I crave meatball sandwiches. It all started when I was five years old. I remember sitting on a bare floor, picnic style, eating a meatball sub from Sal's Pizza and Subs, which was across the street from our apartment. My Dad and uncles had spent the previous hours taking away our furniture, and we were all enjoying lunch in an empty room. I remember wiping the sauce from my mouth and feeling really, really happy, and it wasn't just the taste of the sub. My Mom and Dad were giddy, and their excitement was palpable, contagious even. We had just bought our first house. I felt excited, nervous, full.
We moved to our new house, and, though I missed Sal's, I found a new sub shop: B&F Pizza House of Pizza, where my friends and I would spend our paper route money on french fries, meatball subs, and Greek-style pizza. Hours would pass as we sat in a small booth, playing games, munching on pizza, and, for the most part, staying out of trouble. Every kid who grew up in the Boston area has similar food memories. Sub shops are ubiquitous in most of New England. Unfortunately for me, not so much in DC. So when I read about Taylor Gourmet's subs, I was thrilled. The owners are so vested in creating a tasty sub in DC that they drive to Philadelphia to pick up sub rolls.
It took us a long time to get over to H Street, but we finally did, and Taylor's meatball sub (dubbed the Callowhill Street) was sure worth the visit: house-made spicy meatballs, sharp provolone cheese, on a toasty sub roll that's covered in sesame seeds. On another visit I tried the Vine Street Expressway (chicken cutlet with pesto, prosciutto, and provolone) and I'm going to have a hard time deciding which sub I like better. Indeed, there's a lot to choose from, but do yourself a favor, don't bypass the risotto balls; they ooze with salty, garlicky cheese.
Much has been written about Taylor Gourmet's decor, so I'll leave that to the experts. A word to the wise: sit inside. Unfortunately, the outdoor tables are located too close to the dumpsters in the alley, which means you will have to share your food with flies.
Taylor Gourmet isn't my childhood sub shop (it's sort of like buying a fancy new 2009 Volkswagen beetle after driving a 1973 model for the last twenty years), but it's a crave-worthy replacement.
