Romanelli’s Italian Deli – Phoenix, Arizona

It didn’t dawn on me until after our visit that how fitting it is that Romanelli’s Italian Deli is located on Dunlap Avenue.  Visit Romanelli’s with any degree of regularity and you’re bound to be afflicted with Dunlap’s Disease.  Dan “The Tire Man” Marsh describes it as “Done lapped over the belt” disease.  The symptoms include “a sudden need to unbutton your pants after a meal (a classic blowout!), an inexplicable gravitational pull towards comfy sweatpants and the inexplicable disappearance of your feet when looking down.  Among the causes of Dunlap’s Disease are visiting Romanelli’s frequently.

In naming Romanelli’s 2023’s “Best of Phoenix” winner in the Italian Deli category, The Phoenix New Times may have said it best: “Walking into Romanelli’s Italian Deli is like gliding into an olfactory orgy. As soon as the smells of freshly baked bread, zesty spices, piquant peppers, tangy cheeses and cured meats hit your nostrils, your mouth starts watering, and your eyes start wandering.”  Though the Phoenix New Times cites only olactory and visual senses, Romanelli’s doesn’t exclude your other senses.  Probably the most prevalent is sense of taste, when you finally get to bite down on an incomparably delicious meal and follow it up with a dessert that will certainly expand your waistline.

Nor is your tactile sense omitted.  Picking up one of those hefty ten-inch subs will give you a sense for how densely packed with meats and condiments a sandwich can be.  And when you wrap your fingers around that light, springy bread, your appreciation for the construction of your sub grows exponentially.  It would be easy to ascribe your sense of hearing to the crunching sound made when you chew on a crisp salad, but where your hearing is really exercised is in listening to the conversations among the staff, most of whom are family, Italian and New Yorkers.  Both unabashed volume and snarkiness are on display.  And don’t make the mistake as my Kim did of bragging you’re from Chicago.  She may as well have told them the Yankees belong in Triple A baseball.

Family owned and operated for over 40 years (since 1975), Romanelli’s is an Italian deli, bakery, grocery store and imported specialty foods shop.  The deli sandwich and shop menu lists 24 sandwiches and subs.  All are served on ten-inch white, wheat, sliced rye or hard-crust Italian bread with your choice of lettuce, tomato, red onion and Romanelli’s Italian dressing.  Also on the menu are ten hot subs and eight fresh cold specialty sandwiches and salads.  Party subs–three, four and six foot sizes–can be made for you, too.  The menu also offers pasta dinners, homemade pizza, Italian pastries.  You challenge will be in deciding just what to order.  There’s just so much to choose from.

My Chicago born-and-bred bride should have known better than to argue the fine points of constructing an Italian beef sandwich with Romanelli’s sandwich savants.  Sure, Italian beef sandwiches are the pride of the Windy City, but it’s pretty obvious the Romanelli’s sandwich crew knows what they’re doing.  Still, she insisted that her sandwich be dipped.  It wasn’t enough that she was handed a cupful of au jus.  As the sandwich artist predicted, the moist and tender bread did fall apart.  Mind you, au jus soaked bread is pretty good, but having to eat it separately does not an Italian beef sandwich make.  Eating the thin shards of well-seasoned beef sans bread just isn’t the same.

The Italian Stallion may have been the nickname of Rocky Balboa, the fictional character in the Rocky movies and its sequels, but for me the Italian Stallion House Sub is one of the very best Italian cold-cut sandwiches I’ve had outside of the Boston area.  This stallion is constructed from ham, capicolla, Genoa salami, pepperoni and Provolone cheese with lettuce, tomatoes and Italian dressing.  How anyone could order a six-inch size Stallion is beyond me.  After polishing off the full ten-inch sandwich, I was ready for more.  The bread to meat to contiments ratio is balanced, just enough of each to play off the other.

While standing in line waiting for my sandwich to be constructed, it was impossible not to notice all the salads on display.  Every one of them looked absolutely delectable, but the seafood salad (crab, red pepper, celery, scallions, pasta and a mayo-based dressing) called loudest.  There’s a netful of crab in this salad, the real stuff.  The melange of flavors and textures made for a delightful side…so good I polished off more than half of it in addition to my Italian Stallion.

When the summer heat hits, few things are as refreshing as a cold, delicious treat.  Fortunately in Phoenix you don’t have to wait until summer to indulge in something cold and refreshing.  What stands out most is Italian ice, renowned for its fine, crystalline texture and burst of fruity flavors. Also known as water ice, Italian ice is a frozen dessert made from finely granulated ice and sweetened fruit flavors. It’s similar to sorbet but without the dairy or egg ingredients found in some sorbets. This makes Italian ice a great option for those who are lactose intolerant or looking for a non-dairy alternative to ice cream. We brought home a 64-ounce container of lemon and lime that still hadn’t thawed out by the time we got back home.

For dessert, my Kim enjoyed a thick slab of rich, delicious chocolate cake while I enjoyed a luscious lemoncello cake.  My Kim called her chocolate cake the equivalent of Portillo’s which means it’s her standard-bearer.  That chocolate cake was skyscraper tall, about twice as tall as the lemoncello (I feel so cheated).  Other desserts included Napoleons, cannoli, baklava, cheesecake, coconut maroons and a number of other delightful treats.

Romanelli’s Italian Deli has been named the Phoenix area’s best Italian deli so many times the category should be automatically reserved for it.  Visit Romanelli’s and you risk Dunlap’s Disease.

Romanelli’s Italian Deli
3437 Dunlap Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona
(602) 249-9030
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LATEST VISIT: 24 December 2024
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: N/R
COST: $$
BEST BET: Italian Stallion House Sub, Italian Beef Sandwich, Seafood Salad, Lemon Lime Italian Ice, Chocolate Cake, Lemoncello Cake
REVIEW #1439