One Dish Wonders: Tucci's Southside Subs

By Mike Sutter
AMERICAN-STATESMAN RESTAURANT CRITIC
Thursday, August 13, 2009

Southside Authentic Italian Gourmet sub ($7.50, regular size)

It's hard to find Tucci's Southside Subs by accident, at least the shop (there are two) at William Cannon Drive and Interstate 35, in the shopping center anchored by Academy.

In true Italian family style, I found out about Tucci's through a reporter I worked with 20 years ago, who turns out to be owner David Tucci's dad and the husband of my daughter's second-grade teacher. So out of respect, I stopped in (anonymously) to try the Italian beef sub he recommended, with slow-roasted beef, banana peppers and cheese, all of it dipped in broth.

That sandwich I wasn't wild about. But another sub, the Southside Authentic Italian Gourmet, is the picture that flashes across my synapses when I hear the word 'sandwich' now. The regular size is $7.50, and that's not cheap. But here's what you get, stuffed into a roll that ends up being so big you can't fit it in your mouth without unhinging your jaw: prosciutto, capocollo, salami (the best deli meats end in vowels, don't they?), black pepper ham, provolone cheese, lettuce, hot sweet cherry peppers, fresh jalapeño slices, a splash of oil and red wine vinegar, a little oregano, some tomato, some red onion.

Could you build this sandwich yourself at home? Maybe, if you could buy that much Boar's Head meat for $7.50, if you could find cherry peppers with the right tang, heat and sweet. But you couldn't buy the counter man who calls his customers 'bro,' who waits on bikers and white-collar family guys with the same genuine good humor. Tucci's feels like a neighborhood place — not the newest, not the prettiest, but one that knows how to make a sandwich worth remembering.

(801 E. William Cannon Drive, No. 240. 440-1850, southsidesubsaustin.com. Also at 7101 W. Texas 71. 288-7414.)