High-quality sandwiches keep em’ coming to this longtime family market in Fairmont.
If family and food are any indication, Italian heritage is still going strong in north central West Virginia. Just visit Hermosilla’s Deli Market in Fairmont for a taste.
“My dad’s grandfather opened the original Hermosilla’s Market downtown,” says Deli Manager Ali Hermosilla Gross. That was almost a century ago, on Jackson Street. The market sold Italian specialties and freshbutchered meats. “Then it moved to the corner of Adams and Quincy streets. My dad and his cousins grew up with that, and it was open until about 1980.”
Fairmont was without Hermosilla’s for more than 30 years. But when Gross’s father, Dennis Hermosilla, retired from teaching, he decided to bring it back.
Opened in 2013, Hermosilla’s Deli Market carries specialty Italian items that are hard to find in the area—imported canned tomatoes and olive oil, gourmet dipping oils, biscotti. It gets those through weekly deliveries from the much-loved Pennsylvania Macaroni Company in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. The deli also offers an extensive olive and antipasto bar.
But Hermosilla’s may be best known for its high-quality deli meats—and its hefty sandwiches. “Our Italian meats and cheeses all come from Penn Mac,” Gross says. “We also carry Amish meats and cheeses from Troyer Cheese Company in Sugarcreek, Ohio. My dad did a lot of research, and they offer a lot of lunch meats that don’t have nitrates or nitrites. We like to eat healthy as a family, so they aligned with us and we like to offer that to people.”
Signature sandwiches, like the best-selling Kickin’ Roast Beef with green onion cheese and horseradish sauce and the Homemade Salad Sandwich of chicken, ham, or tuna salad, are piled high on diner’s choice of bread or a bed of lettuce. Toppings and condiments include many that are house-made according to old family recipes, like a sweet Carolina or hot pepper slaw, hot pepper mustard, and vinegar pepper rings. The ranch and Italian dressings for sandwiches and on the full salad bar are house-made, too.
Hermosilla’s chicken salad is a community favorite. “We roast our chicken breasts and thighs for six hours, so the meat is really tender and has tons of flavor,” Gross says. “It’s the same way my dad always did it. We probably make 40-plus pounds of it a week, and sometimes we have to make more.”
Meats and cheeses are available for bulk purchase—10 percent off on Saturdays. It’s part of a rotating schedule of daily specials. For a family dinner, pick up homemade meatballs and sauce: eight meatballs frozen in a 32-ounce container. Feeding a crowd? Hermosilla’s also prepares deli trays for pickup or delivery.
Gross’s dad passed away in 2015, and the family works together to continue his dream: Gross along with her mother, Patty Hermosilla, her sister, Dominica West, and her brother, Nick Hermosilla.
Even six years in, Gross says, “We get people all the time that ask, ‘Is that the same family? I remember Hermosilla’s Market!’” It’s the same family indeed, keeping Italian heritage alive in north-central West Virginia. 919 Morgantown Avenue, Fairmont, 304.366.4376, hermosillasdelimarket.com
photographed by Carla Witt Ford
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