That weekend bucket-list flight to New Orleans for a muffuletta fix at the famed Central Grocery is on hold indefinitely. An alternative: Sebastiano’s, a self-described Sicilian-inspired deli “through a Pacific Northwest lens,” which opened in the Montavilla neighborhood on June 2, serving muffulettas with hand-stretched mozzarella on house-made fennel seed bread as well as filled-to-order cannoli, Sicilian cookies, cold cuts, antipasti, and Sicilian wine.

Founders Elise and Daniel Gold are obsessed with handcrafted ingredients, small-scale local farms, and healthy eating. It should come as no surprise, then, that the married couple met at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa before moving to Portland in 2009 and working in various food-related industries.