My colleague took one look at the massive Italian sub I had brought back to the office from Martone’s Market & Café in Essex Junction and said, somewhat wistfully, “That’s the way subs used to be everywhere.”
Martone’s is old school, in the best of ways.
For 31 years, the market has been serving sandwiches piled so thickly with meats and fresh veggies that you can barely fit one in your mouth. The whole Italian on a crunchy-crusted, not-too-bready grinder roll ($15.50) was more than a foot long. It cradled a serious stack of rosy pink salami, mortadella and capicola topped with cheese, tomato, dark green romaine leaves, generous lashings of mayo and Italian dressing, and, of course, plenty of zippy banana peppers.
That sandwich easily fed three people. Even the modest (by comparison) smoked turkey half sandwich ($9.95) measured two and a half inches tall.
At Martone’s, the chicken salad is made from bone-in breasts that are house-roasted, shredded by hand, and mixed with mayo, celery and a little lemon juice. The really good hummus is also prepared fresh, as are the egg and albacore tuna salads. Rolls come from Stewart’s Bakery in Williston.
Tone (pronounced Tony) Martone, now 56, took over the old market on Main Street off Five Corners in 1992. Back then, he recalled, “I just started putting the sandwiches together the way I think they should be. A lot of people seem to agree.”
In an era when our three-second attention spans are always chasing the flashy new thing, Martone’s is a steady workhorse. Its owner’s commitment to making what he described humbly as “good” sandwiches easily landed the market in our season-long series on great sandwiches to power summer adventures in Vermont.
My most recent visit to Martone’s was followed by nothing more adventurous than office work. But on another day, I might have taken my favorite Italian sub through Five Corners to paddle a canoe in Indian Brook Reservoir or walk the surrounding trails. Or I might have driven a few miles farther to enjoy the river and paths in Jericho’s Mills Riverside Park.
I could even be persuaded to deviate from my Italian for the Veggie Nirvana (half $13.45/whole $14.75), which contains creamy, lemony hummus and a new version of the house tabbouleh — made with quinoa instead of bulgur, due to supply chain issues.
Pro tip: If you take your veggie sandwich to go, opt for the roll (add 75 cents to a half or whole) or a wrap ($14.45) instead of bread, which did not hold up well under the hummus during travel.
When I observed that the cost differential between a half and a whole sandwich was befuddlingly small, Martone responded, “Two halves are more than one whole.” The filling amounts are almost exactly the same for both sizes, he explained.
Martone recommends splitting a whole with a dining partner who shares your tastes. In his case, that would be someone who loves the Dark Side (half $12.20/whole $13.50), a sandwich special stacked with pastrami and corned beef and layered with housemade creamy coleslaw, Russian dressing and Swiss cheese.
“Coleslaw in a sandwich is genius,” Martone said. Looks like there’s yet another challenger for my go-to Italian sub.
Correction, July 26, 2023: An earlier version of this story misstated the location of Mills Riverside Park. It is in Jericho.
Note: Online ordering and prices are accurate on the website, but current hours are incorrect. Martone’s is open Tuesday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Classic Cuts | Going old school at Martone’s Market & Café in Essex Junction”
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2023.
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