Papa Lima

Pete Levin knows his sandwiches, and when not running Professor Thom’s sports bar in the East village, he is concocting them at his South Williamsburg outpost Papa Lima’s. Levin has expounded upon the hero style sandwich, which will make happy those of you who long for a little bit more that the corner stores bready, limp shredded iceberg filled, overly mayonnaised counterpart.
Okay, so the sandwiches are going to be on the pricey side. This isn’t your five-dollar foot-long, with prices running up to $11.95, which seems to comply more or less with the trend in trendy sandwich shops. (See Marlow and Sons, Brooklyn Standard.)
To start, there are a few other things that don’t come squeezed between slices of bread soups, potato salad, Gus’ pickles, and green salads, which come in at $8.95. They staff also claim, for those who may not want those slices of bread at all, that most of the sandwiches can turned into a salad. Good idea! Salad options become almost endless.
As for the sandwiches themselves, there are some twenty-five odd of them. Ranging from the very simple, The Little Champ, a kids only crust-less apple and peanut butter sandwich for $3.95, to the Jimmy J made on a twelve inch baguette with hot sopresatta salami, hot coppa, provolone, pepporochinis, tomatoes, shredded iceberg (gotta have it!), and onion.
They also have their own version of bahn mi, the Vietnamese sandwich popular all over the city right now. For $8.95 it is served on a baguette with roasted port and cucumber, and shredded carrot relish. I am loathe to pass up a bahn mi, but when it comes down to it, there are many bahn mi places that specialize in this delish Indochinese concoction so I would go for a Papa Lima specialty.
Levin’s own favorite is the Pablo Honey, $7.95. Remember when you were a kid, (or now if you are like me,) and you stuck potato chips in your sandwich during your school lunch? Well this has got that with turkey and American cheese on a baguette with a side of gravy for dipping. Word has it that Levin came up with the sauce in the NBC cafeteria. He works there as a cue card holder of Saturday Night live.
I also tried the Southside Steak and Cheese, $7.95, which is a spicy sandwich comprised of beef, grilled Portobello, cheddar and onions, with hot peppers, again served on a baguette.
Finally, to complete the sandwich tour, try The Evil Reuben, $9.95. I suppose the only thing evil about it, is that it is also from the spicy side of the menu, unless making it with smoked turkey instead of corned beef is somehow sinister. The trappings of slaw and Russian dressing stay the same, and sinister or not, I would say it is a hit.
And with high quality ingredients like bread from Amy’s Bread or salamis from Berkeley, California’s Fra’ Mani, it’s hard to go wrong.