Mancino’s in the Lebanon Valley Mall to open Italian deli and market

Mancino’s Pizza & Catering in the Lebanon Valley Mall is opening a deli that will offer a mix of imported Italian meats and cheeses and ready-to-eat meals.

Franco Mancino, co-owner of Mancino’s with his brother Enrico, said they’re planning a soft opening this week to get a feel for the new business venture.

He said they’ll offer mortadella, hot capicola, salami, parmesan and osiago wheels, ham, roast turkey, cheddar, and fresh mozzarella. There will also be imported Italian dried goods, like pastas, along with hot cherry spreads and different types of pestos.

“One thing about the market is it’s going to be rotating, so we’re going to figure out what people like, what people don’t like,” Mancino said.

On top of the regular deli items, they’ll also offer grab-and-go food and premade meals from Fuel & Flourish, which is run by Katie Hollinger and also based in Lebanon.

“She does these meals where she counts the macros in the meals, and they’re just meals for two people, and we’re going to be retailing them here,” Mancino said. “She’s already doing really well just on her own, selling them online, but we’re going to be the first place to retail her meals.”

He said the idea for a deli came from a trip to Italy he took over the summer with some friends. Their favorite place to go was the local deli market — sometimes stopping in twice a day.

Mancino’s Pizza & Catering has been in the same location for 47 years, and Mancino said they had a back room that wasn’t being fully utilized, so they decided to transform it into the market.

The public response surrounding the market started when Lebanon County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz posted a video on Facebook about the construction. Mancino said the feedback was “mind-blowing.”

“The video just took off. It had like 60,000 views,” he said. “Usually, when you read comments on social media, you usually find a negative comment here or there, and I didn’t find one. Everyone was just excited that this is a new idea in the area. People were excited, I think, for the growth of the shop, and the new idea — the freshness that a market usually brings.”

Even though the restaurant side is well-established, Mancino said they’re going to treat the deli like an entirely separate business.

“We want to make a great first impression,” he said. “Because I’ve just been doing kind of the same thing, and to be doing something new here, we’re putting all our heart into it, and we just hope everybody likes it.”