The roll is baked here, which is most of it
Heroes & Subs
Seeded rolls baked here each morning and filled to order — the Italian combination, chicken parm, meatball, or aubergine.
A hero is a bread sandwich, and a bought-in roll is what is wrong with most of them. Ours are made from a slightly enriched version of the pizza dough, shaped and baked every morning on the back bench — a crust with some resistance to it and a crumb that will absorb oil and vinegar without collapsing.
The cold ones are built to order and never in advance, because a hero assembled at eleven for a one o'clock lunch has already gone soft in the middle. The hot ones — chicken parm, meatball, aubergine — come off the same sauce and the same mozzarella as the pizzas, finished under the broiler.
Oil and vinegar go on last and go on generously. A dry Italian hero is a sad object.
What goes on it
The roll
Baked here each morning, seeded, about ten inches, with a crust that has some chew.
The Italian combination
Salami, capicola, mortadella, provolone, shredded lettuce, tomato, red onion, oil, vinegar, oregano.
The hot ones
Chicken cutlet, house meatballs or fried aubergine, with pizza sauce and mozzarella, finished under the broiler.
The dressing
Olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried oregano, salt and pepper. Generously.
How it is made here
Rolls baked at seven
Every morning. When they are gone they are gone, and on a busy Saturday that can be by two o'clock.
Built to order
Never in advance. A hero made an hour early is a soggy hero.
Hot ones broiled
Sauce and mozzarella under the broiler until it blisters, then closed.
Wrapped tight
In paper, tightly, which is what holds a hero together on the way home.
Heroes & Subs — what it costs
- Italian combination$13
- Chicken parmigiana$14
- Meatball$12
- Aubergine parmigiana$12
Prices include every topping listed above. Extras are $3 for vegetables and $4 for meats. Prices change when our costs do; the menu here is the menu in the shop.
Before you order this
A shared flour kitchen, and what that rules out. Our kitchen handles wheat flour in open air all day, along with milk, eggs, soy, tree nuts and fish. Flour becomes airborne every time a dough ball is opened, and it settles on every surface in the room, including the peels, the oven floor, the cutting board and the wheel. We can tell you what we put on a pizza, and we will tell you honestly. We cannot tell you that anything leaving this kitchen is free of an allergen, and we will not say it. If a reaction would send you to hospital, this is not a safe kitchen for you, and we would far rather say so than take the order.
The kitchen is one room. Every pizza here is opened on the same bench, baked on the same floor and cut with the same wheel, and that is true of this one as much as any other. The pages on allergens and cross-contact and vegetarian, vegan and dietary questions set out plainly what we can and cannot tell you, including the things most shops leave you to assume.
The rest of the menu
Other things worth ordering
Baked Pasta
Baked ziti and lasagne from the same sauce as the pizzas, finished under the mozzarella in a small steel pan.
From $15
Salads
A chopped Italian salad with an oregano vinaigrette, and a caprese when the tomatoes are worth it — which is not all year, and we will say so.
From $12
Wings
Baked in the pizza oven rather than fried, then tossed — hot, mild, or garlic-parmesan.
From $11Asked at the counter
Heroes & Subs — questions
Can I get a half?
Yes, half price, on any of them. It is genuinely half a hero rather than a small one.
Are the meatballs the same as on the pizza?
Yes, the same ones, cooked in the same sauce every morning.
Can you make it without cheese?
Yes on all of them. On the hot ones you lose most of what holds it together, and we will say so, but it is your sandwich.
Twelve to fifteen minutes, and worth the wait
Order a pie
Telephone the shop and we will tell you honestly how long the kitchen is running before you commit to anything. Collection is always quicker than delivery and the pizza is always better for it. If you are ordering for a crowd, the catering page has the trays and the notice we need.