320 Market Cafe

211 West State Street
Media, PA 19063
(610) 565-8320
Website

The 320 Market (originally written about here) has an outpost in Media that recently moved into nicer, larger digs. It may not look to pretty from the outside, but inside is a nice market, cafe, and full liquor license hangout.

The prepared foods here are always the best. This is still the case.

Pre-made sandwiches and re-heat items available below.

Although the sandwiches were never anything to write home about, the one constant is the chips and pico. Holy hell. The salsa is approximately 50% avocado, and the rest is tomato, red onions, and some sort of voodoo that makes the ingredients stay tart, fresh tasting, and utterly addictive. Some of my favorite anywhere. PP tip: get the to-go version for about $10 over the $6 menu offering. You will get 3 times the salsa and chips, and can take the extra to go.

I am sad to say, the third best thing I had here was a salad. Yes, a salad. The Misto has all kinds of green leaves, nuts, figs, blue cheese, and a house dressing. (the second best thing was the beer)

You can go ahead and skip the Italian. The bread was good, the meat was quality, but the sandwich was tiny, dry, loaded with red onion (?), and subbed basil instead of lettuce. Sometimes things are better left alone. Italian hoagies in the Philadelphia area are one of those things.

Sparsely filled sandwich below.

Compare this with a recent gold standard Italian hoagie and you will understand my tears of sadness.

The meatball looked good in theory, but was another item weak in practice. The sandwich was dry (again), although they did microwave some extra gravy from a container of meatballs in the to-go case for me upon request. The balls themselves were bland, dense, and tended to fall out the back of the roll. After having ricotta meatballs recently, I have developed a palate for fleshy, tender spheres with some zing. These were not they.

Also, meatballs need a supple rolls to avoid the aforementioned "loose rear" issue, and these rolls were better suited to a wetter job.

The market is a great place to get some beer (they have 20 great, reasonably priced drafts) or chips and salsa. But my money is better spent on sandwiches with some soul. And ingredients.

Carlino's Market

128 W Market Street
West Chester, PA 19382
(610) 696-3788
Website

Carlino's started as a DiBruno's-style shop in Ardmore, but has since branched out to West Chester. The West Chester iteration is much larger, though just as claustrophobic as the original. They offer a wide variety of pre-made Italian food, as well as cheeses, meats, coffee drinks, and two sandwich counters.

When you look at the layout below, it seems like there is plenty of space. But when you are actually there, the mere presence of five people in the below area causes chaos. In my half hour of shopping and eating, I was in the way, or annoyed at someone in the way at least a dozen times. One of the issues is the islands displaying additional goods for sale scattered around the store. It broke up the flow of traffic, and led to bottlenecks at every turn.

There is no question they offer quality goods, the cured meats alone could occupy me for hours. Plus they offer illustrations by Hawk Krall himself, one of my favorite local artists/food experts. See illustrations below.

One of the best things they offer is the tomato pie. It is thick, chewy, has great acidity from the tomatoes, and is just simple perfection. I am a big fan. It was the best thing I ate on this trip by far.

The "Ultimate Italian" was not so ultimate. It came on a decent roll, though it was no Liscio's, and held prosciutto, mortadella, Calabrese hot salami, hot capicola, rosemary ham,and aged sharp provolone. While the meat was definitely all high quality, the cheese was lost, and it was pretty dry overall. In a different geographic location, this would be a fantastic hoagie. Around here, it was good, not great.

The bread left a LOT to be desired...

The mortadella had beautiful pistachios studding it, and the hot salami was a nice touch. The cohesive package was just nothing special.

The beef meatballs "Sicilian Style" held fried eggplant, ricotta, and grated locatelli. This was the most disappointing of the bunch. The meatballs were under-seasoned, the locatelli was sparse, the eggplant soggy, and the bread fell apart in the three minutes from receiving to eating. Would not recommend this one.

I felt there should have been more salt and a bit of spice to really make this sandwich worthwhile. In addition, the bread was not hearty enough to contain the ingredients without ripping.

It was like they got their rolls backwards here: the Italian was dense and stiff, almost stale and the meatballs were in a spongy, seeded roll. So maybe if they were swapped, I'd be writing with a different opinion. But alas, my one experience at Carlino's will likely remain my only.

Frankie's Cafe

25 South Eagle Road
Havertown, PA 19083
(610) 449-8771
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I was recently looking for somewhere to eat before a show at the Tower, but didn't feel like Pica's. I decided to try a little corner bar that offered some home-style South Philly Italian that was recommended to me.

Frankie's is a two floor space with a bar on the first and a restaurant on the second. I chose to sidle up to the bar and grab some sandwiches (and beers). Two of the menu items I have a hard time passing up just about anytime I see them. A meatball sandwich and a chicken cutlet. I also feel these are great barometers of a place's ability to do Italian comfort food. One thing you will note, the chips are fried fresh, which is a nice touch.

The chicken cutlet was nicely fried, with a crispy seasoning and nice thin slices of meat. The provolone was melted and in good proportion to the rest of the fillings. As usual, the garlicy broccoli rabe added some bitterness and zest to the heavy sandwich.

The side of "gravy" was fresh, acidic, and a welcome addition to the chicken cutlet sandwich. Dipped or ladled, marinara usually doesn't disappoint.

The meatball was similarly smothered in cheese, and again, melted to a delicious coverage.

The meatballs themselves were light, juicy, and had plenty of seasoning. The bread was toasted to help hold it together with the sloppy mess going on in the middle. It was perfect comfort food, and didn't break the bank at about $9 a sandwich.

Add great lighting/atmosphere (darkness) with some reasonably priced drafts and you've got one heck of a joint.