Gourmet salts coming to Millvale

As gourmet salts gain popularity in the United States, John Tarallo likes to tell people the trend actually is 10,000 years old.

He has built his passion for the mineral and confidence in its sales potential into a successful business, launching the Steel City Salt Co. as a Strip District pop-up shop in 2014. In the next two months, he hopes to open a Millvale production space and storefront in phases.

Most gourmet salts are naturally harvested and not processed. Tarallo, 26, said gourmet salts have a less prominent taste and greater textural differences than iodized table salt.

“They can be small flakes, large flakes, fine, coarse, different colors, even — gray, pink,” he said.

He currently sells about 25 salts and blends, including imports from Peru, France, Sicily, Bali, Hawaii, Cyprus and Pakistan.

The Peruvian Pink, hand-harvested from a brine spring in the Andes, and the Himalayan are his most popular varieties. The company's most popular blend is the “Steeltown Garlic & Herb,” which comes in a grinder bottle and features a Himalayan salt base.

Tarallo's personal favorite is an espresso salt.

“It works really nice for a coffee rub on the grill, so if you're doing steak, pork, chicken, you can do a nice glaze or sauce with it. And of course, on the sweets and desserts.”

Prices range from $4.95 to $11.95 for salts and mixtures. Customers also will find salt slabs, shot glasses, lamps and candle holders.

Despite always wanting to work in the food industry, Tarallo did not think he would open a retail outlet. Growing up in a large Italian family, he split his time between his mother's Lawrenceville home and his father's Bloomfield residence. He expanded his culinary knowledge during his first job — watching women prepare homemade dishes at Bloomfield's Groceria Italiana.

After his shifts, he would walk to his Sicilian grandfather's house.

“He always had the coolest food, and that's actually where I came across a different salt than Morton's.,” Tarallo said. “He had Sicilian salt. … That was a huge factor as well besides working in different food places.”

Later, Tarallo worked as a pizza chef for five years at Lawrenceville's Piccolo Forno.

He found his gift for creating salt mixtures by accident, after developing a sriracha blend loved by his family and friends.

“Figuring out a way to make it on a larger scale and then offering it was really cool.”

The Stanton Heights resident runs the business with his wife, Candy; other family members help also with the shop.

Tarallo and his father are renovating the Millvale building at 208 Grant Ave.

He fell in love with 2,000-square-foot space “even though it was in shambles” and needed extensive improvements. He hopes to move his current Lawrenceville production facility to the Millvale building in two months and host walk-in shoppers. He's looking to open the storefront for the holiday season. The Strip District location will remain open.

Millvale real estate costs were just one factor that attracted him to the borough.

“And I feel like Millvale is on the up and up,” Tarallo said. “I am there almost every night doing work and the people are really nice.

“You have the (Jean-Marc Chatellier's) bakery, some really good restaurants, the diner, the (Tupelo Honey) tea shop and pretty soon a salt and spice shop.”

Erica Cebzanov is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.