Cheap Eats - Submarine commander
Jersey Subs is low on Jersey but high on subs”
The Sopranos has accomplished something that not even Bruce Spring- steen could manage: The HBO mob show has made New Jersey cool. You can even take “Sopranos” tours to see such now-glamorous sights as the Holland Tunnel, the Jersey Turn-pike and the actual gentleman’s club that fronts as the Bada Bing.
Alas, Jersey Submarines in Fountain Oaks Shop- ping Center evokes virtually no Jersey atmosphere. Found downstairs from The Gym in Buckhead and next door to Yummy Chinese restaurant, the sandwich shop instead suggests the New Jersey that inspires jokes like “there’s no ‘there’ there.”
The booths, potted plants and other fixtures could be found in any chain restaurant of any culinary style, and the white tile floor so matches the square-patterned wallpaper that it unfortunately suggests nothing so much as a bathroom. A large collage of customer snapshots provides the only homey touch. But if Jersey Submarines offers few treats for the eyes, it undeniably knows how to put tasty things between two pieces of bread.
Sub sandwiches are hardly rare today, and you can find decent ones at most of the major chains and even many grocery stores. While subscribing to the same basic formula, Jersey subs still are a slice above, with ingredients simply tasting fresher and of better quality than you find in typical national franchises.
An independent eatery that originated as part of a chain from Point Pleasant, N.J., Jersey Submarines offers nearly three dozen hot and cold sandwiches, spelled out on the huge, white menu boards that dominate two walls. The choices are the usual iterations of deli meats sliced upon ordering. A fine option for a cold sandwich is the Jersey Original ($4.95 regular, $8.35 giant), which features cheese, ham, proscuttini, cappaculo, salami and pepperoni, most in generous portions, along with onions, lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar.
The hot sandwiches include a variety of cheese steak sandwiches, and you can contrast an original Philly cheese steak with an Italian-style Jersey one (which features marinara sauce and parmesan cheese) if you’re so inclined. Ken’s Super Special Cheese Steak ($5.25 regular, $8.35 giant) includes grilled onions, mushrooms and both sweet and jalapeño peppers that give it a spicy snap while avoiding unpleasantly high temperatures. The melted cheese has nearly the same flavor and consistency of cheese dip from Mexican restaurants, making it potentially messy but a savory indulgence.
Check the white board for daily specials, like a hot turkey pastrami sandwich ($4.95) that provides luscious mouthfuls with every bite, making you an immediate convert to turkey pastrami as a cold cut. Sandwiches come on choice of wheat or white bread, and while you’ll get packets of plastic condiments, the hot subs are juicy enough to make them unnecessary. Specialty sandwiches like the turkey pastrami, the grilled New York Reuben and the Jersey BLT come with chips and a kosher dill pickle spear, which you have to order separately with the other menu items.
Other a la carte (or a la deli case) items include chili and soup du jour in cups ($1.89) or bowls ($2.89). The homemade vegetable soup proved very flavorful, with chunks of beef and veggies floating in a beef broth stock that wasn’t too salty (a typical pitfall of fast-food vegetable soups). Likewise, the grilled chicken Caesar salad ($5.95), topped with adequate morsels of marinated chicken, came with so much fresh Romaine lettuce that the plastic to-go box could barely contain it.
Jersey Submarines may not challenge Satriale’s Pork Store in conjuring the local color of New Jersey, but they make sandwiches that you’ll have a hard time refusing, especially in the upcoming summer months. A cold submarine sandwich just might be the ideal lunch for getting nourished and refreshed in hot weather.??