Hot Spots : Linking Up for Sausages and Show on the Venice Boardwalk

“Hey you!” He’s pointing his finger straight at her, but the girl in pink looks back to see who’s behind her on the Venice boardwalk.

“Yeah, you!” he says. She turns a finger on herself. “Me?” she asks tentatively.

“C’mere and try some sausage.”

She hesitates a minute and then edges toward the fragrant stand. The good smell of frying peppers and onions, mixed with the olive oil and wine and herbs in which they have been marinated, drifts tantalizingly on the wind. She comes closer. He looks her over critically, selects a sausage, slices off a piece. “You look like an orange cumin duck sausage person to me,” he says, indicating that she should taste it. The girl takes the piece and pops it into her mouth. A smile crosses her face. “Good, right?” he says, rummaging among the sausages, selecting another one for her. “Try some Italian sweet sausage,” he urges. “Tastes are free.” She shoots him an enormous smile, but it is too late; Jody Maroni’s attention has moved on. He is screening the crowd for new customers.

“Hey you,” he is yelling at an elderly Asian man. “You look Italian. Come try my sausage; it’s better than your mother used to make.” The man looks astonished. Then a grin of pure delight spreads across his face. He giggles and comes over to the stand where the girl in pink is now tasting the ferociously hot Louisiana boudin, trying to decide which kind of sausage she will buy. For buy a sandwich she will; Maroni knows that once he gets people to taste his sausage, their own good taste will do the rest.

Now the Asian man and the girl in pink are discussing the merits of the sausages with each other. They each wind up ordering a sandwich and a lemonade, and as their chosen links are being snuggled into buns and slathered with peppers and onions they move aside to watch the show.

Jody Maroni, alternately charming and offensive, delivers the best show on the Venice boardwalk. The sausages are great, but watching him work the crowd is the best part of the experience. He is never at a loss for words. “Hey,” he says to an overweight suburban couple. “You didn’t drive all the way from the Valley to eat soggy pizza. Get over here and try my sausage.”

Maroni may sound more like a barker than a butcher, but there’s a reason why his sausages are so good. His real name is Jordan Monkarsh, and he learned about meat in his father’s butcher shop in the Valley. When he started combining meat and spices into sausages at his stand a couple of years ago, he was anything but a novice.

Still, it’s not the links but the lines that make Jody Maroni’s a good place to hang out. If all you want is his sausages, you don’t even have to come on down; these days you can find them at restaurants all over town. The trouble is, nobody but Jody serves them in the proper style; the sausages may be hot, but it’s the verbal sauce that makes them sizzle.

“Hey you,” says the girl in pink as she is leaving. Maroni looks down from his perch. “Me?” he asks. “Yeah you,” she says. “I’ll be back.”

Maroni doesn’t even look surprised.

Jody Maroni’s Italian Sausage Kingdom. 2011 1/2 Ocean Front Walk, Venice , (213) 306-1995.