called the Colosimo's Press.

   "Over the 30 years that they've been selling that machine there's probably 4,000 machines across the country, even the world," said Colosimo.

   Gale and Ernie were never interested in pursing the wholesale aspect of the market, preferring to focus on the machine and selling the sausages retail. Gale died in January.

   Gale's sons, Paul, Joe and Larry Colosimo opened the Sandy store in March 2004.

   "We came along and said, 'There's a wholesale business here and we'd like to pursue that,' " said Colosimo.

   The front part of the store serves as a lunch deli and retail store. The back is a state-inspected facility with the capability of producing 50,000 pounds of sausage a month. The idea for the deli came about as a way to expand a customer base.

   "How do you open a plant when you have no customers? We felt like there was an intermediate step to get us to a plant," Colosimo said.

   Though the store in Magna has loyal customers, the brothers built the new store in Sandy because they felt they needed to have a more centrally located place.

   "Magna's hard to get to," Colosimo said. "Making a 20-mile journey to buy sausage, that took a pretty committed customer core."

   The Colosimo's store in Magna is still open and sells as much sausage as it ever has.

   "We're actually a customer of my Uncle Ernie, so we continue to deal with them," Colosimo said. "We bought our machine from them."

   The brothers would like to expand their wholesale business, eventually building a bigger, federally-inspected plant. Colosimo's sausage can be bought in many local restaurants and delis as well as Dan's and Ream's grocery stores. For the second year, Colosimo's bratwurst is the official sausage of Snowbird's Oktoberfest. They are currently talking to the Smith's grocery chain.

   "It's such a natural for Colosimo's and Smith's, two Utah companies, to team up," Colosimo said.

   Seeing the untapped wholesale market is one reason the brothers decided to get in the sausage business, but another is family pride.

   "I watched my dad and uncle put their whole lives into that business and you hate to see it die. That's not really a good reason to go into business, necessarily," Colosimo said. "But, hey, if we stopped making [sausage], where would we get it? We eat our share."

1st Picture: Joe, Paul and Larry, seen here last month, represent the third generation of Colosimo's sausage makers. (Lynda Percival)
2nd Picture: Mom Connie Colosimo comes in a couple of times a week to make lasagna. (Lynda Percival)

8745 South 700 East Sandy, Utah 84074 - (801) 565-1265