Spring Break
Sub shop proves not sub-par
Food for Thought
|
You should not split one with a date and do the two straws thing, you're going to end up not knowing whether you prefer the date or the milk shake.
Located on Centre Street, just west of Charles and immediately across from the Walters, it's an easy hop from the JHMI shuttle's Peabody stop and a frequent lunch place for Peabody staff and students. It's only open till four, and isn't open at on Sundays, but they have a steady clientele of senior citizens from the seniors building located next door.
It's a pretty rundown looking place, despite recent renovations. I suppose that's fairly obvious from the photo of a glass door that's been pretty well shattered by the wind. That little incident happened while I was there having lunch. The door blew open and simply shattered. Apparently it's not the first time, cause no one in there batted an eyelash.
The sandwiches themselves are brilliant. I've been a steady patron for three years, especially on Saturday afternoons, after a long Friday night. Stumble out of bed around 2 p.m., grab a shower, get dressed, head on down for a peppered turkey sub with lettuce, tomato, mayo and the best red onions I've ever had on a sandwich, accompanied by a nice cup of coffee to boot. Instant breakfast. The tomatoes are always tasty, even in winter, and then there's always the milk shake.
In true Baltimore style, there is a brass plaque above the door that reads, "In 1893 on this spot nothing happened."
This place has negative pretension -- they just make really good sandwiches, no frills necessary. The turkey club has been growing on me for a while now so I decided to branch out and sample the pastrami for this review.
The menu says "Pastrami (hot)," and although I didn't specify that I wanted it hot when I ordered it, I was a little disappointed to get cold pastrami with spicy mustard and onions on toasted rye. It was still a good sandwich, but I actually like the melting soft animal fat in your mouth feeling of hot pastrami -- it's very fulfilling. It's like a voice in your head saying, "This is how unhealthy the sandwich you're eating really is. Enjoy it while you can."
But sometimes, when I want a pastrami sandwich, I want a pastrami sandwich. I haven't branched out as far as the unique hot pepperoni with marinara sandwich, yet, but I hope to return soon for further exploration.
For the first time visitor, I recommend one of the sandwich specialties or sub specialties -- just let them do their thing and you won't be disappointed.
There's also a good array of breakfast food: bagels, breakfast burritos, scrambled egg sandwiches and so on. If you're on your way to the Medical school from the downtown stop in the morning, the Gallery Sandwich Shoppe is a block and a half away, and within line of sight of the bus stop.
The prices are maybe fifty cents higher than you'd expect for a sandwich this size, but the quality is good enough to merit that.
There is actually extra cost involved in keeping a strong stock of good ingredients on hand, and also, come to think of it, in door repairs. You'd think they could afford to skimp on the number of letters in 'Shoppe' and opt for the much less annoying spelling.
No matter how it spells its name, if Gallery Sandwich Shoppe were open more, the Mt. Vernon branch of the accursed Subway would be long out of business.