Polidori Sausage is balancing history and sustainability

Polidori Sausage | Denver | Product: Food & Beverage

Anna and Rocco Polidori opened their first grocery store and butcher shop on the north side of Denver in 1925.

A full 95 years later, the company makes 60,000 pounds of sausage a week from pork shoulder, salt and spices. It’s still made in a traditional one-pound rope, as well as links and patties, and the company still uses a coffee grinder from Anna and Rocco’s days to crack the fennel seed.

Now under the guidance of fourth-generation owners, President Steve Polidori and VP Melodie Polidori Harris, Polidori Sausage moved to a new facility in northeast Denver in 2016, tripling its floor space while emphasizing sustainability via energy efficiency, water conservation and other initiatives.

“We continue to do things the same way Great-grandma Polidori did back in 1925,” Polidori Harris says. “While we have been able to incorporate the support of some machines to speed up the process, our sausage is still hand-made and hand-delivered to this day.”

The company now provides the official bratwurst to Coors Field for Colorado Rockies home games. For the record, 84,000 of them were sold during the 2019 season.

Culture and community are front and center at Polidori Sausage. In July, Production Appreciation Week gives back to the grinders in the form of breakfast and lunch every day along with some pretty cool gifts (Nike sneakers and Fossil watches), then December brings another 12 days of gifts.

Amazingly, the company has never had a down year in its near-century of existence. Sausage, it seems, is recession-proof.

“We are so fortunate to be a part of the manufacturing industry in Colorado,” Polidori Harris adds. “It’s an amazing community of makers who are willing to help each other out whenever necessary. There are so many incredible brands in this state, doing what they love, and making quality, wholesome, real food.”

This article is part of the 2020 Made in Colorado feature. To learn more about the Colorado companies changing manufacturing in the state, click here.