Lil' Gabagool

I bet you’re asking yourself, what’s a gabagool? That’s what I said when I saw these words printed across a tiny onesie last weekend at the Young Artist Market in Soho.

Gabagool is slang for the Italian cured salume capicola or coppa, which I learned from David Ciaburro, creator of this little onesie and his company, Wooster Street Meats. I suppose if I watched the Sopranos, I’d already have known that, but I certainly know what a Lil’ Proscuitto is, which is what first caught my eye on the front of a little blue t-shirt. When it did, I thought immediately of Hudson Finn. If you haven’t heard of him yet, you probably will some day. At the tender age of 21 months, he’s equal parts cool and kitsch, exactly the kind of kid who can pull of a shirt like this. Hudson’s Daddy, Shaun Finn, is a coppa-loving Irish-Italian from The Hill in St. Louis, and he and Hudson’s Mommy, Carissa, are two of my dearest pals from College. The two of them have more personality than Tony Soprano on his best day, so you can imagine...

About two months ago, Hudson became a big brother, and Lil’ Gabagool is exactly the kind of thing I’d imagine him calling his baby sister Sheane, that is if he could talk. For now, Hudson and Sheane's baby faces speak volumes with out words, so we’ll let their new t-shirts do the talking.

David wraps his Wooster Street salume {t's and onesises} cleverly in butcher paper and ties it with twine, and you can get them for the lil’gabagool in your life here. And, if you’re looking for the kind of salume you can eat, try Salumeria Rosi on New York City’s Upper West Side, which also sells their exceptional prosciuitto, porchetta and mortadella {my favorite} here. Mangia!