Picking a favorite between Tasty Gourmet and Deli-icious, two sandwich shops that sandwich the Tufts campus, is no easy task. It's choosing between two places that have devoted years of effort to crafting inventive deli sandwiches.
It's also choosing between the sandwiches made by a father and those made by his son.
On Boston Avenue, Ralph Martin has served up a slew of sandwich combinations,
always offered alongside a side dish and a pickle spear, at Tasty Gourmet since he opened the shop in 1996. And a short walk away, where College Avenue meets Davis Square, Ralph's son Keith operates Deli-icious, which he launched in the former home of a roast beef shop after a decade of working at his father's shop.
The influence of Tasty's on Deli-icious is strong, from the same choices of sides and the wax paper-wrapped pickle spear to the same cold cuts imported from Boar's Head, right down to the identical Styrofoam containers in which each deli's sandwiches arrive. Deli-icious also bears a few sandwiches with almost identical listed ingredients as the Tasty's originals.
Here's the menu listing for what comprises Tasty's popular "Bacon Turkey Bravo," for example: turkey breast, bacon, smoked Gouda, romaine, tomato and Signature dressing on tomato basil bread.
And here's what goes into Deli-icious' "Southwestern Turkey Melt": roast turkey, bacon, smoked Gouda, romaine, tomato and chili-Dijon sauce on tomato basil bread.
They may not be identical sandwiches, but this cannot be a coincidence: The Deli-icious version is clearly the sandwich progeny of the Tasty's version. And after trying both of these sandwiches side by side this week, I prefer the Deli-icious twist - the son of sandwich - to the original Tasty's sandwich.
Though the ingredients are almost the same, Keith makes a few subtle tweaks to the Tasty's formula. He takes the time and effort to grill his "Southwestern Turkey Melt" with some butter or oil in a pan, which gives the crust a bit more flavor and helps the sandwich maintain its structure, while the Tasty's version is Panini-pressed, which causes the interior layers to get mushed together.
The Deli-icious sandwich I ate also bore a good portion of romaine lettuce, while the Tasty's version I ate had no romaine lettuce on it. The lettuce is crucial in this sandwich - along with the tomato, it helps balance out what is otherwise a meat-heavy bite. It's possible that the lack of lettuce was an honest mistake, but it's a costly one.
I've never been able to figure out what exactly is inside Tasty's special sauce, which the shop uses on a bunch of its sandwiches, including its consistently good tuna melt, but Del-icious's "Chili-Dijon" variation is darker in color and has a spicier kick. I also appreciate that Deli-icious removes some of the mystery behind the sauce by identifying two of its flavors.
As my side I tried the French fries at both places, which were both decent, though are way better, like any French fry, eaten immediately after they come out of the deep fryer, when they've still got their crispy texture.
The kicker here is that Deli-icous's "Southwestern Turkey Melt" clocks in at over a dollar cheaper than the Tasty's "Bacon Turkey Bravo," at $6.69 compared to $7.99.
Both of these sandwiches are solid options, but the price difference is yet another reason that next time I'm craving a deli sandwich, I'm likely to pass by Tasty's and head into Davis to hit up the variation on the classic at Deli-icious.
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Ben Kochman is a senior majoring in English. He can be reached at benjamin.kochman@tufts.edu or on Twitter @benkochman. Want to see what Ben ate this week? Check out his video column on Jumbo Slice at blogs.tuftsdaily.com.
