Carollo's Italian Gourmet Grocery & Deli

Carollo’s Italian Gourmet Grocery & Deli is a family-owned Italian grocery, deli and grill that has operated in Kansas City’s River Market (City Market) since 1989, founded by Sicilian immigrant Mike Carollo and run alongside his brother and sons around imported Italian goods and Carollo family recipes.

Description

Carollo’s Italian Gourmet Grocery & Deli is a specialty Italian grocer, deli and seasonal grill located at 9 E 3rd Street inside Kansas City’s historic City Market, in the River Market neighborhood. The business combines a retail grocery stocked with imported Italian goods — pastas, olive oils, canned tomatoes, sauces, Italian wines and spirits, cookies, gelato and pastries — with a full deli counter offering fresh deli meats, cheeses and olives, and made-to-order Italian sandwiches and subs.¹²

The shop is known for its house-made items, including homemade Italian sausage, cannoli, olive salad and chicken spiedini.¹³ From spring through fall, Carollo’s runs an outdoor grill serving items such as Italian sausage, brats and chicken spiedini.² The store keeps daily hours (reported as roughly 10:00 AM–5:30 PM) within the City Market’s merchant footprint.²

Ownership and history

Carollo’s has served the Kansas City area from its River Market location since 1989.¹²³ The business was founded by proprietor Mike Carollo, who built it around what the business describes as authentic Italian food and family recipes “he learned years ago in his boyhood home in Sicily” — establishing the operation as a Sicilian-immigrant-founded, family-run business.¹⁴ Family members associated with the business include Mike’s brother Frank and sons Anthony and Frankie.¹

The Carollo name sits within Kansas City’s deep Italian-American heritage. Sicilian emigration — particularly from the Palermo province, including villages such as Santa Cristina Gela — fed Kansas City’s Italian enclaves (notably Columbus Park / the North End) beginning in the 1890s, with Sicilians forming the dominant Italian subgroup by the 1920s.⁴ Carollo’s, founded in 1989 in the adjacent River Market, is a continuation of that Italian-grocery tradition rather than a survivor of the early-1900s enclave wave.

Regarding the seed-data reference to “Carollo Food Service”: web research found no evidence that this River Market deli operates as, or is owned by, a major foodservice/wholesale distributor named Carollo Food Service. Available sources consistently describe a retail grocery, deli and grill that serves customers directly. The business should be treated as an independent retail operation with no corporate or distributor parent unless a primary source establishes otherwise.

Menu

Last verified: 2026-06-17 · Source: Carollo’s published deli menu (carollosdelikcmo.com ordering site, mirrored on AllMenus), cross-checked against the City Market merchant listing · URL(s): https://www.carollosdelikcmo.com/ · https://www.allmenus.com/mo/kansas-city/508967-carollos-grocery-deli/menu/ · https://thecitymarketkc.org/carollos-italian-grocery-deli/ · Confidence: High

Carollo’s deli is built around made-to-order Italian sub sandwiches on Italian bread, supplemented by Philly steaks, hot Italian items, and a retail grocery/deli counter of imported and house-made goods. Prices below reflect the most recent published ordering menu and may shift.

Deli sandwiches / subs (signature)

• Napolitano — capocolla, salami, prosciutto and provolone — $6.75⁵
• Romano — mortadella, pepperoni, capocolla and provolone — $6.75⁵
• Siciliano — turkey, pastrami, roast beef and Swiss — $6.75⁵
• San Lorenzo — aged provolone and red roasted sautéed pepper — $6.75⁵
• Caprese — fresh mozzarella, tomato vinaigrette and basil — $6.75⁵
• Americano — turkey, ham and Swiss — $6.75⁵

Philly steaks

• Original Philly Steak — with peppers, onions and provolone — $6.95⁵
• Cheesesteak — with provolone — $6.95⁵
• Steak Sub — with lettuce and tomato — $6.95⁵
• Pizza Steak — marinara, mozzarella and pepperoni — $6.25⁵

Hot items

• Grilled Chicken Spiedini sandwich — house chicken spiedini with roasted-pepper-and-olive spread on Italian bread — $7.25 (signature)⁵
• Meatball sandwich — house meatballs with provolone — $6.95⁵
• Seasonal outdoor grill (spring–fall) — Italian sausage, brats and chicken spiedini hot off Carollo’s outdoor grill²

Grocery / deli counter

• House-made specialties — Italian sausage, olive salad, cannoli, chicken spiedini¹²
• Deli counter (by weight) — cured Italian meats (Genoa, Napoli, Calabrese, Milano salami; prosciutto), imported cheeses and olives, roughly $4.99–$19.99/unit⁵
• Imported Italian groceries — dry pastas, olive oils, canned tomatoes, sauces, Italian wines/spirits, cookies, gelato and pastries¹²

Links

• Website: https://www.carollosdelikcmo.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarollosDeliKCMO/
• Phone: (816) 456-3222

See also

• carollo-family — multi-generation KC Italian grocery family
• river-market
• Registry

Sources

• Status verified active 2026-06-23 via Yelp — Carollo’s Italian Gourmet Grocery (accessed 2026-06-23). Listing updated June 2026; corroborated by City Market merchant page. Cross-checked address 9 E 3rd St, Kansas City MO 64106.

Footnotes

1. Carollo’s Italian Grocery (official site) — “Best Italian Deli and Grocery In Kansas City” (1989 founding, proprietor Mike Carollo, brother Frank and sons Anthony/Frankie, Sicilian boyhood recipes, product range) — https://carollosspecialtyitaliangrocery.com/ — accessed 2026-05-30. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. The City Market KC — Carollo’s Italian Grocery & Deli merchant page (1989 founding, 9 E 3rd St address, daily hours, imported goods, house-made items, seasonal grill, phone) — https://thecitymarketkc.org/carollos-italian-grocery-deli/ — accessed 2026-05-30. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Carollo’s Grocery & Deli — online ordering/menu site (since 1989, River Market, house-made sausage/cannoli/olive salad/spiedini) — https://www.carollosdelikcmo.com/ — accessed 2026-05-30. ↩ ↩²

4. Historical context on Sicilian (Palermo-province) immigration to Kansas City’s Columbus Park / North End enclaves, 1890s–1920s — derived from KC Italian-American immigration history references — accessed 2026-05-30. ↩ ↩²

5. Carollo’s Grocery & Deli — published deli menu, Kansas City MO (carollosdelikcmo.com ordering site, mirrored on AllMenus) — accessed 2026-06-17 — https://www.carollosdelikcmo.com/ and https://www.allmenus.com/mo/kansas-city/508967-carollos-grocery-deli/menu/ — asserts: sub-sandwich lineup and descriptions (Napolitano, Romano, Siciliano, San Lorenzo, Caprese, Americano), Philly-steak lineup (Original, Cheesesteak, Steak Sub, Pizza Steak), grilled chicken spiedini and meatball sandwiches, deli-counter cured meats/cheeses/olives by weight, and item prices ($6.25–$7.25 sandwiches). Cross-checked against the City Market merchant listing² for house-made specialties and seasonal grill. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³