Luigi and Giovanni's

Catering & Specialty Foods
3601 Chapel Road
Newtown Square, PA 19073
(610) 353-2080
Website

Newtown Square has Cut Above as their hoagie mecca. I love that place. But I was recently tipped off to a little joint I never even knew existed, a couple hundred yards from Cut Above Deli. It's part DiBruno, part Whole Foods, and part Cut Above.

They offer packaged meats (for cooking or eating) as well as three meat counters- one for the fancy stuff, one for the raw stuff (butcher), and one for hoagies and lunch meat. Amazing.

They have a wide selection of awesome rolls.

And here is the deli counter. Notice the fresh strombolis sitting on top? I certainly did.

I decided to start with the Italian, as that is a great barometer of how good a deli is.

If you look at the insides of this seeded roll, you will see a variation on the DelCo meat wrap, ham and salami wrapped with sharp provolone, tucked on top of hot and sweet peppers, onions, tomato, and lettuce. This is a damn good hoagie. Everything is in balance, just enough meat, multiple threads of cheese woven throughout, and plenty of veggies so you can pretend it's somewhat healthy (it's not). The roll was crispy and chewy, and the meat was freshly sliced. It was also about $6.50. So that's tough to beat.

The stromboli was impossible to resist, so I ordered one as well.

The paper thin bread was tightly wound around the spicy pepperoni and provolone. This was ridiculously good. I am always a sucker for a boli though, as it's the easy take and eat in the car option when you can't wait to get home. Basically a high-end hot pocket. And I am totally okay with that. If you are in the area, it's worth checking out Luigi and Giovanni's for certain. Not to mention the various square pies, pre-made Italian foods, and the incredible meat and cheese selection.

If you're having a get together and don't feel like cooking a damn thing, hit them up and you won't be disappointed.

Cacia's Roast Pork Stromboli

1526 W. Ritner Street
Philadelphia, PA 19145
(215) 334-1340
Website

I have to first disclose that I love Cacia's, and they make one incredible party hoagie roll. Also love their pepperoni stromboli's and their square slice pie. Especially the Pizzaz slice. If you don't know, Pizzaz is one of those weird, quirky South Philly things that doesn't make sense, but they do taste great. They use no sauce, but they cover the pizza in Amercian cheese, slices of tomato and banana peppers. So weird, yet so delicious.

The Roast Pork Stromboli, which they claim to be a specialty of Cacia's, left something to be desired. I would have fared better with a $5 pork sandwich, served on Sundays. I was under the impression that it was packed with pork, sharp prov, and broccoli rabe. I found it to be packed with pork, and there was a bit of cheese in there somewhere, but nowhere near what I was hoping for.

Although the pork was tasty, this stromboli was (can you guess what?)...dry. Really dry. I would have dug some jus to dip these massive wedges of meat into, but instead I had to resort to marinara from the fridge at home. Which, as you probably can guess, is not great with roasted pork. I mean it was fine, but it completely masked all of the flavor. It was a catch 22, however, as without the sauce, the stromboli was nearly inedible. I was not about to resort to Kobayashi-like methods, like dunking the boli slices in water before cramming them down my throat, so I was stuck with marinara.

I will definitely be back to Cacia's for some of their other stromboli's as well as the bread and square pie slices, but I will certainly steer clear of the pork.