After more than a month of voting and over 800 responses, we have a victor in The Baltimore Banner’s war of Italian subs, which pitted 16 of the area’s favorite sandwich shops against one another in a series of matchups. I recommend stopping at each of the contenders yourself, who are ordered by rank at the bottom of this post. But there can only be one winner.

According to you: Di Pasquale’s makes the best Italian sub in town.

Not exactly an upset victory.

But I did pick up one tasty tidbit after stopping by the shop’s Brewers Hill location last week to break the news to owner Joe Di Pasquale. The company has a pizza shop and bakery in the works in Highlandtown, where it was a longtime neighborhood institution. Bring on the carbs.

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Bread, after all, is the foundation of any truly great sandwich. At Di Pasquale’s, Italian cold cut sandwiches come on crusty baguettes made in house, with the insides partially hollowed out to make room for all that meat. “The bread is the key,” Joe said. “It’s a lot of fresh, hot bread that we’re using.”

Introduced to the menu in the 1980s, cold cut sandwiches are actually a relatively recent addition to the menu at Di Pasquale’s, which opened in 1914 and initially just sold groceries — including livestock like goats and chickens. Customers “had the skills from the old country” and could kill them at home. The practice ended in the ’70s, when the city cracked down on at-home slaughtering, said Joe, who became a vegan six years ago.

Their most popular sandwich — the “real Italian,” of course — incorporates mortadella straight from Italy, Genoa salami, capicola, prosciuttini or peppered ham, plus provolone, tomato, lettuce and onion. It’s a more generous arrangement than you’d see in Italy, Joe said, where sandwiches spotlight just one meat (and contrary to hoagie purists, mayo is often included).

Baltimore’s home to generations of Di Pasquale’s loyalists. New moms, deprived of cold cuts for nine months, have been known to request the “real Italian” en route home from the hospital after having a baby. I had my sister-in-law bring me one when I was still at Mercy Medical Center just after my son was born.

Other fans include members of the Baltimore Orioles, including a few who live in Brewers Hill. Their opponents eat them, too: Di Pasquale’s is a regular caterer for visiting baseball teams during games at Camden Yards. Joe also recalled the time a customer ordered three entrees at the business’s old Highlandtown shop, and a cook was sure it was a food critic. When Joe looked in the dining room, though, the guest turned out to be then-Raven Tony “The Goose” Siragusa.

The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.

The 2020 announcement that Di Pasquale’s, which also has a branch along the water in South Baltimore, would shutter its Highlandtown location and relocate to Brewers Hill was earth-shattering to some of the store’s longtime customers. Joe said he drives some of the old-timers out to the new store in his car.

DiPasquale's Italian Market is home to local favorites such as subs, salads, deli cheeses and meats, homemade Italian bakery items and more.
Di Pasquale’s Italian Market is home to local favorites such as subs, salads, deli cheeses and meats, homemade Italian bakery items and more. (Kaitlin Newman/The Baltimore Banner)

But Joe may soon be able to stop his one-man taxi service as Di Pasquale’s is planning on resurrecting its old Gough Street shop, now used for cooking and storage, and bringing it back as a bakery, pizzeria and cafe. Joe says the spot still has a liquor license, and he hopes to begin the build-out within a year.

Not that Joe doesn’t already have enough on his plate. Business at the Brewers Hill location, where he works with his wife, children and sister-in-law, is double that of the previous storefront in Highlandtown. And the holidays don’t promise a slowdown. “I tell my friends and relatives, ‘Don’t invite me anywhere, because I cannot skip a beat. I can’t go out for a couple hours. I need that for sleep,’” Joe said.

He does have a vacation coming up, he said with a wry smile. It’s daylight saving time. “I get that hour.”

Here’s the full ranking of Italian subs in the area, according to our bracket:

  1. Di Pasquale’s
  2. Trinacria Foods
  3. Pastore’s Italian Delly (Towson)
  4. Mastellone’s Deli & Wine Shop
  5. Isabella’s Brick Oven
  6. Vito’s Pizza
  7. Scittino’s Italian Market
  8. Cannella’s Italian Deli
  9. Santoni’s Marketplace & Catering
  10. ZaVino Italian Marketplace
  11. Fortunato Brothers Pizza
  12. Brookside Market
  13. The Wine Merchant
  14. Rosie’s Delicatessen
  15. John’s Italian Deli
  16. Eddie’s of Roland Park