Just a quick throw-away post about Vito's in Hoboken.
My first Vito's sandwich was in about 1988. After that first sandwich, the only thing that got between me and a daily sandwich from Vito's was money. A few years later, when I could afford them on a regular basis, the word was already out, and the only thing that got between me and a sandwich from Vito's was the line at Vito's. Nowadays there are more than a few miles between me and a Vito's sandwich, and there was a run of about 7 years where I thought a lot about Vito's, but just couldn't connect with a sandwich.
During a recent visit to Hoboken I decided to finally feed my urge (and take a walk down memory lane), and I stopped into Vito's at about 11 am for a sandwich.
The place has really changed. It's a bit spruced up, though certainly not fancy. There's a whole new generation of 20-somethings in line with their baseball caps and whatnot. A couple of kids from Stevens Tech from up the hill there. I felt old. Really old. One thing that remains the same is the stack of cans scungilli up by the counter. I think they're actually the same cans.
The other thing that hasn't changed is sandwich. Good stuff. You might think that's is easy to make a great sandwich, and you'd be wrong. If it were easy, every deli would do it. No, it takes good ingredients, and balance. Balance of salt, herb, bread-to-filling, texture, acidity. Vito's has both good ingredients and balance, with its homemade mozzeralla, awesome chewy Italian bread, and the know-how to put together a great sandwich. Hell the sandwich even looks good with a crappy iPhone camera.
