The Best hoagie in Kensington

i had key once, but i don't remember it very well. i like slacks. sometimes i get franco's because it's close, but their hoagies aren't that great.

Slacks or Best Deli. Key can't even make their pizza good and it's their name.

really? better than Primo's? I doubt it.

They don't have a Primo's in Kensington. Its all ours.

primos/frans, easily. the only bad thing is that they will ask if you want mayo on your italian, which i guess says more about their clientele than anything else.

primos on ritner st (original in s. philly) asks if you want mayo on the italian too. come to think of it they all usually do.

I agree that Key is quite good.

Slack's is awesome, and so is Primo's.

Primo's is in my neighborhood, otherwise I would have put that at #1.

I love Primos, but they aren't the friendliest bunch and their hours are weak. If you order at 6:30pm for pick up and get there at 6:45pm they have the door locked and stare at you through the window like your crazy for trying to come in and order a hoagie that close to closing. I think it's all about creating false demand.

But I will keep coming back cause their hoagies really are awesome. I love the Thuimans (sp?) lunch meat. Slacks has been slacking on the amount of meat on their hoagies. You have to order with extra meat to get even close to the amount of meat on a Primo's. Love the seeded rolls though.

Perhaps you should start ordering at 6:15 then.

I too wish Fran's/Primo's was open later in the evening. Then again, it probably is good for my diet that they aren't. Fran's made the best hoagie in the neighborhood before they affiliated with Primo's. Amazingly, they still do.

Yea I agree Frans was great before Primo's too... I sort of feel that all the Primo's franchise locations aren't quite as good as the original in south Philly (I work nearby and we get them for lunch often). They're good but just not quite the same.

Every hoagie is a good hoagie so the best ones are the cheapest and fastest ones. That's why I think the best hoagie comes from the Quik Stop.

So I have no idea what this is about. Should italians automatically come with mayo or without?

i love slack's.

I like Slacks, I also like The Works, Primo is very good but less convenient hours.

I really like Slacks. The sandwiches are good and the people that work there are always really nice.

While a lot of the corner stores and pizza places have the stuff to make a decent hoagie, not too many of them can make a really good or great hoagie. I have to agree that I think Slack's is a pretty good hoagie, despite being a chain - which surprises me. And when they have the Godfather on sale, that's a great deal.

I still think Primo's is better. And while it may or may not be "in the neighborhood", the hoagies at Paesano's are absolutely amazing. I think they would win over even folks who are concerned they might be a little too foodie/yuppified.

well that depends greatly on whom you ask. i was brought up in a firm oil and vinegar household. mayo on an italian hoagie is sacrilege. mayo on anything is pretty awful. if there was one condiment i could do without, it would be mayo.

There's a joke in there, but I'm not gonna touch it.

Italian hoagies should, by default, come without mayo!!!
(That said, I have to confess to the very occasional sacrilege of putting Miracle Whip on my hoagie. It's a once every year or two craving.)

mayo: for those times when even american cheese isn't bland enough for you.

Ain't that the truth. I remember at my first church up in the Poconos there was a family that used to rave about one member's potato salad. She was a very nice lady, but when I was invited over to dinner I was so disappointed to find out the potato salad was basically chunks of potato with a TON of mayo and not much other flavor. Ugh.

My hatred for this practice knows no bounds. Ive lost a friend iver it.

My mom bought me a shirt from The Works when I was growing up in Warminster, so needless to say, I was beyond pumped when they opened the one off Aramingo. Definitely my sandwich shop of choice, although Primo's is slamming when they're actually open.

Plus The Works menus have buy 2 halves, get 1 free coupons from Sunday-Weds (I think)...can't beat that!

I agree with Kat on the friendliness of the Slack's employees as well - super nice people in there.

And it's not like I intentionally try to order form Primos at 6:30pm; but it happens. On those occasions, when they're open until 7pm and I get there at 6:45pm, FOR PICK UP, I don't appreciate an attitude or standing outside waiting for someone to un-lock the door.

I prefer oil on my italian hoagies but different strokes I guess. I don't think there are rules. In reality, a hoagie isn't really authentic Italain anyway. It's an American thing.

And for all you disrespecting mayonaise, it actually holds a special place in gastronomic history. It's one of the classic French sauces and I think there might be an entire chapter devoted to it in Larousse Gastronomique. Until you've had true mayonaise made simply with olive oil, egg yolk and lemon juice you'll never understand.

Primo's is fine, Paesano's can be great, but gotta say it's nice to be a 5-minute walk from Sarcones.

Drool.

Mayonnaise actually originated in Spain in the 18th Century, but was made popular by the French. I can tell you that I found a whole new appreciation for Mayonnaise when I had to make it by hand in culinary school. Talk about an upper body work out!!

if there is a heaven, i would imagine it to be a lot like sarcone's.

That makes sense since authentic mayo is made with olive oil.

Love everything about it. Even when I lived in Fishtown I would make the drive when I got the craving. The "Booch," the "CC," etc. Oh, Lord.

I've been super strict with my diet the past six months or so, but having them so close is too much of a magnet to avoid completely. Actually, there's a LOT of incredible food around here I have to pretend isn't there much of the time!

Sorry, but Slacks is really gross. Fran's for the hoags.

Fresh Works for Italian grinders. Noms.

only ever had fresh works ham and capicola hoagie. it was about the same as franco's.

You can't beat Slacks for a buffalo chicken steak sandwich.

i wasn't impressed with fresh works at all.

The only thing I get from there is their chicken finger platter with a throwback Pepsi.

i prefer slack's, mostly because they offer seeded rolls. yum.

I like Slacks, but the delivery is hit or miss...sometimes its an hour, and cold...sometimes its 15 minutes and piping hot.
They also charge you extra for everything, if you get chicken fingers they ask if you want BBQ or Honey mustard, and then charge you like a dollar for it. The menu says the cheese fries are like 2.59, but they're not. I dunno..I like their stuff, but they seem to pad the bill.

CODER -- this thread has me craving -- JOE's.

Dang, I want a hoagie from Joe's now!

very true. they are really expensive. i've never gotten delivery from them, so i don't know about that part. i just love their seeded rolls and their onion rings.

We always got hoagies from Joe's when I was little and my mom and aunt still seem to mourn it being gone. They were darn good.

Second on seeded rolls. Primos rolls are pretty banging too though...aren't they sarcones rolls? Not sure, but I thought one of the places around use sarcones rolls, and no, I do not mean sarcones.

I remember reading an article in the Inquirer about how primos gets their rolls half-baked or somthing like that. every primos store has an oven where they finish them. this keeps them fresh every day. I think the rolls are actually D'Ambrosio's but I'm not sure. I dont think they are sarcones, which is probably why sarcones deli hoagies are a little better.

Pretty sure Mandi's deli at Montgomery and Thompson sells Sarcones seeded rolls (i dont think they use them for their hoagies though).

Yes, Franny will make you a roll if you need it. Last week I made stew, and went around and got a seeded long roll, still warm from the oven, to be used as a loaf of bread. It was great. Didn't need the stew, I could have been happy with the bread and butter.

mmmm nothing like good bread, crusty on the outside, supple yet chewy on the inside, a little butter or good olive oil, some salt, a glass of white wine. dam.

i could eat only sarcone's rolls with nothing on them for the rest of my life. they are that good.

When I was about to move out of my old place and had basically no food left, my dinner one night was a sarcone's roll with potato chips and mustard on it. I loved every bite of it.

that sounds delicious.

A college staple meal, although usually I'd use a Martin's potato roll.

When I was a kid, and my mom was working, she would leave cans of soup out for us to have for lunch.
We never ate them, we made potato chip sammiches instead.

It's Sunday morning and you need the freshest loaf of Italian bread. Where specifcally do you go?

If your answer is just, "the italian market," don't bother. I'm looking for actual place names.

i'm not sure it's the best ever, but dibruno's has pretty good italian loaves.

So does Whole Foods.

Dan's across from the Rocket Cat is my sandwich spot. It's cheap and you get ton's of meat. Plus I really like the folks who work there.

What I find sad is that there isn't really a decent selection of places within a 5 minute walk of most of us that actually sells an AMAZING hoagie, something you would write home about. Slacks is ok, fresh works is ok, key is ok, but there's nothing amazing about them. I wish a corner deli would open that actually looked at making a hoagie as almost an art form!

i, personally, am ok with ok hoagies. once they go gourmet they end up costing $12. i don't really want a $12 lunch, i want a $5 lunch.

memphis market actually makes a pretty good hoagie, and they're cheap.

Its only a glorified sammich after all.

I'm the opposite. I would absolutely much rather pay $8 to $12 dollars for an amazing hoagie than the same bland nonsense everyone else is making.

I hate hoagies too.
First of all, they're like condiment mandatory, I don't like eating cold meat.
Don't like raw onions, too much roll, oh the list goes on and on.
There are exactly three sandwhiches I can eat, other than peanut butter and jelly.
Beef bologna on white toast with relish...like eating a square hotdog.
Baked Virginia ham and cheese, on a small long roll, with tons of kosher dills.
Lebadon bologna on white bread with chips crushed on the top.
Thats it. Thats the unholy triumverate.

if i have someone to split it with me i don't mind paying that much. paesano's is pretty close to us, and their sandwiches seem to be pretty well respected. i just don't think there's enough of a market to support multiple gourmet sandwich places in the immediate area.

Coder, you must get to Andy & Nancy's and have the Bologna Cheese Steak. It is so awesome. Bologna, with FO, Mustard & Relish and, of course, cheese; they will take the FO off for you. I get it about once a month, yummmy.

Lebanon bologna, love love love it but it has to be FRESH white bread.

What could possibly make a hoagie cost $12? Any ingredients that would make a Hoagie cost $12 I'd rather not ruin by putting on a Hoagie.