Photos courtesy of Graham Yelton/Graham Yelton Creative.
sausage empire
Kyle D’Agostino crafts his own sausage and more from locally farmed meat.
Kyle D’Agostino wants his Sausage Empire to be an Alabama empire.
For the past year and a half, he has worked with Fudge Family Farms in Madison, making regular visits to see how Henry Fudge feeds his animals non-genetically modified foods and raises them in the dirt.
D’Agostino, a West Homewood resident, designs spaces as an architect at Giattina Aycock Architecture Studio by day, but his nights and weekends are focused on creating sausage from Fudge Farms pork for D’Agostino Sausage Empire.
“We want to know the techniques [of Italians], but the idea is it comes from this location, right here in Birmingham,” D’Agostino said. “We want the unique characteristics of the South. That makes it ours. That’s the fingerprint of our products.”
When he moved to Alabama from Rhode Island 20 years ago, D’Agostino fell in love with smoked meats and barbecue, and accordingly, smoked sausage has become the Empire’s forte. The fennel sausage is a crowd pleaser, and the andouille is D’Agostino’s personal favorite.
People from Wisconsin have called the Empire’s bratwurst the best they have had, and Louisiana natives have said the andouille and boudin could go up against anything they have at home.
But for D’Agostino, the ultimate compliment is that chefs Frank Stitt, Chris DuPont, Brian Somershield (Trattoria Centrale/El Barrio/Paramount) and Mauricio Papapietro (Brick & Tin) want to use his meats in their restaurants.
“The flavors [of our sausages] are layered,” D’Agostino said. “For instance, our andouille is not just a brick wall of heat. You get something in the front of the tongue and the back. It’s not too hot.”
Before creating chorizo, he tried it at about 15 Mexican restaurants around town. The recipe, whose end product is now served at El Barrio, then took about six months to develop. Most take at least a couple of months, he said.
D’Agostino’s passion for crafting food is firmly rooted not just in the South but in Rhode Island, where he grew up.
His family, Italian on one side and Hungarian on the other, grilled out at the beach and in backyards. He remembers getting locked in the cooler when he and his grandfather would go to his great-uncle’s butcher shop. And his passion for sausage? Part of it came from what he said is the “best sausage ever” at Italian Village, the restaurant in his hometown where he worked as a teenager.
As a teen and preteen, he saw and ate unprocessed foods his family purchased through a co-op where he, his mom and his younger brother, who is now a chef, would help cut cheese and create family-sized portions of bulk foods. That’s were he said his desire to work with food started.
He remembers asking his mom why it cost more for food that was unprocessed, to which she explained basic principles of supply and demand.
It’s these ideas that motivate D’Agostino’s long-term goals for Sausage Empire. He wants real food, which in his case means sausage made with quality meat ingredients, to be available to as many people as possible.
A trip to Italy two years ago solidified his motivation to act on his long-held desire to be in the food business. He had traveled to the country before, but this time he toured farms and charcuteries. He fell in love with it, he said.
When he returned to Birmingham, his wife, Kathy, said he needed to stop talking about it and do it. Today he credits her motivation and fellow commitment to the business and art of sausage making for what the venture has become.
Their son Casey, 21, also works with the business, and Otto, 12, sometimes helps grind meat.
Sausage Empire made its debut in late summer 2011 at the Homewood Farmer’s Market in SoHo, and it quickly developed loyal customers there and at the West Homewood Farmer’s Market, which is located just streets away from D’Agostino’s home of a decade.
“We tell people we make it ourselves and that there are no preservatives or gluten or dairy,” he said. “Some people get excited about it being an Alabama product, but mostly people like that it tastes good.”
D’Agostino said he receives phone calls, emails and texts asking about the sausage if ever he misses a week at the market. This summer he will attend as many markets as possible in addition to his plans to open a brick-and-mortar retail space in downtown Birmingham. But don’t worry — he said there could be a Homewood retail location in the more distant future, too.
For more information on Sausage Empire, visit sausageempire.com or call 616-2901.
