Sandwich Review in NYC (Brooklyn Hero Shop)
I decided I'm going to LARP as a food blogger for a few days. My intention isn't to make a serious foray into it but to just pass the time more productively. Eat a good sandwich, walk about the neighborhood, and most importantly--stay offline. Too much internet is rotting my brain. I'm tired of every day starting the same way where I sit in front of my computer and just completely lose all direction in my life.
Plan: bike/walk somewhere in NYC, find a good sandwich place, eat a sandwich, review it, enjoy fresh air.
Sunday, October 20th.
We went for a nice walk towards the Barclays Center to begin the morning. The NY Liberty are slated to play a winner-take-all Game 5 for the WNBA Championship there later tonight. We see some women rocking some Liberty merch as we stroll around. My wife is scared that one of them we run into is her boss, a noted Liberty diehard and season ticket holder. Maybe I'll watch my first live WNBA game when my daughter Olivia's older. I won't watch tonight because it coincides with Game 6 NLCS. Please clinch tonight Blue.
After Whole Foods, we pivot towards Fort Greene to get sandwiches.
Here's my 1-4 review scale.
1: Abysmal. I can't even think of a '1' experience in my ten years of eating in NYC. A sandwich isn't that hard and I try to find well-received eateries, so I doubt you'll see a 1 grade.
2: Disappointing. The meat was too dry or the bread too cruncy or their headlining sandwich just didn't live up to the hype. There's just something obvious to pick at it. Disappointment.
3: Solid. I know Yelp might have trained some to think '3' is mid or worse, but for me, 3 is a solid experience and I'd eat there again. It's not special enough to warrant a higher grade.
4: Great. A special place that would become a staple go-to place for me.
I thought about adding a 5 for 'mind blowing' experience but I'll be honest with you, I need to configure what differentiates a 4 from a 5. I can't name a "mind blowing sandwich" I've had... yet. Maybe some 4's become 5's over time when I can compare the best I've had. So yeah. Expect a lot of 3's and 4's and I'm not going to a wax a ton poetic about a sandwich. 3 lines, give you an idea of what it's about, move on. And just to note, I'm not an obnoxious foodie, I swear. I'm rather easy to please.
First sandwich place: Brooklyn Hero Shop on 270 Vanderbilt Ave.
Nice place with a big menu wall of behind the counter. We order the meatball parm and Muffaletta--a New Orleans style cold-cut sandwich on a roll.
Meatball Parm: Meatball a bit firm and could've used more sauce. Good bread. Enjoyed it but wouldn't call it much better than say... a Wegman's meatball parm.
Muffaletta: Good salty cold cuts. The spicy Italian spread was delicious. They executed this one better than the Meatball IMO.
I'd give Brooklyn Hero Shop a Solid 3.
We stroll a bit more and take a brief 15 minute detour at Fort Greene playground for Olivia to test out a new slide. She can't count yet but from her face, I think she'd rate it a '4' on her 1-4 scale. Then we're back home at noon and now she's taking her nap and I'm finishing the blog up while eating the other half of my Muffaletta with a Coke. Happy Sunday.