Contributed by Tom Seeley

If you haven’t been to Ascioti’s Meat Market recently (or ever), you are missing out on one of Central New York’s true treasures.

Ascioti’s is on Milton Ave just west of the Village center. The little shop in Solvay is a butcher shop like the one your mom used to take you to when you were little, on what seemed like an endless parade of errands where you hoped you’d be provided a penny for the little gum ball machine near the exit.

By way of Dick Case at The Post Standard, I gather the shop has been there and run by the same family for close to 100 years.

My boss has sworn by the meatball mix there for years and I finally made my way to try it out last week. The mix is phenomenal. I’ve also heard the pan sausage is excellent. I didn’t try the latter, but I was able to purchase a slab of bacon (unsliced), which I highly recommend. The quality destroys supermarket bacon and you can slice it nice and thick for extra flavor.

If you are worried about price in a small shop like that, you shouldn’t. I paid about the same per pound for the meatball mix as I paid at a local supermarket recently for a pound of ground beef! If you go, make sure to bring a checkbook or cash because the store does not accept credit cards.

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