delis Archives - Chattavore

517 Subs (Signal Mountain, Tennessee)

July 12, 2017

517 Subs is a popular sandwich shop on Signal Mountain that has been around for years and serves basic but delicious sandwiches.

What is it about a great sandwich that is so sublime? Sandwiches are just simple lunchbox fare, after all. How many sandwiches have we eaten in our lives and not given a second thought to? In a world of PB&Js and ham sandwiches on squishy white bread, a sandwich might not sound like something that you would drive to the ends of the earth (or up the mountain) for.

Truth is, I don’t really love sandwiches. I mean, I like sandwiches, and when they’re served to me I’m happy to eat them. The instances of me taking a plain old sandwich of lunch meat on sliced bread this school year though? Zero. Zip. Zilch. There may have been a few turkey croissants but that’s pretty much the extent of my sandwich-packing.

We’ve been meaning to try out 517 Subs for a pretty long time now. I hadn’t really heard much about it until some friends who are fairly new Signal Mountain residents tried it out and told us that it was worth the drive to try it out. A recent rainy Saturday turned out to be “the day” and we headed up Taft Highway to give them a try.

The place was pretty empty when we arrived…a couple of employees doing cleaning and restocking tasks, one taking a break, and one behind the counter, plus another diner at a table. The decor is simple…not much beyond the tables and chairs and some retro board games framed on the wall. We got a laugh out of looking at the Disney’s Robin Hood game and the Beatles board game, among others.

I am decidedly a hot sub person. A BLT sub always sounds good, and it’s hard to pass up a meatball sub…but my sub order is almost always a steak and cheese (I may have declared my love for them at least once on here). I ordered a 6-inch steak and cheese on wheat bread ($4.25 plus $2.10 for chips and a drink) with onions and peppers. They ran out of onions, but I did get a couple of shreds of onions before she heated my sandwich. I dressed my sandwich basically, with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and salt and pepper. The steak and cheese here was very reminiscent of the steak and cheese subs that I used to order at Blimpie, back when it was a frequent haunt of mine…when they still existed in Chattanooga (I thought until a few months ago that there was still one in St. Elmo, when I discovered that it was gone when I tried to eat lunch there??‍♀️). Their steak and cheese was always more like a pot roast sandwich than a Philly cheesesteak, and I always loved it. Thus, this steak and cheese was a throwback to my college years and I did indeed love it.

Unlike me, Philip is a cold sandwich lover, and he decided on the Italian – his standard sub shop order anytime it’s available (he’ll even order the Italian sub at Chuck E. Cheese’s, despite knowing from his years working in the CEC kitchen that the kitchen guys hate making sandwiches more than anything else). The Italian ($4.10 pre-combo) is made on your choice of bread (white, wheat, or rye, all baked fresh daily in the shop) with ham, salami, capicola (a cold cut made with cured pork shoulder), and provolone. Philip likes his Italian sub pretty heavily dressed and got his with lots of “stuff” on it. He said that it was a great Italian sub and commented on how good the bread was.

It wasn’t actually raining when we arrived, but by the time that we finished eating it was pouring rain and we had to hang out inside for a while since we had not brought our umbrella indoors. By that time there were quite a few other people in there – since it was getting closer to closing time, I assume that people were trying to get in before they closed. We hung out until the rain slacked off a bit then headed over to Pruett’s to check out what they had in the store.

If you’re looking for a good, basic but tasty sub, 517 Subs has you covered. The prices are definitely reasonable; the two of us had sandwiches, chips, and drinks for about $13.50. The staff was friendly, particularly the lady who made our sandwiches. There’s definitely something to be said for a great sandwich, and if you (like me) have been missing Blimpie, I’d recommend that you go here.

517 Subs is located at 1238 Taft Highway, Signal Mountain, Tennessee (in the Signal Plaza Shopping Center near Pruett’s). They are open Monday – Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can call 517 Subs at 423-517-7827 (that is, 517-SUBS). They do not have a website, but you can “like” 517 Subs on Facebook.

Steamboat Sandwiches (Shallowford)

April 6, 2016

Steamboat Sandwiches on Shallowford Road in Chattanooga, Tennessee is a great place to get excellent sandwiches at amazing prices during the workday!

As I type this, I am already lamenting the fact that my spring break is nearly over. As you read this, I will already be back to work, no longer able to pull off the whole “full-time blogger” charade. I’m not complaining, just stating facts. One of the nice things about breaks, though, is the fact that it gives me the opportunity to eat at restaurants that are usually closed when I’m not at work. I don’t get many opportunities to eat at restaurants during my workdays; I’m lucky to have time to eat lunch at all. Itinerant staff problems.

I asked my Facebook friends for some suggestions of places that are not open on nights and weekends. I got several suggestions, some of which I’d already tried…then the winner. One friend suggested that we try Steamboat. A friend from work had recently had a Steamboat sandwich in the office and was gushing about how good their house-made bread and egg salad were. I made a mental note that I needed to eat there at some point and moved on, unsure of whether Steamboat still had a location on Shallowford Road or if I would have to go downtown and deal with paid parking in order to check it out.

Good news: the Shallowford Road location of Steamboat Sandwiches is indeed still open, hence plenty of free parking. It was around 1:00 when we arrived and, while I wouldn’t say it was crowded, there was still a steady stream of folks coming in to get their sandwich fix. The whole operation is unbelievably efficient. They have a small menu – 13 sandwiches (or build your own), a handful of sides, brownies, and cookies. You step up, tell the man at the counter what you want, he circles it with a dry erase marker on a laminated card, and he sticks it up for the lady who makes the sandwiches to see. Our sandwiches were ready before we finished getting our drinks. That, my friends, is what we call speedy service.

I decided that I needed to try the pimento cheese, as I’ve kind of made it my mission in life to try pimento cheese pretty much anywhere that I can find it homemade. I stayed simple, with just lettuce and tomato (no condiments or additional toppings), since I think that pimento cheese really does stand on its own. Too much more makes for a pretty goopy sandwich. I have to say, I was quite impressed. The pimento cheese was very simple – just shredded cheddar, pimentos, and mayonnaise – but delicious in its simplicity. It worked so well with the amazing bread, which is fresh-baked daily and so gloriously soft. It’s perfect for squishy fillings but not so soft that you feel like you’re eating dough (a common complaint that Philip has about a lot of white breads). The lettuce is shredded, which really does make for an easier sandwich-eating experience, since you don’t have to worry about pulling the entire leaf off of your sandwich. I got the combo, which includes chips and a drink. They had Salt and Vinegar Lay’s, so I was happy. They also have orange-flavored sweet tea, which does not taste like it has orange juice in it but rather orange Kool-aid or Tang or some other orange flavoring agent…and we loved it. I noticed that on Tuesdays and Thursdays you get a free brownie or cookie with your combo, so I was kind of sad that we didn’t wait until Thursday to go!

Philip decided to order the specialty, the Steamboat sandwich. The Steamboat includes smoked ham, Genoa salami, pork roast, Swiss cheese, special sauce, mayo, mustard, lettuce, and pickles. We heard several people ordering the Steamboat as they came in, so it’s obviously pretty popular. I tasted it and it was a great combination of flavors…I mean, how can you really go wrong with three variations of pork on the same sandwich? Philip really liked the special sauce and was trying to figure out what it was as he worked his way through the sandwich, ultimately deciding that he thought it tasted like Buffalo sauce. Like me, he thought the bread was excellent and that it definitely gave the sandwich an edge.

After we left, I decided to put a photo that I had taken on Instagram. I looked up Steamboat Sandwiches and realized that there was a location in Knoxville. As I read the website, I realized that it’s a small chain/franchise operation. Just FYI, that still fits into Chattavore guidelines…as long as it’s a small operation I’m good with it, particularly considering that it’s regional. Because of the hours, it’s unlikely that I’ll be going to Steamboat very often, but at $13 for two sandwich combos, this place has great prices on excellent food and it’s worth a visit when you have time.

Steamboat Sandwiches is located at 5950-C Shallowford Road (at Polymer Drive). They are open 10:30-3:00 Monday-Friday. You can call them at 423-499-6355. There is another location (I am not sure if they are owned by the same franchisee) downtown at 812 Broad Street. They are open 10:30-2:00 Monday-Friday and can be reached at 423-756-8388.

Yesterday’s at Willie’s Diner

December 31, 2015

Yesterday’s at Willie’s Diner serves good food at good prices in Cleveland, Tennessee, in the former location of Jenkin’s Deli.

Buying new furniture is kind of a drag, y’all. I mean. I like the idea of getting new furniture, I just want it to magically appear in my living room without me having to sit on fifty different sofas, measure, figure out how everything will fit in my house, and figure out what to do with the old furniture.

You may be wondering what furniture shopping has to do with a restaurant post. Well, we ended up at Scott’s Furniture in Cleveland (which was a good call…it’s looking like we’ll be purchasing our furniture from them). Since we rarely get up there and therefore rarely get a chance to eat at the many Cleveland restaurants we need to try (I have a pretty detailed list), we decided to have lunch while we were up there.

We basically decided to eat at the first place on the list that we saw while driving, since we’re pretty unfamiliar with the Cleveland area. The first place we saw? Yesterday’s at Willie’s Diner. Yesterday’s at Willie’s is located in the former Jenkins Deli location on Mouse Creek Road (just past the intersection at Keith Street). Jenkins has moved to a new location (well, not so new…it’s been a while) on Spring Creek Boulevard…I need to visit there sometime to check out their new location.

It wasn’t very crowded, as we went after the typical “lunch” time. We were quickly seated by a friendly server. One look at the menu clued us in to the nature of the restaurant. The front of the menu states that Yesterday’s at Willie’s is owned by a couple with the last name Jenkins…so I am pretty sure that the establishment did not change ownership. There were a handful of appetizers, soups, salads, some barbecue entrees, several sandwiches, and a few entrees. The menu is not the same as Jenkins’ menu-it is somewhat more limited-but I did see some Jenkins favorites, such as the chicken salad and the deli burger.

And…that’s exactly what we ordered. Honestly, if I’d remembered that when we went to Jenkins that I ordered exactly the same thing, I would have gotten something different, but I didn’t think to check (and I was almost certain that I had ordered the burger last time). I got the half chicken salad sandwich with the fresh, house made potato chips. The chicken sandwich is a good portion with one slice of grilled Texas toast and a generous (but not outrageous) portion of chicken salad. The chicken salad is made with shredded chicken, which is how I like it. It has some herbs, celery, and plenty of garlic, and, while I would not say it is dripping with mayo, it’s definitely not dry. The chips are pretty much amazing…thick but not too thick, very crispy, and sprinkled with a perfect portion of seasoned salt.

And Philip, well, he got the burger. We can be a little predictable at times. He decided to order the burger with cheddar cheese and steak fries on the side (you can order any side that you like, with an additional charge for onion rings or a baked potato). The burger here is very good…a decent size (not too big, not too small) and cooked very well. The bun is griddled so that it’s warm with very crispy edges, just how I like it. It was served with lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, mayo, and mustard, and had just the right amount of everything. It held together well. The steak fries were just standard frozen steak fries.

At $5.99 for my half sandwich and chips, $9.45 for Philip’s burger and fries (that includes an additional $.50 for the cheese), and two waters, our total was just under $17 pre-tip…not a bad price, I’d say. Our server, Rachel, was very friendly and attentive. The atmosphere here is pretty standard “tavern” atmosphere…dark wood, lots of pictures and signs hanging on the wall, and lots of graffiti where patrons have signed the walls over the years. We would definitely go back.

Yesterday’s at Willie’s Diner is located at 88 Mouse Creek Road NW, Cleveland, TN 37312. They are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Friday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (closed Sunday). You can call them at (423) 790-5346. They do not have a website, but you can like Yesterday’s at Willie’s on Facebook.

Mindy B’s Deli (Downtown Chattanooga)

August 10, 2015

Mindy B’s Deli is a downtown Chattanooga lunch hot spot that serves amazing sandwiches, homemade sides, and great desserts!

One of the downsides of my job is that I don’t get a whole lot of chances to go out to eat (many if not most of my meals are eaten in my car) and definitely not at any place that doesn’t have on-site parking. And with my job, I get a lot of days off, but certain excursions take some forethought and planning. Like visiting Mindy B’s Deli.

Mindy B’s, located in the Volunteer State Building on the corner of Georgia Avenue and MLK, is open from 10-3, Monday-Friday. There’s parking in Patten Parkway, but I never assume that in a spot with limited parking that a spot is going to be easy to come by. Plus, we like to park and walk. On one of my last days off (as you’re reading this, I went back to work last Thursday) we headed downtown and parked in one of the lots near Unum and walked over. It’s always nice when a lunch excursion helps me accumulate some steps on my Fitbit!

We got to Mindy B’s around 12:45 or 1, thinking that we would hit the end of the lunch crowd. As it turns out, there were several occupied tables, but there was only one lady in line ahead of us, but after we sat down, a pretty steady stream of people came in, resulting in a line that took a while to dissipate. We sat down and took in the atmosphere. There were about nine or ten tables (give or take) inside with a couple of bistro tables outside. The walls were painted in a bright green with tin panels along the bottom half. You walk up and grab a laminated menu from a basket on the counter to decide on your order; the front of the counter is painted with chalkboard paint and the daily special and desserts are listed on the chalkboard. A refrigerated deli case contained lots of salads, like potato salad, egg salad, broccoli salad, herbed tuna salad, and tarragon chicken salad.

Mindy B’s holds a contest every year where customers can submit a sandwich idea. Honestly, I can’t remember how the winners are chosen, but I assume that customers vote (someone tell me please!). The winning sandwich makes it onto the menu. I decided to order the 2012 winner: Chris’s Rockefeller. The Rockefeller was made on sourdough toast with corned beef, pastrami, roast beef, cheddar, pepper Jack, lettuce, and “rock” sauce. While the Thanksgiving (turkey, cream cheese, and cranberry sauce), the Big Cheese (pimento cheese on pumpernickel), and the Coop (tarragon chicken salad with lettuce, tomato, and onion on sourdough) all sounded tempting, I have a hard time passing up anything that contains corned beef or pastrami, so both? Count me in! The Rockefeller was delicious, with waaaaaaayyyyyy more meat on it that I should eat in a day (but: cured beef!). The cheese was not melted but the heat from the bread had softened it up a little bit. There wasn’t a cumbersome amount of lettuce on it, and the Rock sauce was a mayo-based sauce that was just a little sweet and a little spicy. On the side, I had the broccoli salad, which had everything that broccoli salad should have: broccoli (of course!), dried cranberries, red onions (which I could do without, but they were in fairly large pieces so I ate around them), and bacon, plus walnuts, lightly dressed with a mayo-based dressing.

Philip ordered the Pub, aka the Reuben, because he pretty much has a rule that he has to order the Reuben wherever he goes. I’m not going to lie, he still says that the Vine Street Market Reuben is the best he’s had, but he thought that this was a very good Reuben. It was a good-sized but not overwhelmingly large Reuben with a good balance between the meat, cheese, sauerkraut, and sauce. He really liked that they had actually put a thin slice of meat between the sauerkraut and the bread to keep the sauerkraut from making the bread soggy. He had a bag of cheddar jalapeño chips with his sandwich.

Mindy B’s has a build-your-own sandwich option, so you can have whatever you want. There are also several sandwiches that are part of a pick-two combo. Salads are also available-a “plain ol'” salad or a build-your-own, where you add a main (meat or pimento cheese), a cheese, vegetables, and a dressing to a bed of greens served with house crostini. You can also build a three-salad plate with salads from the deli case. Mindy B’s also serves a good selection of desserts, including brownies, cookies, and pies, which all looked amazing, but we have been on kind of a junk food bender the last few days and we needed to slow down so we abstained.

Mindy B’s is a friendly atmosphere with very nice people serving up quality deli food. It’s obvious that the downtown workday lunch crowd loves them! If you’re downtown and want a great salad or sandwich, Mindy B’s Deli is a great option! By the way, our total for our sandwiches, my broccoli salad ($3), and Philip’s chips ($1.50) was about $22 (we drank water).

Mindy B’s is located at 828 Georgia Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37402. They are open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. You can call them at (423) 521-7932. They do not have a website, but you can like Mindy B’s Deli on Facebook.

By the way, I just found out that Mindy B’s has partnered with The Hunter Museum to open the Hunter Museum Café by Mindy B’s Deli. Check it out Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and on Free First Sundays from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Deli-Boys of Cleveland

July 13, 2015

It’s too bad it took me so long to get to Deli-Boys, because this was one of the best sandwiches I’ve had a in a while! It’s worth the drive to Cleveland, TN, for sure.

Deli-Boys is located in Cleveland, and I’ll admit, I don’t give Cleveland much love on here. I promise it isn’t intentional! It’s kind of far away (45 minutes to an hour depending on the route I take and how fast we drive) so it requires a little bit of planning ahead. Every time I think about it, it seems too late to try to venture in that direction.

I was telling Philip, though, I’m starting to run low on places to review in Chattanooga-I’ve pretty much exhausted Soddy-Daisy and Hixson, and there are a few places downtown but a lot of them are only open during the day on weekdays, making them a little more tricky. We’ve got to start visiting places a little more “off the beaten path”, so if you have suggestions for Brainerd, East Ridge, Harrison, Ooltewah, Collegedale, Cleveland, and North Georgia, please let me know!

So anyway….I started thinking this morning about where we should go and I honestly couldn’t think of anywhere in Chattanooga that I was itching to try today. We needed to go to my parents’ house in Soddy before we got moving, so I suggested to Philip that we just keep moving north through Dayton and take the back way to Cleveland. My brother had suggested that I review Deli-Boys ages ago, and since my brother and I have similar restaurant preferences, I knew I could trust his suggestion.

Deli-Boys is located in a strip mall on Keith Street, just past Smoothie King. It’s on the side of the building, so you need to know where you are going or look for the sign out front to be sure that you can find it. We got there at about 1:00 and it was pretty crowded, though we were able to walk right up and give our order. By the time we left, the tables were pretty much full. The lady at the counter was extremely friendly, as was the guy who brought our food to the table and bussed our trash while we ate.

Deli-Boys offers sandwiches that you can build yourself (ham, chicken, turkey, roast beef, corned beef, and pastrami), specialty sandwiches (Italian, club, Cajun, meatball, veggie, chicken farm, pizza sub, Reuben, Rachel, steak and cheese, chicken and cheese, French dip, grilled cheese, turkey fajita, Caribbean, and BBQ) and all sandwiches come in small (3″), medium (6″), and large (12″, I assume). They also serve salads (house, Greek, Italian, chef, chicken, or tuna) and baked potatoes (deli, chili, veggie, cheesy, and “just baked” with butter and sour cream) and soup of the day.

I considered ordering the Rachel. Different restaurants have different interpretations of the Rachel-some make it just like a Reuben expect with turkey instead of corned beef-but their Rachel is corned beef, pastrami, or turkey, 1000 Island dressing, melted Swiss, and hot slaw or coleslaw instead of the sauerkraut that is signature on a Reuben. However, I knew that Philip was planning to order a Reuben so I decided to order something else so that our orders wouldn’t be too similar. I decided instead to build my own-pastrami (I adore pastrami, which is basically just peppered corned beef) with Muenster cheese, steamed and topped with Boar’s Head horseradish mayo and Boar’s head spicy mustard, both recommended by the lady at the counter, lettuce, tomato, and pickle, on a whole wheat sub. I love that you can order a small sandwich. It was more than enough food for me and didn’t leave me feeling overly stuffed. It was a delicious sandwich. The meat, cheese, and bread were heated through (there is nothing I hate more than a sandwich that is supposed to be warm but turns out to be cold in the middle) and all the ingredients were very fresh, including the bread, which is baked there. The bread was soft and chewy, pretty much a perfect sub roll. The horseradish mayo and spicy mustard were a fantastic complement to the Boar’s Head pastrami. As a side I just had salt & vinegar chips, but there are other sides available, including slaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, side salad, and mac & cheese.

As I mentioned before, Philip ordered the Reuben, which is pretty much his standard deli order, at least on the first visit to a new place. The Reuben was served on grilled marble rye with Boar’s Head corned beef, melted Swiss, 1000 island dressing, and sauerkraut. I assume that they grill their sandwiches on a panini press, because the bread was deeply ridged and Philip said that it was the crispiest Reuben he’d ever had, which he said was definitely a positive. While he said that Vine Street Market still stands as his #1 Reuben, the Reuben here was definitely one of the best that he’d had-very fresh, ingredients well balanced, and everything heated through just right.

Our total for two small sandwiches, two bags of chips, and two drinks was around $14. I noticed that they had cookies on the counter, but I didn’t notice until we were walking out that they had a cake stand with cupcakes, including homemade Hostess-style cupcakes, which I kind of wish I’d gotten (but I have crack pie in my freezer, so I am saving my sweet tooth for that). The people were very friendly, the service was quick and efficient, and this is obviously a popular place for the locals. They also offer catering.

If you have reason to head to Cleveland (or even if you don’t!) you should check out Deli-Boys!

Deli-Boys is located in the Colony Square Plaza in 2538 Keith Street, Cleveland, TN 37312. They are open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (closed Sunday). You can call them at 423-472-8868. You can visit their website, www.deliboysonline.com. You can also like Deli-Boys on Facebook and follow @deliboysonline on Twitter.