Eating Wyoming: Authentic Chicago deli meets classic Italian at Casper’s Steamboat Deli

CASPER — Customers who frequent Downtown’s Steamboat Deli & Outlet say the restaurant is more than just a place to grab a quick sandwich, it’s an authentic Chicago deli experience with a distinctly Italian twist. I am.

They say this praise stems from who created the menu. Trained Chicago chefs have researched the cuisine and know how to create authentic Italian dishes to the tune of Italian songs playing from overhead speakers.

Toni Dovalina, 71, was scouted by her former partner to open a sandwich and retail shop offering not only homemade food but also Wyoming wear in 2017, when Casper was the focus of a total solar eclipse. She has since bought out that partner and is using her culinary expertise to expand the menu that keeps her regulars coming back.

“I grew up in Chicago, where my father was a very successful restaurateur for decades, and then went to culinary school,” she said. “I went there for a few years and ended up training under a very good chef. My main mentor was Fernando Gutierrez, the executive chef at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago. did.”

Her training led her to work as a restaurant consultant, where she designed menus and helped launch new concepts for restaurant owners. She learned her cooking skills at Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago.

And now, her Casper Deli is the city’s most popular Italian restaurant, serving dinner three days a week at 251 Center St.

italian dinner

Dovalina still believes that trying new things is important for success. Posted on the wall of her deli is the Italian dinner menu she serves Thursday through Saturday.

“I kept experimenting and got my liquor license and now I’m doing dinner,” she said. “The menu is very limited, with three entrees, two salads, and always two appetizers or three appetizers.”

Almost everything is made from scratch, including sauces and desserts. She doesn’t make her own pasta. That’s because you’ll need a much larger kitchen.

During Cowboy State Daily’s visit, appetizers included cioppino, an Italian fisherman’s stew with shrimp, muscle, clams and cod in a tomato-based soup with fennel; Other entrees were Italian sausage lasagna and rigatoni with chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and cream sauce.

We also have wine and beer menus.

“We also sell nice little cocktails,” she said.

sandwich

The daytime deli offers 11 sandwiches, four salads and dessert options including cannoli, lemon bread, cinnamon coffee cake and chocolate chip cookies.

“I feel like our sandwiches are chef-driven,” Dovalina said. “We roast our own beef. We boil and roast our own chicken. We make a very popular Cuban sandwich, so we marinate the pork in a Cuban marinade for 24 hours, Then we slowly roast it for 5 hours.”

Dovarina said all of the meat in the Italian deli is imported, along with the seasonings, and the deli makes the dressings from scratch. Some of the sandwich breads (such as turkey and Havarti) come from a supplier in Montana.

“The sandwiches are less processed and a little more artisanal,” she says. “I try to buy bread that has very few preservatives.”

Steamboat Deli’s hot sandwiches include the popular Hot Italian Beef, Chicago Style.

Dovalina has pared back the clothing retail space, creating room for about 40 people inside the store and adding a patio and deck for the summer.

“This spring we hope to renovate the dining room and install a full-service hot kitchen where we can prepare more hot dishes,” she said.

Cooperated with the opening of Jackson Restaurant

Dovalina came to Wyoming after being scouted to help open Nani’s Genuine Pasta House in Jackson, where she worked for several years.

“We’ve had great reviews,” she said.

After marrying a man who wanted to move to Casper, she arrived in 1994 and found the culture a little different than Jackson.

“It was hard to get a chef job here,” she said. “Everyone wanted a male chef.”

She worked at several local restaurants and traveled to Chicago. Then one day she got a call from her former mentor’s wife who wanted her to come to Baltimore and work in food research at a company that served sandwiches, salads, soups, etc. Airports, hotels, hospitals, gas stations.

“I went to Baltimore to do food research and development and learned a lot about fresh produce, packaging and expiration dates,” she said. “There I was trained in her HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), which NASA developed when they landed humans on the moon in the 1960s. I didn’t want that.”

This training was necessary for the company to send food across state lines. She developed recipes and tested them for shelf life.

“It was interesting. It introduced me to a whole new side of cooking,” she said. “It’s interesting being in the food business and learning new things all the time.”

change name

When it first opened, the name of the deli was “Poke’s.” However, the University of Wyoming opposed this on licensing grounds. Therefore, the facility needed something different.

“One of our former employees said, ‘Why don’t you try Steamboat?’ So we looked into Steamboat and they gave us permission to use it,” she said. “And we thought it was a good idea.”

In the future, Dovalina hopes his store will transform into a Steamboat Deli & Trattoria, reflecting a more Italian feel.

“I hesitate to use the word ‘trattoria’ because so many people don’t know what it is,” she says.

On a typical day, Dovalina arrives early and begins preparatory work. She has four part-time employees and is looking for a potential employee for her fifth employee. She still enjoys making people happy.

“This is not a surgery that will allow me to retire rich,” she said. “But it satisfies that feeling of, ‘We want to provide great food at an affordable price, but we also want to be able to stay in business.'”

Dale Killingbeck It can be accessed at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.