Will Special at Riviera + Harlem Ave [Pictures]

LTH,

Hit the Harlem Ave Italian trail a couple of days ago as Mike G's wing-man while he picked up ingredients for lasagna.

First stop Caputo's, Mike had a list, I window shopped, which for me means I picked up just a few items, fresh fennel bulb, very nice basil, mediocre tomatoes and a, just could not resist, flat of fresh figs.

The figs were expensive, $15.99 for 20, and not greatest looking, but, even a pretty good fig is still wonderful. Both my wife and I love figs with prosciutto and a chunk of pecorino or parmesan.



Next up Riviera where, feeling a bit peckish, we decided to have lunch, a couple of Will Specials to be exact.

Will (YourPalWill) Special at Riviera


Mike and I enjoyed our Will Specials at a table Riviera had set up on the sidewalk. Not exactly Florence, but still quite pleasant.


Mike G enjoying his Will Special.


Sandwich ordering procedure at Riviera, as has been mentioned, pick your bread from a bin, hand it to the counter man, that particular day it was Carmelo himself,

Carmelo Pugliese, owner of Riviera. (with Steve Dolinsky looking over his shoulder)


Once can order from the sandwich menu or pick and choose individual combinations.


Riviera's deli meats are tops, especially the house cured Soprassata, Capicola and Cacciatore.

Riviera Soprassata


From Riviera we headed to Pasta Fresh where Mike picked up sheets of fresh pasta for lasagna. Pasta Fresh is a very nice source especially as it is connected to Gino's, which is a full service Italian deli with both fresh meats and some grocery items, mainly dry goods.

I had parked in front of a, new to me, Italian coffee house, Euro Cafe, which bills itself as an Italian Bistro. It's a small space which more resembles an upscale bar than coffee house, which is fitting as they had received their liquor license just the day before. They seem to take coffee seriously, though my espresso, a shade on the acidic side, evened out with the addition of a bit of sugar.

All in all a darn nice afternoon on Harlem Ave with Mike G.

I do, however, wish to bring up, which Mike pointed out, there are any number of Italian restaurants on Harlem that have yet to be explored, or at least posted about. I've, over the years, been to most, if not all of the groceries but have barely scratched the surface of the restaurants. I see a couple of possibilities in the offing, a Harlem Avenue Restaurant Crawl and/or a Harlem Ave Italian Grocery/Deli a thon.

Enjoy,
Gary

Caputo's Food Market
2558 N Harlem Ave
Elmwood Park, IL 60707
708-453-0155

Riviera Italian Imported Foods
3220 N Harlem Ave
Chicago, IL 60634
773-637-4252

Pasta Fresh
3418 North Harlem Avenue
Chicago, IL
60634
773-745-5888

Gino's Italian Imports Ltd
3422 N Harlem Ave
Chicago, IL 60634
773-745-8310

Euro Cafe (An Italian Bistro)
3435 N Harlem Ave
Chicago, IL 60634
773-286-8544

I trucked over to Riviera today for lunch and finally grabbed the Will Special, after dreaming about it for quite some time.

This is the ideal sandwich in my world -- life-changingly good, to the point where you're sitting in your car by yourself cursing aloud (mouthful) at how good it is. On the drive home, the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and the sun was shining down. It's when you know that everything is going to be alright in the world (even my crushing hangover).

Sampled a piece of the hot soppresatta which is outstanding, and the son also gave me a sample of a soppresatta that he said was new - I think he said it was a caprese something-or-other. It was mild, and very smooth.

Picked up a jar of some beautiful-looking giardinera on the Mom's suggestion. Think the brand was Pigliacci or something.

Thanks all,
Nab

PS. not sure what the protocol is on this forum, but I seem to notice that y'all post new stuff to an existing thread as opposed to creating a new thread -- so that's what I did here, hopefully that's kosher

Always better to add to an existing thread than to create a new one. It makes it easier to find all of the discussion of a topic, and the software makes sure the most-recently-updated threads are always at the top.

Good choice, and sounds like a great visit to da riv.

I was planning on making my inaugural visit to Riviera tomorrow to pick up some sandwiches for friends. Anyone know how early they open? (I called over there but got no answer).

Thanks!

tapler wrote:I was planning on making my inaugural visit to Riviera tomorrow to pick up some sandwiches for friends. Anyone know how early they open? (I called over there but got no answer).

Thanks!

The hours I have are:

Mon. - Fri. 8:30 - 6
Sat. 8 - 6
Sun. 8 - 3

Antonius

Perfect! Thanks so much!

Last night, VI and Cathy2 advised me that the Will Special was recently cited as one of America's great sandwiches in Jane Stern's new book Roadfood Sandwiches. Plus LTH gets a nice mention in the same reference. Cathy's call came only moments after a Joe Crede foul ball landed between my feet at the Cell. What a great day it was.

The book is just being released now and is in transit to many bookstores. Though VI has actually seen and verified its existence. I have an order in for one for me and one for the Pugliese's which hopefully will arrive in the next day or so.

I stopped by the store to tell the Pugliese's about it. As usual, Carmine didn't get too excited. He's an even keel guy. But, the ladies of the family did. They also got a really nice mention in TimeOut Chicago this week.

I can't think of a higher honor for the sandwich or the nice folks who run the Riv than to be mentioned in one of the Roadfood books.

There's a mention of it in the total media domination thread over on the "Other Culinary Chat" Board.

YourPalWill wrote: They also got a really nice mention in TimeOut Chicago this week.

The mention was part of a "Taste Quest" article titled "Harlem Avenue." Unfortunately the credibility of the author (Nicolas Day) got off to a really bad start.

The Italian neighborhood in Chicagoland most likely to make your stomach happy is nowhere near Little Italy. It isn't any closer to the Heart of Italy neighborhood either--in fact, it technically isn't even in Chicago....(Harlem neatly bifurcates the towns of Montclare and Elmwood Park).

Hmmm. Let's look up when Montclare became part of Chicago? Answer: 1889.

REB and I took a turn last night hosting our poker group. It is custom for the hosts to provide a simple and easy-to-eat-with-cards-in-your-hand meal. Jimmy John's, Potbelly, and the like are routinely tapped for these events.

Being the ridiculous snobs that we are, we drove the 40+ blocks to Da Riv for sammiches. A Will Special and a Turkey & Swiss, each massive piles of meat, cheese, and toppings on their own full loaf of Italian bread, ran us $25. A fantastic bargain. Our guests oohed and ahhed over the food and (apparently) let me win.

The lemon cookies by the cash register are pretty good too.

Thank you Riviera.

So glad that you all love this place. don't forget to get the octupus salad that sits in a jar soaking in oilive oil. No veggie filler-sometimes they do put shrimp in it.

RAB wrote:Being the ridiculous snobs that we are, we drove the 40+ blocks to Da Riv for sammiches. A Will Special and a Turkey & Swiss, each massive piles of meat, cheese, and toppings on their own full loaf of Italian bread, ran us $25. A fantastic bargain. Our guests oohed and ahhed over the food and (apparently) let me win.
The lemon cookies by the cash register are pretty good too.
Thank you Riviera.

The Will special remains my standard sandwich order - did it again last week. In addition I usually pick up some deli-meat - their soprasetta usually, and maybe their hot capicola. Last time also picked up their little bottle of "sub oil" for sandwiches... small bottle, olive oil, with all sorts of stuff in it (pepper, spices, vinegar etc). Only like 2 bucks, and very useful - has improved my home-made sandwiches significantly

Iam not a huge lemon-cookie guy, but last week they actually had big-sized home-made fig-cookies (a sort of larger version of cuccidati)! Picked up a few of those, which were very good - I like those things plenty, and theyre usually available only around Christmas. They mentioned they might have these larger versions till Easter or so, however, so if youre at Da Riv again in the next couple of weeks, Id recommed you try a couple of these

c8w

Hi,

I find if you have Will's ingredient list, you can get a reasonable facsimile of a Will Special at most Italian delis:

Will Special: Hot Sopressata; Hot Cappicola: Salame de Prosciutto; Prosciutto Ham; (Roast Beef on Fridays was added a few months later);fresh mozzarella, a just a bit of hot giardinera on a roll I picked myself from the bread bin.

Please note I am not opposed to going to the Riviera, it is not an area I travel very often.

Regards,

The Will Special looks like the "Diavolo" listed under the lunch menu - aside from his own choice of bread. Is that what one would order? The Diavolo?

Hi,

If you simply ask for the 'Will Special,' you will get it just as Will specified. I never asked for this sandwich under any other name.

Regards,

Jay K wrote:The Will Special looks like the "Diavolo" listed under the lunch menu - aside from his own choice of bread. Is that what one would order? The Diavolo?

Its almost the diavolo, but not quite. IIRC the diavolo on the menu (the hot-Italian, basically) does have salame de prosciutto, but not the additonal prosciutto ham. (The roast beef thing, I didnt even realize it was on the Will Special - Ive never had the sandwich with it

Maybe C2 is right, you could order it as the Will Special. I havent... the first time I ever went, IIRC, I tried to, and they didnt seem to know what I was talking about, so I gave them the ingredients from memory. Since then Ive always done that, though they often remember most of them when Iam there now - just sometimes need to specify the additional prosciutto etc.

What Id be interested in knowing was what people get for their bread, from the bin. Looking at the pic in this thread (of MikeG eating his Will Special), the bread doesnt look at all like the bread I usually get there! His seems much flatter and wider and rounder than the typically torpedo-shaped bread I find in the bin.

c8w

Hi,

When I did order the Will Special the first time, I did get a double take from behind the counter. I later comment this to Will who said they probably were surprised to hear it from someone they had not seen accompany him were asking for the sandwich. It was around this time Riviera was getting a GNR as well as a solid mention in Jane and Michael Stern's book. Will said he would alert them that perfect strangers would ask for this sandwich.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:When I did order the Will Special the first time, I did get a double take from behind the counter.

They are apparently used to it now. When we ordered it on Saturday, nobody blinked. They knew exactly what we were asking for.

It's nice to see Riviera being seen in a good light. I grew up 4 blocks from it and shopped it regularly for years. It's one of the things I miss not living on the NW side of the city.

Agostino's at Diversey and Harlem always does me well when in the neighborhood. Homemade Gnocchi for me please.

I went up to Riviera Foods on Saturday after reading about it on here. Being from Forest Park my wife and I used to hit up D'Andrea's in Berwyn for their sausage, beef and olives almost weekly. Since their closing last year we've been in the market for a new italian deli.

I had the american sub and my friend had the italian. Both were absolutely stacked with meat. The bread was good. The only thing that threw me a little is the mayo they used tasted like miracle whip. That's a pretty distinct flavor and I guess I don't usually go to places that use miracle whip as their mayo. Fortunately I don't hate miracle whip but i certainly prefer Helman's. To each their own and I certainly still enjoyed the american sub and you sure can't beat the price at 4 bucks for such a big sandwich.

I also picked up a few pounds of their italian sausage. Like I mentioned we used to always get our sausage at D'Andrea's and I loved their sausage with fennel. Riviera seemed to only have sausage with cheese filling or just plain sausage. Being lactose intolerant I went for the plain. I made a pasta dish with it last night and I have to say it's damn good sausage. Much less fatty than D'Andrea's and the only thing i would change is adding fennel. (Which they may have and I just failed to ask. I didn't see anything on the signs about it.) The lunch meat prices seemed a tad bit higher than D'Andrea's so I skipped on picking up lunch meat there.

Instead I went to the Polish deli right around the corner on Belmont (basically Belmont and Harlem on the South side of Belmont just East of Harlem.) I don't recall the name of the place but their smoked ham is just fantastic at 3.99 a pound. Picked up some pork loin lunch meat that was very lean at 4.99 a pound as well. I also tried their potato pancakes which were very good and a chicken concoction that was a chicken leg opened up(deboned) and wrapped around rice, mushrooms and sausage filling. I have one of these left in the fridge at home and I can't wait to go home and finish it off. They are supposed to have really good pierogies but i haven't tried them yet. Sorry for not having the name of the place ready but I will be sure to come back and post it up with the proper address and such the next time I go up that way. Unless of course someone else knows the place I'm talking about and beats me to it.

Anyway, thanks again to this board for another fantastic recommendation. I've printed out the GNR guide for 2008 and am trying to expand my restaurant horizons with it. Good stuff so far...


(Oh, and I now see the D'Andrea's old owner has a new place called Tonini's in Berwyn so we'll be getting over there soon as well. I may have to do a side by side sausage tasting.)

Also, I just searched on Riviera Foods and this was one of the first posts to come up so I posted on here intead of making a new thread to avoid redundancy. Sorry if this was the wrong thread for this.

How did I ever miss that the Riv menu lists an Iron Range classic, "Porketta"? And there I thought that I had discovered something unknown outside of Biwabik.

Super Tony's on 25th and Harlem also carries it, cold in the deli case.

They make a better version fresh in-house, but it's just called "Tony's House Pork Roast." The first time I got it, it was on special, and the board above the counter said, and I kid you not:

"Tony's Roast - Oven-Roasted Pork Roast."

Neither of these are exactly what you get in the Iron Range - what Tony's has cold (and perhaps what Da Riv has) is a tube o'meat product, a lunchmeat. What Tony's makes in house is porchetta-seasoned pork tenderloin roast, which they also slice thin. What you get in MN (at least what I've had in MN) is a fattier cut served in hunks or thick slices.

I see someone previously mentioned Tonini's in Berwyn. I just got some coupons in the mail for them and am curious how they compare to Riviera Foods. Thanks.

Anyone ever had a Will Special at Bari? Every time this thread pops up, I'm annoyed that I still have never had this sandwich.

ndgbucktown wrote:Anyone ever had a Will Special at Bari? Every time this thread pops up, I'm annoyed that I still have never had this sandwich.

You'll have a hard time getting a Will Special anywhere other than Riviera, although I suppose you could specify the ingredients at Bari or elsewhere.

I hadn't been in Riviera for at least a year, maybe more, when we stopped in a couple of months ago with my mother. On our recommendation, she had started going in with my dad a year or two before he died. When we walked in, Carmelo's wife greeted us warmly and discretely asked me how my mother was (I think sensing that my father may have died). i wish this place were closer but we do try to get there as often as possible and have told many people about how wonderful the sausage and deli meats are. Can't find anything nearly as good out here in Naperville. We've had Carmelo make us sandwiches many times but have yet to specify a Will special. Next time!

A question I have asked myslef many times: why don't any of the local-centric kitchens in town carry any of the house made meats or dairy from the Riv? For example, there's no one from Seattle to Brooklyn making better sopressata. It needs to be on a pizza at Great Lake, Coalfire, Spacca, etc.; on a cold cut plate at Mado, Publican, wherever. Maybe they just don't make enough to sell beyond what the store needs. I'd accept that. Otherwise, it's inexplicable.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:

ndgbucktown wrote:Anyone ever had a Will Special at Bari? Every time this thread pops up, I'm annoyed that I still have never had this sandwich.

You'll have a hard time getting a Will Special anywhere other than Riviera, although I suppose you could specify the ingredients at Bari or elsewhere.

I have done just as you suggested, bring the ingredient list to another Italian deli. While nothing beats Riviera, it does satisfy your desires. Riviera provides the fresh mozzeralla in sizeable chunks, everyone else is a bit stingy. If I piped up a willingness to pay slightly more, I could likely get it as I want it. I get a bit distracted talking to the counterman or other customers.

Regards,

JeffB wrote:A question I have asked myslef many times: why don't any of the local-centric kitchens in town carry any of the house made meats or dairy from the Riv? For example, there's no one from Seattle to Brooklyn making better sopressata. It needs to be on a pizza at Great Lake, Coalfire, Spacca, etc.; on a cold cut plate at Mado, Publican, wherever. Maybe they just don't make enough to sell beyond what the store needs. I'd accept that. Otherwise, it's inexplicable.

Agreed - the sopressata is right up there with Freddy's homemade hot capicola as local meats better than anything you can get from any importer (and without even crossing state lines to La Quercia). It's about $9 a pound and is ordered in whole sausages rather than slices.

While there, try the diavolo, the Will Special codename while Will is in exile. Still an insanely low $4 for the sandwich.

The Diavalo is a fine sandwich on its own. But, as Cathy noted above, it is a different sandwich than the Will Special.

As Jeff B notes the housemade cured meats at Da Riv are a true thing of beauty. Someone should really send Saveur over there to do a shoot and story on Da Riv's house cured meats.

One of the guys in my old office in Chicago sent me a pdf of a paper menu that Da Riv had a few months back that actually listed the Will Special as an offering. I don't know if they still have that or not.

If you ask Carmine for the sandwich, he'll generally deny its existence and insist that you have a Diavalo. With a little coaxing, he will eventually come around. Carmine's son Mike will offer no argument when a WS is requested.

I have about a 50% success rate ordering the Will Special by name since the slicer Post-It fled. This last time the guy (young guy) pointed at the Diavolo with my sopressata to show me what price I was getting, winked, and proceeded to put about $18 of meat on the thing, including the prosciutto. It's my literary conceit that it hides under a different name until Will lives here again and reclaims his rightful sandwich.