Angelina's is an Italian market treasure in the Carolinas. You’ll find them in Waxhaw, North Carolina, which is a suburb of Charlotte. Co-owner Mariel LoRe is quite young, however this business is in her blood. Her father owned Enzo’s Italian Market in Matthews, NC.
Small world story: Enzo's was my first experience with an Italian store in the South. I moved to Matthews in 2005 from the center of Charlotte. For a long time, it felt remote and far from civilization. Little by little, businesses started opening, with Enzos debuting in 2009. Even better, it was a stone's throw from my house.
Mariel was born in Queens, in New York City, moved to Charlotte as a young girl, but left for Los Angeles after high school to pursue her fashion career. Sadly, her father Enzo became sick and she moved back to help him. He sold the market before he passed away. A year later, she decided she wanted to open her own market to continue her father’s legacy. She contacted family friends whom she had worked for as a young girl, Jim and Steve DaPolito. The brothers, originally from Buffalo, NY, own Bisonte Pizza Co. and Jim opened Angelina's with LoRe in December 2023.
The name is special because LoRe’s grandmother, who was from Sicily, and Jim 's great-grandmother, who was from Avellino, both were named Angelina.
Jim DaPolito tells me that their customers come in to shop for homemade sausage, meatballs, and arancini made with meatballs, mozzarella, and rice. Various types of bread are made in-house, including semolina, sausage, and seeded.
In addition, Angelina’s has a big selection of gluten-free products, with plans to expand it. Going above and beyond, they even change the oil when they make gluten-free chicken cutlets and gluten-free eggplant parm to ensure the oil has zero traces of gluten.
I had such a nice time while visiting recently; they treated me like a family friend, inviting me back into the kitchen offering me tastes of their specialties. I had a few bites of freshly made lobster risotto, a hot and juicy chicken cutlet, a lemon ricotta cookie that tastes just like my Grammy Filomena’s, and a pignoli cookie. Of course I purchased some guanciale and bought an imported olive oil I have been wanting to try.
I asked, what do you want people to know about you? The answer was that they have a real passion for wanting to make people happy with their food, and each employee shares this same love. There is no doubt about that. They all seemed relaxed, proud and focused on their creations.
While the market is small, it’s full of wonderful delicacies: meals to go, imported foods, full deli cases, pastry, and desserts made in house.
1526 Providence Rd S, Waxhaw, NC 28173, 704.256.4106, @angelinasitalianmarkets, angelinasitalianmarkets.com
