The latest hubbub in the village sandwich scene is Porchetta (110 East 7th Street, just east of 1st ave); it’s a tiny two seat, mostly-take-away nook dedicated to one thing: traditionally cooked pork, rolled with herbs and slow roasted (aka porchetta).This leaves the pork soft and juicy – and delicious. When I say dedicated, I mean it: the only equipment there is a massive oven for roasting and some warming trays for keeping the pork eat-ready. Sure, they serve a few sides (beans and some greens) and even offer the pork in non-sandwich form, but I’m willing to overlook those minor transgressions (who can afford to alienate the unenlightened salad crowd in this economy?). To me, it’s part of the elite breed of dedicated sandwich shops. Welcome to the fold Porchetta!
The sandwiches from Porchetta are delicious, if a bit expensive ($9.75 with tax). They place a large portion of slow roasted pork (juicy topped with cracklins) in a sliced ciabatta rol. That’s it. No sauce, no olive oil, no lettuce. Yes! The simplest of sandwich complexity: a single ingredient. (Aside: This isn’t terribly different from a pulled pork sandwich. Is pork the only meat that can be happily enjoyably with only bread?)
The sandwich was a pleasure to eat. There was no filling creep, no trouble fighting to keep the sandwich in tact and no struggle to bite through the bread. The pork was juicy with slight variations in texture and flavor as you bite into more and less fatty pieces (naturally, the more the better). The cracklins were tasty and did provide an alternative texture, though some were MUCH too hard and crunchy and if I didn’t expect them would have screamed and thrown them on the floor. Ask for the non-crunchy skin parts and extra fatty pork bits. The bread did a good job holding in all the fat, grease and juice without ever becoming soggy. The crust was slightly too tough and occasionally felt too chewy. I recommend that they find slightly softer-crusted bread and carve out a bit of the insides to focus the flavor on the pork.
Since they are loaded with pork, they are a bit heavy in your stomach, but since they’re not too big you don’t risk feeling ill from too much pork fat. After one sandwich I was a bit hungry, but would not recommend ordering two. Get some sides or an empanada at Rubens around the corner (122 1st Ave).
This sandwich is delicious. Go eat one.
Starting with this review, all sandwich reviews will be plotted on the ‘wich plot (for background see the ‘wich plot primer). It should be no surprise that this one falls under very high execution (amazing pork and decent bread) and low strategy (only one ingredient). I’ve appended the plot with the price, so you can decide for yourself if $9.75 is worth it.
Take a closer look, no biting please:
3 Comments
Yo, I don’t be diggin on swine tho.
can u sit at this place or just takeaway?
Marv, You can sit down, but they only have a few chairs. They have a bench outside with a few seats, but it’s best to just take away, unless you know it won’t be crowded.
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