Mangialardo and Sons, Potomac Avenue Metro - Massive Italian subs on 13th Street and Penn Ave SE

[edenman]

A friend last night was raving about this place and I couldn't find a thread for it here. It's a weekday-only, lunch-only place. Inconvenient, but maybe worth a trip one workday. DCist covered it last year, couldn't find coverage in wp, etc.

Mangialardo & Sons, Inc.
1317 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
202-543-6212
Metro: Potomac Avenue

[Pat]

I recall getting a pretty decent sub there, but that was quite a while ago. It's a popular place for law enforcement officers to eat. Actually, I don't believe there is seating. If there is, it's not much. It's mostly a storefront/carryout rather than a restaurant.

[Al Dente]

I think I must have had high expectations or something. I mean, look at the name of the joint! But the sub wasn't anything memorable. This was over a year ago, so I don't know if they've recently upgraded the ingredients they're using. I just remember it being very Sysconian.

[Keithstg]

I recall getting a pretty decent sub there, but that was quite a while ago. It's a popular place for law enforcement officers to eat. Actually, I don't believe there is seating. If there is, it's not much. It's mostly a storefront/carryout rather than a restaurant.

Definitely no seating. Just a storefront, with MPD cars triple parked out front - that's the best way to determine if they are open. Sandwiches are ok - decent meatball sub. Not worth a special trip, IMO.

[Tweaked]

I concur, had one sub there and it was ok...nothing to draw me back and of course the hours don't help.

If you are going to trek across town for a sub, you might be better served by A. Litteri in the Florida Avenue Market

[beachgirl54]

I have fond memories, when I lived on the Hill, of the G-Man - the only sub I ordered - soft roll, sweet peppers. It was divine. Also used to buy the frozen balls of pizza dough - they were cheap, and I was a starving student. Now, when I need a fix, I go to the Italian Store because it's convenient.

[hillvalley]

Should you find yourself traveling across the pond, a G-Man on a hard roll holds up beautifully during the trip.  Not quite as good as Literri's, but more convenient for me and fulfilled the Italian sub craving.*

*Not surprisingly, you can't find a proper Italian sub in northern Italy or the Italian section of Switzerland.

[DonRocks]

*Not surprisingly, you can't find a proper Italian sub in northern Italy or the Italian section of Switzerland.

At least not since the demise of Mussolini. -- Click --> <-- Me --

[DonRocks]

A friend last night was raving about this place and I couldn't find a thread for it here. It's a weekday-only, lunch-only place. Inconvenient, but maybe worth a trip one workday. DCist covered it last year, couldn't find coverage in wp, etc.

Mangialardo & Sons, Inc.

1317 Pennsylvania Ave., SE

202-543-6212

Metro: Potomac Avenue

This is "one of those" issues that makes me tear my hair out, and age at an astonishing rate. It's why Presidents go gray.

My perfectly logical rule for deciding between Restaurants and Dining, or Shopping and Cooking, has been simple and binary: is there any seating?

So using that, I guess Mangialardo and Sons belongs where Artisan Confections belongs, but it just doesn't seem right. The Italian Store at least has outdoor seating. Hmm, what about Vace?

Calgon, take me away.

[RWBooneJr]

The dividing line should be whether it sells food that is ready to eat, as opposed to something that you need to cook, assemble, reheat, etc. Otherwise, no food truck is a restaurant. Regardless, Stachowski's has a table, but is in Shopping and Cooking.

[Pat]

The dividing line should be whether it sells food that is ready to eat, as opposed to something that you need to cook, assemble, reheat, etc. Otherwise, no food truck is a restaurant. Regardless, Stachowski's has a table, but is in Shopping and Cooking.

I concur.  While they used to sell groceries here in years gone by, they now have very few packaged items.  If one wanted to, it would be possible to stand in a corner of the store and eat, but it would not be too comfortable.   That discourages loitering in any case.

Earlier, I picked up a turkey sub (hard roll w/everything) because I was out near there and really wanted something to eat.  It's certainly a good deal at $7.20 for a footlong sub.  That was also the price of all the subs people in front of me were picking up too, of all different varieties.  There were probably 8 other customers in the store during the 10 minutes I was there around 11:15-11:30.

For me this is more convenient than Litteri's, since I have to drive to get to Litteri's.

[Mark Dedrick]

When I worked on the Hill, rather than just lived there, we used to hit them up about once or twice a month, and I would always order the G Man. It was an Italian sub upgrade over the typical Gandel's Special (although that sub has a very special place in my heart and memories). It's not as good as Litteri's, but it's still a pretty great sub.

One of my coworkers would always order the spicy pizza sub, and I did once as well. It's essentially two entire pizzas of pepperoni stuffed into a hard sub roll and warmed up.

[FunnyJohn]

When I worked on the Hill and was going to be on a CoDel flying overnight, I would try to get to Mangialardos beforehand for a G-Man to take with me for the flight.   The first time I did this and was observed unwrapping the sub, a few jealous staffers asked  "how'd I get that?", and I explained it to them. For future trips I polled the other travelers to see if I needed to get them subs too.  Always had at least five or six other takers.  If you go to Mangialardos at noon on just about any day, but especially Fridays, you will see Feds, local police/firefighters, DC govt. and of course Congressional staff in line.  That's how the "G-Man" got its appelation.

[Tweaked]

Nice little blog article up on the Wash Post website about Mangialardo and Sons keeping it old school in the face of Hill development.

[captcourt]

First time at Mangialardo's for lunch today.  Picked up a G-Man for my +1, and a G-Man double meat/cheese, heavy on the sweets/hots, for me.  Exactly what our souls, though perhaps not our arteries/blood pressure, needed.  They seemed very pleased to see me, as there were only two other customers in there at 1:30.  I tipped heavily, and fervently hope they can keep going.

[Mark Dedrick]

14 hours ago, captcourt said:

First time at Mangialardo's for lunch today.  Picked up a G-Man for my +1, and a G-Man double meat/cheese, heavy on the sweets/hots, for me.  Exactly what our souls, though perhaps not our arteries/blood pressure, needed.  They seemed very pleased to see me, as there were only two other customers in there at 1:30.  I tipped heavily, and fervently hope they can keep going.

They are also doing delivery now for the first time (I think). It's one of my favorite spots. 

[Ericandblueboy]

I tried A Litteri and found it wanting.  Should I even bother with Mangialardo's?  I guess if I was gonna be down there, I might as well try it.

[saf]

8 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

I tried A Litteri and found it wanting.  Should I even both with Mangialardo's?  I guess if I was gonna be down there, I might as well try it.

I would try it - I like them both, but the sandwiches are not the same.

[eatruneat]

5 hours ago, saf said:

I would try it - I like them both, but the sandwiches are not the same.

Second this. Mangialardos > A Litteri.

If we are talking Italian sandwiches, we had one Bub & Pop's the other week. It was good but the addition of pickles really took away from the sandwich. Stachowski's Market is still #1 in our book. Ghostburger has one we have yet to try, but it's $20 so it will be awhile before we get around to it. 

[Ericandblueboy]

I got the G-man yesterday but didn't get to eat it until today.  It does taste different with the fontina cheese and loads of oregano.  I kinda of like it.