Forgive me, Father, it’s been five years since my last meatball sandwich review. I have no ready excuse, though I do know that since my go-to chicken parm provider closed a couple of summers ago, I have been on an unofficial quest to find a replacement. But I never stopped loving you, meatball sandwich. And I was reminded of that just the other day.
I had dropped into Milano’s Italian deli on Montgomery Street in Jersey City. I’ve always associated the place with WFMU which is located right next door. In fact, the very first time I volunteered at the radio station, then-assistant manager Liz Berg told me it was a popular place to grab lunch. Several years later, when DJ Todd-o-Phonic Todd needed artwork for a promotional 7” single, of course Milano’s featured prominently. In the past several years, DJs such as Todd, Joe Belock, and Evan “Funk” Davies have kindly allowed me to visit the studio when bands performed on their shows. It was a reliable win-win, because I’d get to see some excellent live music and then get an awesome lunch at Milano’s.
It’s a super friendly, family-run sort of place where the counter staff greets you warmly while also teasing each other. I would usually get, yes, a regular chicken parm sandwich, until my buddy John Cozz — a Milano’s regular in high school — recommended the spicy chicken parm. Ah-ha, another superb sandwich! And there’s a vodka sauce chicken parm as well. You could really just rotate through the Milano’s chicken parms and be a very happy person. And I was indeed always happy sitting there, enjoying my lunch — sandwich, chips, Pepsi — often running into an FMU staffer or one of the bands. (I recall a nice sandwich chat with the group Drunken Prayer from Asheville, North Carolina.)
The early pandemic put a kibosh on that happiness. WFMU brass wisely banned visitors to the station. I managed to swing by Milano’s a couple of times, such as after giving a friend a ride to a nearby doctor’s appointment (the first time I had a Milano’s breakfast sandwich, no slouch itself). But I was sad I couldn’t be there more often. They still remembered me behind the counter but it was acknowledged that I’d been MIA.
Pandemic regulations slowly eased up. Bands were allowed to return to the station, and volunteers, and eventually, me. A month ago that meant a Milano’s cheesesteak (I like to mix it up) and this week, because the spirit moved me, a meatball parm. As I unwrapped the aluminum foil and steam rose up from the sandwich, I sat back for a moment and admired this thing of beauty.
But food is not meant to be admired; its intent is to be eaten. Thus I dug in. The meatballs: hot, fresh, soft, tasty. The tomato sauce had a nice creamy quality. Melty mozzarella held it all together without getting in the way. And it was all cradled in Hoboken-style bread, crispy on the outside, chewy within.
It has felt so good to be welcomed back by the Milano’s crew, and to run into Nick and Ralph from the great band Cathedral Ceilings, and to eat this wonderful sandwich.
Jack Silbert, curator