By Charlie McGrath

Polpetti Italian is a small, but busy Italian sandwich shop that offers a  variety of Italian deli sandwiches and selections. Located on North Meadow Street in The Fan, Polpetti has a vast menu. It offers soups, pastas, salads, coffees, and even Italian desserts. Even though their menu is diverse, my family and I decided to try three of their most popular Italian sandwiches: the Balboa, the Soprano, and the Godfather. Each cost 15 dollars.

The Balboa was my least favorite out of the three. This Philadelphia-inspired sandwich, named after the protagonist in the Rocky movies, was definitely different. My dad Sean McGrath certainly liked it, saying, “this one is the best.” I liked the movie more. The sandwich consisted of Italian roast pork, broccoli rabe, and sharp provolone, with long hot peppers added. I love spicy food, so the heat wasn’t the problem. The long hot peppers just didn’t fit the sandwich; they were too large, so each bite was really just half meat and half pepper. The broccoli rabe didn’t help either. It adds an off-putting taste in your mouth that you can still feel minutes after taking a bite.

The Soprano is the average Italian sandwich. Inside are sopressata, capicola, ham, sharp provolone cheese, arugula, olive salad, vinaigrette, and mayo. The sandwich is pretty well-sized for the price, and mine was on Italian sesame bread. Usually, on an Italian sandwich the best thing, other than the meat, is the bread. This seeded bread was thick, but not too overpowering; neither chewy nor crunchy. It was the perfect middle ground for an Italian sub. The meat and provolone cheese worked very well together, and each bite had a thorough mixture of the other ingredients.  

The Godfather was my favorite of the three. It’s a meatball sandwich made with Black Angus ground beef, basil, Parmesan, Sunday Sauce (a homemade red sauce) and stracciatella. I chose the ciabatta roll instead of the classic seeded bread. The ciabatta was floury and went perfectly with the meatballs. With only the first bite, I could tell this one was my pick out of the three. The four meatballs filled almost the whole sandwich, which is ideal for meatball subs. You don’t want each bite to be straight meat or just bread; you need a balance, and this sandwich excelled in this. For the $15 price tag, this sandwich definitely had plenty of bang for your buck. I was full after the first bite, yet I finished the whole thing, and I would definitely eat it again.

The restaurant itself is small, with limited seating inside and outside. It was very busy when I went around 1 p.m. on a Saturday. There was a line, but it moved rather quickly. The atmosphere was very calm, and the building smelled like an average Italian deli. Overall, Polpetti has numerous things to offer, even more than just sandwiches. The Soprano was the staple of Italian sandwiches, the Balboa was not my thing, and the Godfather stood out among the rest. With everything the deli has to offer, it’s definitely a place I would go back to.

All photos by Charlie McGrath.