While Sean chops shallots, Judy unpacks some coarse sausages and starts skinning them for a red wine and sausage-meat pasta sauce.
The gingery housemade bratwurst ($7) won me over, as did the coarser Krainer sausage, though the cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped frankfurter ($8) was too much of a good thing.
Deeply smoky and piquant, the coarse-ground sausage takes well to thick guacamole and a bright splash of tomatillo salsa.
Hoover also draws fried catfish, barbecued ribs, meatloaf and fried pork chops from the Southern pantry, along with gumbo in a swampy roux with chicken and coarse, spicy sausage.
Conveniently located on the way to the railway station are Salumeria Garibaldi (Strada Garibaldi 42, +0521 235606) or La Verdi (across the road), where you can pick up some stuffed artichokes, ham wrapped in cabbage, a few slices of cotechino (coarse pork sausage) and zampone (stuffed trotter), and some torta fritta (delicate crispy fried bread, like prawn crackers but nicer).
Its menu is in development, said Andrew Tarlow, an owner of the restaurants, as is a signature "coarse-grind pork sausage" from Marlow & Daughters, an affiliated butcher shop.
We share the picada sampler of beef empanadas, coarse-textured pork sausage, morcilla and crisp pork rind with green plantain, fried cassava and avocado sauce.
I love the loukaniko ($10), coarse, herby country sausage, sweetened with a salad of diced pear and fennel, while three little grilled shrimp ($11) are so full of flavor that they stand up to sides of tahini and a salad of pickled cabbage studded with little bits of calamari.
If you are at all a fan of charcuterie, you should probably try the sliced Meizhou Dongpo sausage, coarse-ground, shot through with herbs, and spurtingly juicy.
The plump crespone ($12.99 a pound), a fairly coarse-ground Lombardy-style sausage, is my favorite.
