At Heavy Metal Sausage, a chef makes the best of a wurst-case scenario

Life was not rosy for restaurant workers in the early days of the pandemic, and Patrick Alfiero, chef at ITV in South Philadelphia, had a lot of time on his hands.

He had learned butchery and picked up charcuterie-making while working at Royal Boucherie in Old City, at the time also under chef Nicholas Elmi and Steve Forte. Must have been his Pennsylvania Dutch country upbringing, but the homespun forcemeats and earthy pâtés seemed to call to him.

In spring 2020, Elmi let Alfiero use ITV’s kitchen, where he’d pipe out sausages while rocking out to screaming heavy metal. (His current favorites are Spiritbox, Undeath, and Dying Wish.) After Alfiero started biweekly pop-ups at ITV, he told my colleague Craig LaBan: “I would love to have a shop someday after all of this [pandemic] is over.”

The pandemic is not quite over, but Alfiero and partner Melissa Pellegrino (Messina Social Club, Laurel) do indeed have their shop.

Heavy Metal Sausage Co. opened two weeks ago at 1527 W. Porter St. in South Philadelphia, replacing HomeGrown Coffee & Creations, which moved down the street. You might call it a charcuterie-meets-salumeria-meets-sausage shop.

In the early days of planning Heavy Metal Sausage, he decided to improve his craft and broaden his product line. He found books from France, written in French by the masters of charcuterie.

“I’m looking at what they do,” he said. “I tried to Google-translate the books, but they don’t translate too well. They’re like, ‘cut this.’ And you’re like, ‘what is this?’ ‘Wrap this up.’ ‘Bake this.’ And you’re, saying ‘what?’ There was a lot of trial and error.”

Everything in the shop comes from local products — the hams, turkeys, ducks. “We wanted to take the same approach that [butcher] Primal [Supply] takes,” Alfiero said. That is, dealing with suppliers that work sustainably and ethically.

Alfiero not only makes the meat products (French, Italian, and Pennsylvania Dutch styles are in evidence), he bakes the bread for sandwiches. For $14, you can get beutelwurst and cheddar with lettuce and onion relish on house ciabatta, or his cotechino sandwich with Linden Dale Farm goat mozzarella, pepper relish, and lettuce on ciabatta. You’ll see groceries on the shelves, such as organic rice, local oils, canned goods, and even soap: Alfiero gave his lard, juniper, sumac, and smoker ash to Melissa Torre of Vellum Street Soap Co., et voilà.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday to Saturday.