Now That It's Gone I Want It

(Esquire photo)

Your humble blogger has never watched an episode of The Sopranos and was unfamiliar with, much less tasted, "gabagool", which is

basically a "cross between prosciutto and sausage" ... is seasoned with a variety of flavors like wine, garlic, and paprika, stuffed into a meat-based casing, then smoked, slow-roasted, or in most cases, "hung for up to six months to cure."

It's red and white, not as spicy as soppressata, but also not as creamy-tasting and mild as, say, mortadella.

Gabagool is the subject of a legal kerfuffle between San Francisco sausage-maker P.J. Molinari & Sons and brewer Seven Stills Brewery & Distillery.

Molinari owns trade dress rights to a distinctive look and feel of its gabagool packaging and claims that Seven Stills' new gabagool beer (!) cans had a design too close to Molinari's.

Gabagool beer (Chron photo)

The dispute was resolved amicably when the brewer backed down. [bold added]

Seven Stills owner Tim Obert said they “weren’t trying to blatantly rip them off,” but acknowledged the playful beer design looked very much like the salami packaging...They’re going to stop making the gabagool beer.

That's too bad. Drinking a meat beer is one thing I didn't know I needed until it was brought to my attention.