While some of the meals I post about here were scheduled and would have taken place regardless of my blogging intentions, there have been plenty of weeks when I had nothing planned and had to decide on a blog-worthy place to eat.
I keep a list of potential eateries for those occasions, and some of the entries have been on there for nearly as long as this blog has existed. One of those was Sangillo’s Farm Fresh Produce and Deli of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. They first came to my attention by way of being down the street from one of my favorite ice cream stands – Barone’s. I was also impressed with what I saw of them online.
While it took a few years for me to act on that impression, it finally happened on a recent Sunday morning when my wife and I made the fairly short drive over there.
Sangillo’s sandwich menu is long and slightly complicated, at least when it comes to the hoagie size and bread options. They are available in small, large, half-a-supreme, supreme, half-a-supreme on Sarcone’s Bakery bread and supreme on Sarcone’s bread. I believe the unspecified supreme options come on bread from Aversa Bakery, which is good, but not quite in Sarcone’s league.
In light of the warning on Sangillo’s Facebook scroll about their tendency to run out of Sarcone’s bread early, we arrived a little after 10 a.m.
Although my wife isn’t a vegetarian, she eats a lot more vegetables than I do and went in that direction by ordering a Nunzia’s Special hoagie in the half-a-supreme size on Sarcone’s bread. That comes with fresh mozzarella, arugula, balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and roasted or hot peppers. She chose roasted.
While checking out Sangillo’s menu online previously, my attention was grabbed by the Santo’s Special hoagie, which includes barbecued chicken (of the lunch-meat variety) and honey ham with Swiss cheese and honey mustard. I substituted American for Swiss cheese, which I’ve never liked, and also requested a half-a-supreme on Sarcone’s bread.
After placing our order, we had time to browse while our sandwiches were being prepared and wound up leaving with some produce in addition to the hoagies, which we took home to eat.
There were far too many varieties of food items in Sangillo’s for me to photograph all of them, but here is a sampling of what we saw. As you can see, in addition to produce and deli, they offer an interesting array of other food items.
The hoagies felt hefty as I took them out of the bag and laid them on our kitchen counter along with the other items we purchased.
While I’ve expressed the importance of not leaving cheesesteaks wrapped too long because the roll could get steamed, that’s obviously not a concern with cold hoagies. The Sarcone’s bread looked and felt great. I believe each hoagie was made on half of a two-foot Italian loaf.
My wife mentioned that there was an issue with the distribution of her hoagie’s ingredients. The oil and vinegar mostly wound up in the bread’s crease, meaning only a relatively small portion of the sandwich had any moisture and flavor from those ingredients. Portions of it were too dominated by the mozzarella. She added a bit of chopped tomato from our garden and said it filled in the missing moisture and flavor for the portions of the sandwich that needed it.
We both agreed that the Sarcone’s bread was fantastic. This isn’t the first time I’ve had a sandwich made with it and I’m always blown away by the crust of their large loaves. It’s not crispy, but it’s got such a strong texture that provides an excellent chew in the best sense.
The ham was on top and dominated my hoagie from a visual standpoint. But it was kept in proportion to the barbecued chicken, American cheese and the rest of the sandwich’s ingredients.
I usually go for some variety of an Italian on those relatively rare occasions when I get a hoagie. But the combination of ingredients of the Santo’s Special just called out to me. I love honey mustard. It fits in well with my very large sweet tooth.
I can definitely see getting another of these at some point. It was massive and I could do with a smaller one. But if that’s the size I have to order to get it on Sarcone’s bread, so be it.
Now that I’ve experienced Sangillo’s, it’s going to be tempting to head back there for both sandwiches and produce along with the various specialty items they carry – such as a jar of caramelized onion jam.
BZ Maestro Eats 