We don't go out much for proper Italian, even when the city is packed full of Italian places who are trying their hardest. It's just easy and fun to make at home, so it feels super accessible and we end up doing other stuff. I've always known Vince's was legit, but I managed to sleep on it for years before finally making it here at the end of 2023.
There's an amazing feeling that comes with exploring a new import market you've never been to. A whimsical feeling teamed with kind of a sense of urgency. Tons of fresh and authentic stuff I'd love to try, and it kind of puts me in my place when I think I've got a handle on Italian cuisine. Everything was a few dollars more than our regular impulse buy threshold, but we forced it and bought a few things anyway.
Most of the subs are just named and not described. This is a trope for good, authentic Italian places, who seem to take pleasure watching non-Italian schmucks like me squint at the menu and then butcher the names of the food I order. We went right for the heart and got the Vince's Gigante sub, and threw in a Lombardi sub for good measure. We kept the Lombardi sub as it was, and added crushed red peppers and Italian dressing to the Gigante.
The Gigante was a huge, heavy sandwich made with thousands of different kinds of meats and provolone cheese. All their subs use romaine lettuce, which is now a requirement for Italian style subs. The Lombardi was roast beef with roasted red peppers. All the meat is incredible, and has the variety and quality you could only get in an amazing import market type of place. The bread was dry and hard. This is probably just the style for Italian subs, but bread is at least half the quality of any sandwich. If they used high quality soft sub rolls, Vince would have probably had to take out a restraining order against me.
We were super hungry and excited to finally be here, so we were heavy handed on the order. We ordered some Arancinis and bundled them as meals so we could pair them with different salads. I've never really cared about Arancini, but I think I've only ever had them from pizzerias so I accept the blame. These were extremely flavorful, and the exact texture you hope it is when you're seeing one for the first time. Cuts perfectly in half with a plastic butter knife, but you can pick up the halves without losing any. They have a large variety and every single one we've tried has been perfect.
We stopped getting salads after the first go, because we didn't care at all for either. The potato salad had good texture, but was extremely sour, like it was suspended in vinegar. The zucchini salad had the same vinegar dousing, and I just didn't understand the purpose of it. Just a pile of fresh zucchini, yellow squash, chick peas and bell peppers sitting in vinegar.
To complete the first run, we bought some snacks, which marks the day we got hooked on chocolate covered sunflower seeds. How do things like this exist, but only in a single obscure store like this? We also tried the espresso soda, which was interesting and... I don't know not bad. It was exactly carbonated espresso. About half way through, we mixed it with some coffee mate creamer and it actually got a lot better.
The next time we came back was on my birthday, which I think is the biggest compliment a restaurant can get from me. My birthday policy is to not say no to anything I want to do. It's usually an opportunity to finally try things I've been holding back on, or treat myself to something I've been missing. This year I went here and got more subs, because it's what I wanted. This time we did chicken cutlet and Italian. I'm not sure why they asked if we wanted spicy or mild, because the spicy had no heat at all. Amazing sub though. The chicken cutlet sub came out of left field. Once I realized it was basically just breaded chicken, I thought I'd made a huge mistake. Just mayo, lettuce and tomatoes I think, but holy crap this was like the best chicken sub I've ever had. The breading is thick and a little sludgy. The cutlets were so tender I actually double checked to make sure they didn't give us fish by mistake.
This time, we threw in some dried house-made pasta for later in the week, which turned out to be the best pasta I've ever eaten. Better than any restaurant or any fresh made pasta I've made myself. Just there ready to cook when you are. Absolute game changer. This place is across town from me and I will come here for all my A-Game pasta needs.
Yesterday, we stopped in and stocked up on prepared meals in the frozen section for today. They have a big selection and everything we tried was better than any respectable entree we've ordered out. Chicken Cordon Bleu Lasagna, my new favorite meatballs (and I had a great meatball place before this!) and absolutely amazing gnocchi. The fact that everybody isn't constantly raving about this place tells me Vince's is extremely underrated. If you sleep on this place, you're making a tragic mistake. read more