Zito's on 7th avenue, Park Slope

You know how sometimes you just want a really good sandwich? Something hearty and satisfying, on good Italian bread? Well there's no shortage of delis in the area, but there's always a little something missing from most of the heros (we call them hoagies where I come from,) that I've tried so far.

My biggest beef (no pun intended,) most times is the bread. Almost all of the sandwiches if tried here have bread that's a little too soft or too fluffy. Long rolls should be chewy. Not stale, but strong. And with a little crustiness to the crust.

Zito's always looks legit when I walk by one of their two locations. There's usually a good looking stack of rolls just visible from the street, and a case of cured meats from Salumeria Biellese instead of the usual Deitz and Watson or Boar's Head. When my sandwich craving hit me this time, I thought maybe Zito's could sate it. They came pretty darned close.

I ordered their version of a classic Italian sub/hero/hoagie called the Autogrill, for some reason, despite having zero ingredients actually come in contact with a grill. You have your choice of roll when you order a sandwich but i didn't notice this option until later, and apparently the default is the Rustic. The foot long roll was exactly what I wanted. It had tooth. It fought back. Perfect.

The interior was equally delicious but sadly under-filled. Salty prosciutto, spicy capicola, and fatty mortadella were of great quality but scarce. For $10.50, I'd expect more than one layer of each. Mild provolone could have been replaced with sharp to great effect. The peperoncini peppers added a wonderful vinegar kick, and the Six Point Sweet Action I got with it was a perfect accompaniment with its slightly astringent hoppy aftertaste.

While I enjoyed the taste of my sandwich immensely, my lovely companion ordered the winner this time. The hot Six Point braised roast beef sandwich was chock full of sliced roast beef in a thick and spicy beer and tomato sauce. The roll had a wonderful crunch to it from some time in the broiler, and homemade mozzarella had melted into beautiful stringy white blobs. Marinated mushrooms and sautéed onions finished it off, and the whole thing was the embodiment of pure tasty comfort.

We finished with an ice cream sandwich from the freezer case by Coolhaus. "Mintimalist" satisfied our love of puns as well as our collective sweet teeth. The chewy chocolate chocolate chip cookie held an inch-thick serving of basic but incredibly powerful mint chocolate chip ice cream. No artificial green color, but enough mint leaves pulverized into it that tiny green flecks were easily visible. Apparently they have a couple trucks here in New York, with crazy flavor combinations I can't wait to try. Expect a review when I can track them down on their twitter feed.

The biggest downer about this place: the Pandora music feed that kept skipping/buffering every 10 seconds while the staff blissfully sang along to Fatboy Slim as if nothing was wrong. The entire time. Seriously, 30 minutes or more of skipping Fatboy with the occasional commercial thrown in. (You can't spring for the monthly membership? And maybe lay off downloading whatever it is thats chewing up your bandwidth during business hours?)

Final verdict on Zito's:

Food: 9/10
Value: 6/10
Ambiance: 5/10
Service: 8/10

-SdJ

The "Autogrill"

Six Point Braised Roast Beef

Sweet Action. For my mouth

Mintimalism...

BEST Ice Cream Sandwich

Shelves full of stuff to make things look fancy