Zio Brand Meats & Sausages is a family business based on family recipes.

For many people, there are few things more sacred than a family recipe. Passed down through generations, these unique and diverse recipes are shared, perfected and closely protected by those who cherish them most. Whether it’s Grandpa’s barbecue sauce or Grandma’s polenta, the family recipe symbolizes much more than just good food. It represents people and places with stories that can sometimes be traced to long-lost ancestors stretching all across the globe.

For Ellie Almond, the story starts in a remote alpine valley in southern Switzerland and continues today at Zio Brand Meats & Sausages in Salinas.

“It all goes back to Valle Maggia, where my mom’s side of the family is from,” says Almond, of the Swiss region of Ticino, near the northern border of Italy. “But it was my Uncle Lester who really got things started here in this (Salinas) valley.”

Almond, who grew up along River Road in the 1980s, has fond memories of making sausages with his uncle Lester Franscioni, or “Zio” (which translates to “uncle” in Swiss-Italian dialects), as he was more commonly known.

“He was my great-uncle by blood, but everyone called him Zio, including my friends,” Almond says. “People would get excited when they would see Zio coming over with his Swiss sausages and salamettes (a dried sausage similar to salami). Everybody loved Zio.”

Zio’s recipes for delicious sausages were enjoyed only by family and a few lucky friends until 2015, when Almond and his wife Lindsay decided to take a chance and make a business out of it. Inspired by the man they called Zio, Almond quit his day job with a local ag company and opened Zio Brand Meats & Sausages on Highway 68 in Salinas.

“It was scary at first, with two young children and starting a new business,” Almond says. “But we believed in our product, and we had a vision for the future of the business.”

Now, nearly seven years later, that vision is starting to take shape. What started out as a small, family-run butcher shop with a handful of sausage varieties, now offers a full array of meats and sausages, as well as custom butchering and processing. Customers can choose from over a dozen sausage varieties (Swiss, Italian and jalapeño-cheddar to name just a few), or pick up choice cuts of all types of steaks, from sirloins to tri-tips.

“This community has really supported our business,” says Almond. “It’s time to take the next step.”

For Zio Brand, the next step is to renovate and expand operations in their current space in Salinas and then open a second location in Paso Robles.

“We love our current location here,” Almond says. “We’re right on Highway 68 and get plenty of traffic, but we’d like to update the space.”

Plans include new signage out on the front of the store (there currently is none) and a large entry, rather than the solid door that greets visitors now – something that will be visible from the highway. Other plans include a quick-service takeout space for the growing number of customers on the go, as well as increased processing space that would allow for nearly double the volume.

While that’s happening locally, Almond has also partnered with fellow Swiss-Italian John Sartori, a recently retired local businessman, on a new venture in Paso Robles. “John has been whining about how bored he is down there in Paso,” Almond says. “So I told him kind of jokingly that we should open a Zio Brand down there to keep him busy.”

But Sartori, who is known to love a good sausage, didn’t take it as just a joke. “Two days later he called me and said ‘let’s do it,’” Almond recounts. “So we made a deal and started looking into it.”

Almond estimates the projects will be operational by mid-summer, with plenty of good grilling time still left on the calendar. In the meantime, if you find yourself hungry, swing by and see Almond at Zio Brand, and grab yourself a handful of sausage. Abe Froman might still be the Sausage King of Chicago, but Ellie Almond rules the rolls around here.

ZIO BRAND MEATS & SAUSAGES is at 92A Highway 68, Salinas. 455-8801, ziobrand.com