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Local Guides
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500 WORD LUNCH
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by Andrew Coppolino
March 11 - 17, 2010 |
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Joe’s Real Italian Sandwiches
55 Macdonell Street, Guelph
519-827-9700
Open Monday to Saturday
$18 for lunch for two
Amuse bouche: Simple, real Italian sandwiches in a relaxed, casual deli setting. Joe’s Real Italian Sandwiches seems to be catching on quickly as a take-away place in the downtown. Pasta, veal and meatball sandwiches, eggplant parmigiana. He’s tossed in some BBQ ribs and pulled pork to boot.
Though it has been open a month, Joe’s Real Italian Sandwiches in downtown Guelph is putting out some real good tramezzini and other eats. I’m guessing there’s Nonna’s recipes in what they serve, and what they serve is prepared on a standard Nonna-style electric stove.
In that hint of Nonna’s cooking, however, is a big hit of real food and it’s real simple too. That’s the essence of rustic Italian fare: a few proteins simply cooked, some roasted veg with spice and caramelization, and a tomato sauce that has that simmered gustatory goodness which envelops you.
Joe Addeo is the force behind the place, and he has set his targets in a restaurateur-reasonable way. A hot table with a dozen or so items, deli meats, full wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano (ah, pure grana-cheese royalty: what an awesome sight that is), and a simple décor with a few stools to sit at whilst noshing with a view to the street. In the time I was there, a half-dozen Guelphites popped in to take out.
Veal on a bun is good and arrives on a chunk of bread that has the solid crumb-body that does the veal justice. The cotoletta could perhaps be slightly more crisp and that might be easily adjusted by a hotter time in the shallow fry. In any event, it is a good sandwich and in giving us that it only asks for $6 in return. More than fair.
Meatball sandwich is likewise good: I like the tomato sauce juiciness of the sandwich and most importantly that the meatballs are neither overworked to a tough texture nor bulked out with filler. That’s real.
It looks like Joe puts together a pretty good eggplant parm as well. The caveat: ask five Italian cooks how to make the best melanzana and you’ll get five different recipes. The piece I sampled I would describe as a little looser than I might like in an eggplant parm but flavourful nevertheless. (I might also add that the last piece in the pan has to be in pretty good shape if you are going to serve it up to a customer. If it’s not, then move on to a new pan.)
Elsewhere on the menu—a menu remember with nothing tallying over $7—are sausage on a bun, veggie sandwich, pasta, pulled pork, and always-welcome barbecue ribs, but those latter not exactly what Nonna would traditionally cook.
Macaroni and cheese is certainly a mondo-cheesy affair with penne noodles still in the tooth and made with what Addeo says is “a block of cheese.” Of that there’s little doubt. I can rarely turn down mac ‘n’ cheese, and this one was sound though I’d like to see another layer of (Italian?) flavour added.
The prices at Joe’s Real Italian Sandwiches are quite reasonable, as I’ve noted, and the quality seems to be cooked in as well. I guess it’s just a matter of keeping Joe’s Real—and keeping price and quality sitting at the same table.
500 Word Lunch reviews are based on anonymous, unannounced visits to the establishments. Restaurants do not pay for any portion of the reviewer’s meal. Listen to“The Food Show” Sundays at noon on 570 All News Radio. Andrew Coppolino can be reached at andrew@andrewcoppolino.com.
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