Back in February (yeah, I’m running a bit over 3 months behind at the moment) my brother and I both paid a visit to our parents in Arizona. One of the things that always happens on these trips is that my brother, being London-based, has accumulated a list of food cravings of things he can’t easily get in London (such as a proper breakfast burrito). One of those items is a proper Italian-American sub sandwich. London has almost uncountably-many good Italian places, including delis, but the “Italian Sub” (aka “Hero”, “Hoagie”, “Grinder”, “Maine Italian”, or “Wedge”, depending on exact location in the Northeast) is a distinct product of the Italian-American tradition.
Back in the day when we were growing up, this would mean a trip to Guido’s Deli for subs, but the Mesa outpost of that venerable Chicagoans-moved-to-Scottsdale institution closed years ago, and we didn’t have time to go that far for lunch. Seeing that we were bouncing around Chandler doing various errands, I decided this was a great opportunity to head over to west Gilbert and check out Little Joe’s Italian Market (formerly “East Coast Joe’s Food Truck”).
Walking into Little Joe’s Italian Market, it’s definitely walking into a classic Italian-American small market. A big deli case of meats and cold cuts. A large oven, and a large deli prep station for building sandwiches. Like any good deli, the place is cozy, with a half-dozen tables nested in among several shelving units holding various Italian groceries as well.
Little Joe’s also has the requisite deli case, with a combination of Italian cold cuts, house-made sausages, marinated pork, house-made cheese, and other items. I would definitely come and shop here if I was cooking up a meal.
But the thing that I really enjoyed about Little Joe’s is their menu. The Market isn’t really a “deli”, but more of a “market that has deli items and menus”. They don’t have a set menu, just a short menu of daily specials based upon currently-fresh ingredients and their prep work. There’s a bit of a pattern (Wednesday features pasta, Sunday has brunch, and the remainder of the week usually has a mix of sandwich and pizza specials). But you can usually count on some sort of Italian Sub being available, and unless it’s Wednesday, usually a pretty standard list of pizzas. But you can also always count on them having interesting daily specials.
But we came craving Italian Subs, and that’s what we got. The exact composition varies a bit, but on our visit it was a pretty classic combination: Genoa salami, Milano salami, capicola, roast beef, fresh mozzarella, tomato, marinated onions, and a light aioli on a hoagie roll. Everything here was hitting on all cylinders: both salamis were rich and flavorful, the roast beef nice and tender, and the tomato and marinated onions nice and bright. The fresh mozzarella was a real nice addition here over the more usual provolone. And the hoagie roll? A good, properly-crusty roll. Everything really tied together nicely for a great sandwich.
So not only did Little Joe’s satisfy our cravings for a good Italian-American Sub Sandwich, but they had enough great looking sandwiches and pizzas coming out to other tables that I’ll have to make it a priority to give them another visit on my next trip to the East Valley.
