Hill Harboring Italian Sub Base: Mangialardo & Sons
Washington, it's time to round up your interns and send them on a lunch run for the office. Give them a metro map (or if they're good interns, cab fare), show them the Potomac Avenue stop, and point them to D.C.'s greatest sandwich shop: Mangialardo & Sons. Forget the overwhelming yeasty aroma of Subway or the turkey sandwich with two paper-thin slices of meat at your local food-by-the-pound, Mangialardos will scratch your itch for a meal's worth of sandwich. What would you expect from a place that, for this straniero, translates to "fat eater?"
You can tell Mangialardos is the real deal when you line up behind three cops and a construction worker ordering for his whole crew. While it's not much more than an ordering counter in front of a simple kitchen, Mangialardos turns out some of the best subs in D.C. Think the hour-long wait for an Italian Store sandwich is worth it? Well unless you're looking for something along the lines of pate and brie, it's not, especially when you have a small shop turning out better sandwiches in a tenth of the time.
In the 1950's and 60's, Mangialardos was a full-fledged grocery store catering to the area's Italian families, but like many old-timey stores in Washington, time has changed things. While you can still get some staples like canned Italian foods and freshly baked bread, sandwiches are the backbone of this working-man's deli. Not your standard ham and cheese, a Mangialardos sub is a small exercise in engineering; even the run-of-the-mill turkey sub contains what must be half a bird's worth of meat. But if you're looking for the experience of a many-meated Italian sub, Mangialardos has the solution.
The "G-man" the "Super-sub" and the "Big-G" are the Mangialardos line of Italian heroes. Stacked on either a hard or soft roll (hard for something a little more substantial, soft if you want to get your mouth around it) are ham, bologna, pepperoni, salami, mortadella, turkey, provolone, mozzarella, oil, vinegar, herbs, tomato, onion, lettuce, and hot peppers. Together, these ingredients give more flavor and substance to the sub than any other I've had in Washington. The difference between the three options is mostly size: the "G-man" is a good sized lunch, the "super-sub" is big enough to split and still be satisfied, and the "Big-G" (which comes in at about 5 inches thick) is practically twice the size of its smaller brother—easily enough for two meals. I recommend getting the "Big-G" on the hard roll and stashing it in the fridge for a few hours. The meat, cheese, and dressings have time to blend flavors, and the roll softens some to create a sandwich that comes as close as food can get to arousing.
Cold cuts aren't your only option, though. Mangialardos also has meatball and pizza subs, melts of roast beef, corned beef, and pastrami, and chicken salad, cheese, and tuna salad sandwiches. They also have spaghetti and meatballs if you're feeling like getting your carbs from a non-bread source. I tried the meatball sub, and can recommend it heartily. Homemade meatballs, provolone, and tomato sauce fill a toasted sub roll—which is pretty standard for a meatball sub—but the meatballs and sauce have a distinctive garlicky, savory flavor that outshines everyday iterations of the sandwich classic. The aroma alone was so enticing that I tore into mine about 30 seconds after leaving the store. Keep this in mind if your intern comes back with tomato sauce on his face and one sandwich short.
Mangialardos opens at 7:30 a.m. for breakfasts of egg sandwiches and omelets, which they prepare until 10:30 a.m. You can get sandwiches anytime after that until closing at 3:00 p.m. The deli is carry-out only, so you'll have to look elsewhere for seating. If there is a drawback to this place, it's that they're open from Monday to Friday only, so early afternoon sandwiches on the weekends are out. I hope this changes when the developments along Jenkins Row fill in.
I hope one thing stays the same, and that's the prices. The giant "Big-G" is only $7.00, and the meatball and "G-man" both ring in at $5.50. Couple that with a big bag of chips for $1.09 and a soda, and you're skating out of there for less than $10.00 with a very satisfying meal. Make sure you bring your cash with you though, as the deli doesn't take credit (or checks, for those two people out there who still carry a checkbook). Also, wait until you get your sandwich to pay at the register, which is the proprietor's preference; just a tip to save you any small embarrassments. Who loves ya, babe? That's right, DCist does.
Mangialardo & Sons, Inc.
1317 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
202-543-6212
Metro: Potomac Avenue