Sunday, July 18, 2010

S & M Delicatessen



Name: S & M Delicatessen
Location: 3309 Watson Blvd., Endwell, NY 13760
Phone: (607) 754-0636
Cuisine: Subs/Pizza
Price: Cheap. Around $5 per person.

Review:
Since the recent demise of Tony T's in Vestal, I'm in search of a really good local sub place. And when I say "local," I mean somewhere in relatively close proximity to where I live in Johnson City. I tried out the Original Italian Pizzeria in Endicott and enjoyed their Italian sub, but that's a little bit further than I ordinarily would like to go. On the tip of a reader, I decided to give S & M Deli in Endwell a shot.

S & M is a small shop with, let's face it, a pretty damn funny name. It is located on Watson Blvd. across the street from the Broadway Diner and they specialize in pizza and subs but also have reheatable Italian dishes available and local specialties like City Chicken. More on that in a future post. They also have some basic grocery items and sell ice and beer. In NYC, S & M would be referred to as a "bodega." This is strictly a "to-go" place, as they have no seating.

I walked in around 11:30 AM on a Friday and ordered an Italian sub with everything on it: Italian meats, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, sub sauce, and sweet peppers.



I thought this was a great-looking sub. How would it stand up to a taste test?

In truth, not very well.

A good sub starts with the bread. I did not care much for this particular sub roll. It was a bit too airy for my liking and didn't really have much flavor. On the plus side, the meats and veggies were fresh. But the real problem with this sub was that there was WAY too much mayonnaise for my liking. The thing was inundated with mayo to the point where I couldn't taste much else in most bites. The good news, of course, is that this is a correctable problem. Just order it without mayo, or tell them to go light on it. Even so, the whole thing was just kind of "blah."

Back when I was in high school, we used to do a sub fundraiser. We'd go around the neighborhood asking if folks wanted to buy subs and eventually the day would come when the subs came in and we distributed them to the proper folks. They were decent subs but nothing to get excited about. You knew when you ordered one of these things that you weren't getting something gourmet, but you were helping the neighbor kid fund his trip to Florida or whatever, so you didn't mind too much. The sub I had from S & M was a Fundraiser Sub. Average in every way, but by buying one you're helping keep a little family business alive in an era where there's a Subway on every corner. That's gotta be worth something, I guess, but it isn't going to be enough to bring me back there to have another.

Grade: C

S & M Delicatessen on Urbanspoon

7 comments:

  1. you are way off base here. solid sub, great place. get over yourself with this fundraiser sub crap. as far as driving, JC to Endicott/Endwell is 5 minutes. distance is not the issue, your lack of a palate is....

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  2. If you actually read what I wrote, I was defending the proximity of S&M to JC compared with OIP in Endicott. I also detailed what I disliked about the sub. Instead of saying what you liked about the sub and the place, you decided to take personal shots at me. Get over yourself.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Dan? Who made you a food critic and what's your credentials? Why don't you stay in JC? S&M is delicious there pizza is great and Dan should stick with subway or at least visit Jared from time to time

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    2. Dan's a jackass with horrible taste, he would rather eat a Jared special sandwich!

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    3. Dan's a jackass with horrible taste, he would rather eat a Jared special sandwich!

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  3. I grew up around the corner there. I spent most of my allowance there as a kid. I just celebrated my 59th birthday and my wife had my party catered from the S&M. She read your comments and decided to ask some questions to Sam and Mary(that's where S&M came from) and their son Rob (who now runs the business for the past 28 years). So... its hard to believe that a small place can stay open FOR 60(YES 60) years by making blah food. And yes there is a Subway around the corner. Maybe its your tastebuds that are blah

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