Waiting And Waiting On Line For A Sandwich At Alidoro

A co-worker of mine told me that I needed to check this place out because they made some of the best sandwiches in the city. Immediately intrigued I headed to the internet to search it out and see what other people were saying about it. So from what I could tell, or read for that matter, was that Alidoro was the soup nazi of sandwich places but it was a must for great sandwich lovers. But be forwarned, do not approach the counter without knowing what you want to order. There will be a lot of people waiting on line behind you and if you are not ready you will be passed faster than an off duty cab and they are not going to check to see if you are ready yet. So with that in mind I headed down to 105 Sullivan Street to see what it was all about, hunger in tow. Of course there was a line. I stood outside of the small little shop patiently behind two others looking in through the door to see when there was room to fit inside. Be sure to close the door behind you! Don't leave it open otherwise you are going to hear about it. Ok I am being a bit dramatic. Anyway I took that time to look over the menu to figure out exactly what I was going to try and there certainly were a lot of choices even if they all seemed a bit similar. There were 6 types of sliced meats to choose from, Salami, Prosciutto, Smoked Chicken Breast, Sopressata, Capicollo and Mortadella, so that is where I would start. Not a huge fan of the others I chose to go with the Chicken Breast but still needed to find the right combination to complete my order. Scrolling down the list I stopped on the Alyssa with it's Smoked Chicken Breast, Fresh Mozzarella, Arugala, Dressing on a Semolina Roll and because that wasn't enough I added Sweet Peppers to top it off. $13.00, that's right a $13.00 sandwich, so it better be freakin' good. While waiting in the claustrophobic space for my sandwich I got a bit aquainted with their sandwich making process, not that I wanted to but it was a bit of a wait. You'd figure that with a line that stretched out the door that the people running the joint would move at a quicker pace so their customers wouldn't have to wait nearly as long, that would be common sense. Here there were three folks. One guy manning the deli slicer, a lady taking the orders and packing the sandwiches and another fellow hidden behind the refrigerator. What I found particularly amusing and freightening at the same time was that the guy in front slicing the meat was less concerned with what he was doing because he was trying to watch a movie! Off to his left there was an extrememly small tv playing, of all things, the movie Amelia with Hillary Swank and Richard Gere. His concentration on the film was as intense as a bullfighter as he sliced the Chicken Breast for my sandwich and I was surprised later to find that there wasn't a piece of his finger in my sandwich. Too bad.
So back to work I went, gigantic sandwich in hand, nervously excited about the meal ahead. And it didn't disappoint, well maybe a little. Personally I think I made the wrong choice because I really didn't like the Smoked Chicken Breast, it's flavor was not what I was looking for. But what was I looking for exactly, a religious experience? Maybe. Other than the Chicken I thouroughly enjoyed the sandwich, even though the  heart of a sandwich to me is the meat. The Fresh Mozzarella, the Arugula, the Sweet Peppers and the Dressing were all really tasty leading me to believe with the right combo of meat this would have been a really fantastic sandwich. Also I think I may choose a different roll or bread because I was not all that thrilled with the Semolina Roll and desire a firmer loaf to hold my sandwich. At some point I will again venture down to Alidoro to give their menu another try to see if I can come up with a better reason to spend $13.00 on a sandwich. Afterall it's not Katz!