Eddie’s Little Shop and Deli, Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia

Recently, Senior Deli Correspondent Les Wexler and I both had a day free so we got together for lunch. Les suggested Eddie’s, a highly regarded sandwich shop in Alexandria. I’d heard of their Italian subs, and the website had a good looking sesame seed roll, so I was eager to try it. Eddie’s sits at 1406 King Street in a newish multistory office building faced with brick to meet Alexandria’s historic district specifications.

The interior includes a deli display next to the counter at which you order,

also a small collection of Italian foods, including some very expensive olive oils.

Les ordered The Parm. His mother used to make chicken parmesan often and naturally Les is a huge fan, just as I’m a fan of anything that Dear cooked.

Here’s the vital side view.

Chicken cutlets are a specialty of Eddie’s, and the menu offers five different cutlet sandwiches. The Parm is their classic. The cutlet is accompanied by parmigiano, their house-made marinara, and stracciatella. It all fits together beautifully. The cutlet itself was a star, and the stracciatella was richer and milkier than the mozzarella that usually graces a parmesan sandwich. It came on an above-average roll, not crusty but well suited to the sandwich. I’m not sure where I can get a better version in the area.

Eddie’s offers nine cold Italian subs, and continuing my Best Italian Sub research, I ordered Da Boogie, a combination of mortadella, ham, soppressata, Genoa salami, provolone, olive tapenade, and the usuals.

Here’s a side view.

Eddie’s gives you a generous portion of meat, and it’s good quality — or at least it tastes good. As you can see the ham and mortadella dominated over the more intensively flavored Genoa and soppressata, but the olive spread, Kalamata, not green olives, added another bold flavor to restore the balance. The roll was quite good by soft roll standards, but Les and I agreed that an Italian really needs a hard roll to be in the first rank.

Eddie’s is well worth another trip, and I might try another Italian, perhaps the Sophia or No. 128, the roll notwithstanding. The big attraction, though, would be exploration of those cutlet sandwiches. You should try one. Or two or …

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