Annals of the Not Bad At All: Gallery Cafe on Fullerton

Had the urge for Hot Doug's yesterday. Got there and parked only to find that Hot Doug's idea of July 4th continues through today the 6th. Drove around and around and spotted a sandwich place in an improbable spot on Fullerton in Bucktown. Looked clean and bright so I went in and ordered an Italian sub. Saw they had homemade chili too, asked "So you have homemade chili, huh?"

"Uh, yeah, we got chili," came the answer.

The chili is homemade if your last name is Hormel, I think. But the sub was pretty good. Decent quality meats, cheese and bread, maybe closer to an American sub than a Bari one, more ham than capicola, but not bad at all. Could have done without the Kraft mayo, but I asked about the seasoning and the guy started telling me (with conspicuously more pride than the chili had prompted) that he makes his own Italian dressing, oil, seasonings and a little balsamic (which is why they looked black rather than green). Then he starts talking about how clean his place is, nice art on the walls, Italian tile instead of wood so the roaches can't find any cracks to get through, the inspectors compliment him every time on how clean his place is, etc. Some of this may be talk but in a city of dingy hot dog joints he clearly has real pride in the bright, airy atmosphere of his little place, and that counts for a lot. I hope his location on a not-much-foot-traffic section of Fullerton is not too obscure for success. (It's so obscure I can't find the address online, partly because there seems to be a place with the same name on North Ave. It's in the 2500 block of Fullerton, south side of the street.)

So: looking for a sub in the Bucktown area, you could go into this place, maybe guide him through what meats and cheeses you really want, skip the mayo but get a double shot of the Italian dressing, and you'll probably get about the best Italian sub to be had for a couple of miles in either direction, anyway. Skip the chili, though.

I drive by this place twice daily, and watched them putting it together last summer. However, that means once in the morning on the way to work and once at night on the way home; never at lunch time, and the place looked a little tossed together and just sorta odd, so I never considered a special trip there. So, Mike, thanks for being the guinea pig; I'll probably find myself popping in on the odd Saturday for a decent delil sandwich (not something found in abundance hereabouts). Any particular recommendations on the meat choices?

JiLS

No, I just ordered an Italian sub as is, but it's all visible in the case so you could steer him away from so much ham and more toward salami or whatever.

Annals of the Not Bad at All #2: Vinnie's Sub Shop

You open a place called Vinnie's at 1204 W. Grand Ave., selling subs, Italian flag colors, you're inviting comparison with one of the most celebrated sandwiches in Chicago.

Especially when your slogan is, "We Dare to Compare."

So how does Vinnie's sub compare to the Bari sub? Well, the hope is clearly that a lot of people, seeing the lines at Bari, will pop over here. And there's plenty of reason to expect that they might do it a second time.

The meat and cheese, straight up, seem Bari quality. Maybe not the same, but they have at least a dollop of old world funkiness, not the blandness of American processed meats (which the Gallery Cafe sub mostly had, hence my suggestion to pick your own meats carefully).

Toppings, I have to say, were a little sparser. I would ask for extra oil and vinegar, maybe extra tomato next time.

Bread was... almost there. But I could tell it wasn't quite the coal-fired D'Amato's bread you get at Bari. I asked, "Is this D'Amato's?" "Yes, but it's the sons', not the father's," the lady behind the counter said. (There are two D'Amato's bakeries on Grand Ave., separately run, very similar but only the father's has a coal-fired oven.) "A lot of people have told us they prefer it, it's not as hard as the other."

Well, it takes all kinds. For me, what lifts a Bari sub into transcendence is the fresh from the oven, crispy, ever so slightly burnt-tasting coal-fired bread. Apparently there are people who think a Bari sub would be better if the bread tasted a little more like it was from Jewel. We must try to understand them, and pity them.

So: Vinnie's Sub Shop. Not the best sub shop on Grand Ave. But a pretty good, 80%-there imitation of the best sub shop on Grand Ave. and possibly in the known universe. Will overflow from Bari carry it to success, or should it have opened almost anywhere else in the city, since almost anywhere else in the city it would be the best sub shop in the area? Time will tell.

Vinnie's Sub Shop
1204 W. Grand Ave.
312-738-2985

Bari Foods
1120 W. Grand Ave.
312-666-0730

D'Amato's #1 Italian and French Bakery Co. (the father's)
1124 W. Grand Ave.
312-733-5456

D'Amato's Bakery (the sons')
1332 West Grand Ave.
312-733-6219

James Ward on D'Amato's.

The father D'Amato died about a year ago. There are I think 3 other D'Amato bakeried on Grand, all owned or run by the sons. There is one directly across from the eastern most D'Amatos that is the wholesale bakery. I don't know which ones supply bread to who.
Paulette

My office, once a legion of Bari's devotees, has recently become quite enamored of Vinnie's, myself included.

The trick to Vinnie's is to become a regular, or at least to approximate one. The first time you order, the sandwich will be quite good, and rediculously cheap (4.50 for a foot-long Italian, for example).

Keep coming back, and you'll find your sandwiches get better and better- more tomatoes, more oregano, a little more love, at the same subway-comparable price.

We also find the bread varies from day to day--most days it's virtually identical to Bari, but if you show up around 1:30 or 2, you might get bread that is more Jewel-baguette like. I suspect that when they run out, that's what they substitute.

The favorite sandwiches here are the Capri (fresh mozz and tomato) and the Tuna, which has some giardenera (sp?) and a mayo-based but lightly spiced dressing. All their meats are a remarkable step above most chains.

Today, a colleague called Bari to pick up a sub and was told the wait was an hour. We called Vinnie's and the sandwiches were delivered to our door within an astonishing 15 minutes-- we're about 8 blocks away.

Vinnie's also has a great selection of chips and beverages, and a few side salads that are pretty decent.

I recommend everyone give Vinnie's a try and, rather than comparing them to Bari, try and rate them on their own merit as a great Mom and Pop sandwich place in a town overrun by chains.

For years, I have been enjoying D'amato's bread - before I even knew what it was. My dad would pick it up regularly at the Sunset Foods in Northbrook. All I remember was that it was better than any of the other breads that came home. I ate it happily without much recognition of whose it was.

Then, more lately, came the food renaissance when I started to pay a lot more (inordinate?) amount of attention to what I ate, leading me eventually to this site and my current state as a true glutinous consumer of not only food but food information.

I still buy the D'Amato's filone from Sunset and toast it up to make my own version of pa amb tomàquet. This is my happy lunchtime ritual on Saturdays.



A new hobby is to stop at many of the independent/ethnic markets mentioned here. Of late, I visited Eurofresh and Marketplace on Oakton and saw a D'Amato's bagged bread that looked significantly different than what I had been purchasing. My filone comes in a green, white and red bag mimicking much the colorson the D'Amato's storefront. I ran into a green and yellow bagged bread at these other markets, which made me start to wonder - which bread have I been eating all these years?

I came home and checked the address. Sure enough, my bread hails from 1332 & 1322 West Grand. This would be the Sons' establishment if I read this thread correctly.



Does the original D'Amato's wholesale? If so, what is the availability at local markets? Can anyone ID the green-and white bagged D'Amato's bread that sports a Grand Ave address?

It is still fine bread. But now I feel like a truth-seeker and I want the real thing - at home.

i was on the way today until i heard this on the phone:

"you know we're closed already, we ran out of bread".