Lou Sarcone Jr., the fourth-generation baker on 9th Street in South Philadelphia, is known among his family simply as Junior.  His father, also Lou, and his son, Louis, share more than a name – they share a commitment to keeping a very old business operating the way it did a very long time ago.  That is not to say that they haven’t modernized Sarcone’s Bakery – which they have – but they have done so while maintaining their focus on delivering the exact same product, time after time after time.  Using premium Pillsbury flour; giving the dough a full 2 hours to rise; baking the bread in the old brick ovens to bring out the flavor.  “It’s just like making a gravy,” said Sarcone, “Slow cooked food tastes better.”

So the food you put on that bread better be good.

For Lou’s cousin, Anthony Bucci, food is a passion.  A former executive chef at the Wyndam Franklin Plaza hotel and a longtime veteran of the family bakery, he now runs Sarcone’s Deli.  The deli is not a typical hoagie and sandwich shop.  They serve food that you’d expect to find cooked in a restaurant or your own home, but on that crusty, chewy, flavorful bread.  It’s the preparation and ingredients that differentiates them from traditional “lettuce and tomato” hoagie shops.  House-prepared roast beef, roast pork, meatballs, chicken cutlets, and eggplant are just some of the restaurant style cooked dishes that find their home on a Sarcone’s roll.  Juicy ripe roma tomatoes and bits of prosciutto, sopressata and cappicola that don’t make it onto sandwiches become the starter for the gravy for the hot sandwiches.  If you like marinated fresh asparagus and a balsamic drizzle, you can get it on the roast beef sandwich.  If you like house-roasted peppers and roasted garlic with fresh herbs, spread it on your veggie sandwich.  And if you like DiBruno Bros cheeses, gourmet cured meats and imported parma prosciutto, why not get them on an Old Fashioned Italian sandwich?

Anthony and Lou admit, it always starts with the bread.  And at Sarcone’s Bakery, the business is all about tradition.  Listen to the previous generation, and do exactly what they do.  It’s like whisper down the lane; without all the context and subtext, something can get lost along the way.  Five generations of Sarcones have donned the baker’s whites and pledged to keep the bakery exactly the same.  As Lou’s grandfather said, “put too much food in your mouth, you can’t chew.”  It’s about staying in business.  It’s looking at 90 successful years of history and believing that the business could continue for another 90 years.  No wholesale, only retail.  They’ve seen lean times before and economic booms but the business has remained steady and focused.

A mainstay on the Italian Market if there ever was one, Sarcone’s has witnessed the sell-off of the generations-old businesses a few blocks away; but Lou Sarcone believes that history repeats itself and he welcomes a new generation of business owners coming back to the market.  Not just businesses, but Sarcone sees the influx of young professionals, students and young families into South Philadelphia as a good thing for everyone.

Sarcone’s Deli has plans to move into a newly renovated space next to its current location on 9th Street later this summer. (The current space will be put to good use but plans are still being developed.)  The bigger growth plan centers around 10-15 new franchise locations in the tri-state area over the next few years.  So how does a business so deeply ingrained in its environment extend outside of its location?  Sarcone’s has pledged to maintain tight control over the product and training new staff.  Keep it geographically limited, keep a handle on quality, and follow the Sarcone’s operator’s manual to the letter: serve up restaurant food on the very best bread.

Already one former franchisee has had the Sarcone’s brand pulled from his shop for cutting corners and cheating the customer.  But it was a valuable learning experience for Lou and Anthony, a lesson that will stay with them as they grow their vision beyond 9th Street and into the suburbs.

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Sarcone’s Deli
734 S 9th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147 (Google Map)

Head about 30 miles North of Philadelphia and you’ll find Yardley, a sleepy town and home of The Original Landolfi’s Deli. The menu reads like a top 10 list of the best sandwiches you’ll find in South Philly, including Italian hoagies, roast pork, roast beef and even paninis. These guys even serve all of their sandwiches on seeded rolls from Sarcone’s Bakery. Owner Steve Landolfi works the front counter and makes the sandwiches every single day of the week.

One must make sure to order from the specialty sandwiches list on the menu, where you’ll find Landolfi’s greatest creations. The Fluffy Special is a veritable tour de force of meats: prosciutto, hot capicola and salami with sharp provolone and thinly sliced tomatoes. The portion of thick cut meat is generous and perfectly layered, with complimenting salty and spicy flavors that are soothed by the crisp tomato.

The Philly is a sandwich that debuted when the Phillies made the World Series in 2008. Landolfi’s roasts pork for hours then simmers it in jus, setting it into a roll with sharp provolone and perfectly cooked broccoli rabe. Although it might not top some of the original South Philly renditions, we are confident it is one of the best you’ll find outside the city.

The Original Landolfi’s Deli
35 Main Street Yardley, PA 19067 (Google Map)

Weekend Recipe posts are intended to give you a delicious sandwich you can try on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

A meatball sandwich is on the Mount Rushmore of sandwiches. It is an iconic image of what defines a “sandwich”. The classic combination of meat, bread and sauce that is in many ways so simple, yet so nuanced. The sauce has to be just right. The bread has to be the very best. And of course, the meatballs have to be soft, tender and flaky to the bite.

In Philadelphia, we are fortunate enough to have a world-class Italian bread bakery in Sarcone’s. I also made a fresh pot of sauce using crushed and pureed tomatoes, opting for a smoother, silkier consistency than the chunky, rustic sauce I tend to prefer with pasta.

Ingredients

- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 large onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup natural bread crumbs
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup parsley
- 1/2 cup basil
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano
- 3 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp black peper

Directions

1. Grate the onion and garlic and sautee in olive oil till translucent. Mince the herbs and combine all ingredients in large bowl. Form into balls about the size of a golf ball.

2. Place meatballs on a sheet pan in a 425 preheated oven for approx 4-5 minutes until balls are firm, but not fully cooked. Allow meatballs to cool for a few minutes and then gently add to pot of simmering sauce. Simmer sauce and meatballs together for at least 1 hour, longer is better.

3. When ready to serve, scoop the middle out of the bread to give room for meatballs and sauce. The sandwich should be stuffed to the point where every bite is meaty, but not overstuffed to the point that meatballs are falling out with every bite.

Stroll down any street in downtown Barcelona and you will find at least one shop selling a variety of sandwiches or bocadillos as they are known. Typically the sandwiches are premade and stacked on top of one another in a display case.

I was studying there for six months and was not initially prepared for the local cuisine. The only bocadillo I liked was tortilla de patatas, which is essentially a potato pancake sandwich. Then I saw an article that convinced me to venture in to unchartered waters.

A year prior to my arrival, a New York Times writer proclaimed a bocadillo from a Café Vienna on Las Ramblas as the best sandwich in the world. Needless to say, this restaurant pounced on the praise and posted flyers and posters around the city and outside their location highlighting the article and luring in tourists and potential customers.

The sandwich is very straightforward to a typical American food critic. The flauta or bread is a long and crispy roll that is sliced in half. Fresh tomato is smothered on the bread in typical Catalan style to provide taste and moisture. The sole remaining ingredient is simply what makes this sandwich so darn special—jamón ibérico or Iberian ham.

If you think Italian prosciutto is tasty, you simply have never tried Spain’s jamón ibérico. The reason for this is most likely because the United States did not allow the importation of the cured meat until 2008.

When I returned home to the states, I didn’t realize how much I liked and missed that little sandwich until I could no longer get it. Then, while strolling through Di Bruno Bros one day, I saw the prized ham.

In fact, they offered two versions of the pata negra (black hoof pig) ham, one at $99.99/lb and another at $129.99/lb. I selected the cheaper of the two, bought a fresh tomato and grabbed a fresh baked roll that looked as close to the original from Barcelona.

The finished product was absolutely delicious, immediately bringing my palate back to spring 2007. The ham has a complex taste that will leave you trying to compare it with previous foods you have tried until you realize there is simply nothing like it in the world. Admittedly, the bread was not on par with the bocadillos offered at Café Vienna and throughout Barcelona, but Philadelphia knows bread.

I made an additional small sandwich on a seeded roll from Sarcone’s Bakery and loved it. Combining ingredients that are among the best from North America and Europe respectively, I think that South Philly’s version of the flauta d’ibéric is even better than the original.

I recommend any sandwich lover head on down to the Italian Market and get the right ingredients and make yourself a truly delectable sandwich. Although the meat is expensive, you really do not need much to appreciate the flavor.

Ingredients:

• – Sarcone’s Bakery long seeded roll
• – Olive oil
• – Fresh Tomato
• – Jamón ibérico

There is a war going on in South Philadelphia. Traditionally Italian neighborhoods, known for their sausage, priscuitto and tragic Philly sports fanaticism, are being invaded by skinny jean-clad leaf eating art students. The two camps don’t agree on much, but we think we have found a sandwich that can satisfy both sides at the negotiating table.

Chickie’s is an old school South Philly hoagie shop–not the kind of place that might spring to mind when thinking about vegetarian cuisine. Chickie’s does make a mean traditional Italian hoagie loaded with cured, salty, fatty goodness, but they also make what might be the best vegetarian sandwich in town. Their Original Veggie Hoagie is good enough that even self proclaimed carnivores make exceptions for it.

Let’s break this bad boy down. It all starts with a Sarcone’s roll–without a doubt the finest foundation for a hoagie. On the bottom side of the roll, we’ve got two slices of baked eggplant, brushed with a tomato paste of some kind and seasoned with breadcrumbs and spices. The flesh is soft, but the skin adds a bit of heartiness. Layered on top of the eggplant is a generous portion of garlicky sauteed broccoli rabe that makes up the bulk of a the sandwich. The other side of the roll has roasted red peppers, which add some wetness and lighten the flavor. In between the two sides is a helping of shredded sharp provolone. A smattering of herbs tops it off.

Chickie’s is the only hoagie shop we’ve been to that uses shredded provolone rather than sliced, and it works well with this sandwich. The shreds burrow into the pile of greens and nestle between the peppers, which allows the sharpness and flavor of the cheese to meld with the veggies. Combined with all the other spices and ingredients, the sandwich has great flavor and texture. This is a sandwich that can put an end to the South Philly culture wars.