Graham Avenue Meats and Deli
445
Graham Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Dish: Willie’s
Italian Special
Every now and then a dish confounds
me. I have no problem telling you if something tastes awful and in exactly
which ways it falls short. But this type of word loss comes from a sensory rush
that speaks on levels well beyond what you see in front of you. To eat Willie’s
Italian Special sub at Graham Ave. Meats and Deli is to ingest history, passion
and deeper gastronomical love. The sandwich is the grand finale to an
experience that begins when you walk in the door. Like a scene that was plucked
right out of a Scorsese flick, I walked in to find a small corridor-like shop
covered in memorabilia of Brooklyn life. Pictures and news clippings of Mickey
Mantle, Babe Ruth, and Old Blue Eyes drowned out the old and peeling pinstripe
wall paper. A young man covered in tattoos had his back facing the counter as
he was hard at work on a customer’s sub, so he called out to his father who was
busy in the back. Out steps a middle-aged, balding and black-haired Italian
mobster archetype, complete with a wall-matching pinstripe button up that he
left open at the chest to show off the gold chains that hung from his leathery
neck. Perfect. He stuck his head through a wind chime of hanging sausages and
asked what I wanted to order. I ordered the well-recommended Italian Special in
between bouts of laughter over the man in a sausage forest standing in front of
me. The father turned and relayed the order to his son, then went over to him
to check his progress. As if the father had read the secret wish in my eyes, he
began to yell at his son in a too-legit-to-quit Brooklyn born, Italian accent,
“You’re eh-slicing the tomatoes eh-too eh-thick! Can’t you eh-do anything right
around eh-here?!” The son began to argue back in Italian as the father walked
into the back hall while shouting Italian obscenities and gesturing with three
pressed fingers toward the kid. I had hit the motherland. I had been waiting
for this sandwich shop my entire life. Despite the father’s critique of his
son’s craftsmanship, this man painstakingly shaved each tomato, each slice of
provolone, each layer of homemade meat paper thin. He took time to lay each
ingredient on the fluffy roll with detail and precision, even going back to
adjust a slice of tomato that had slipped out of place. Fifteen minutes later
and my mouth was watering profusely. I ordered a few stuffed Sicilian olives
and mozzarella stuffed peppers to go on the side, thanked and tipped the
artisan thoroughly for his care, and set out to find a park where I could begin
my religious experience.
Upon finding my shady niche, I
unwrapped the monster of a sandwich and just stared at it for a bit. It was a
piece of art. The reds of the meats and tomatoes right up against the white of
the cheese and green of the peppers formed a Warhol-like contrast that looked
as pleasing as it smelled. My first bite was nirvana, only to be outdone by the
second and third bites. The cheese had a wonderfully musty tang that complimented
the spicy meats and peppers, and what’s better is that it had a slight crumble
to its texture rather than the gelatin feeling of cheap deli cheese. The
Italian Special features a harmony of meats including prosciutto, capicola, and
a special type of salami that the owner Willie picked out himself, all sliced
so thin that they bathed your tongue with spicy flavor and then dissolved
before you even had a chance to try and chew. The inside of the sandwich was
lined with a black olive spread that wasn’t made with bland olives from a can,
which I very much appreciated, having grown up eating fresh olives. The vinegar
and olive oil dressing was spicy and sour and nothing short of delicious, which
is why I didn’t feel shame in licking the wrapper. It took me all of about
fifteen napkins to finish the sandwich, after which I sat there dazed and in
disbelief that I had never experienced a true sandwich until then. At $8 for a
much-bragged-about 1.25 lb. weighing sub, I’d say that Graham Ave. Meats and
Deli is offering religious enlightenment at a reasonable price too.
- Aeran Shabi
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