The Story of SMÁLÀ
After moving back to NYC (again), we were inspired by the crossroads of Chinatown and Little Italy — two iconic neighborhoods defining the Lower East Side. One night, while drizzling Calabrian chili oil at a local Italian spot, the idea hit:
“Why don’t we (Chinese) have something like this?”
So we teamed up with friends and a Greek-Italian kitchen to begin testing. Over 14 months, we experimented, taste-tested with chefs, tweaked the recipe, and finally perfected it.
SMÁLÀ is our lovechild of Sichuan and Calabrian chili oil — a deep, aromatic blend with a numbing mala buzz and clean, quality ingredients. Chefs have said: “It doesn’t taste cheap” — and that’s by design.
Drizzle generously on dumplings, pizza, pasta, rice, tacos, or stir into your favorite condiments.
This is our first food baby — made thoughtfully for flavor-lovers everywhere.
BTW here's a video at the factory where all the magic happens!
Andrew is stirring the aromatics hmmmm