When I hear native East Coast friends rave about sandwiches with the word “Italian” in it I know it’s worth a try. I had no business being in Newark, but was actually surprised by the # of Spanish restaurants that kept popping up in my searches. I was in town on a layover detour strictly for Dickie Dee’s. A sandwich on an American style fry bread/pita with fried potatoes and fried hot dogs.

Cash money is the name of the game and it’s not unheard of to wait a good minute in line. The location is small, very old, not dingy, but certainly not modern. Great exposure to natural light. Service is pretty good, albeit sloppy. They are not east coast rude for the sake of being east coast rude. They are certainly in the name of keeping it OG being it’s 3rd generation owned. Price point is still very good and those potatoes really fill you up.

The bread is not standard pizza bread, it’s not standard pita, it’s almost like a fry bread, but slightly more loaf ish. It’s cut and the middle cut open for filling. This is crucial to avoid the typical “blowing your back out” which is common in armature burger eating and “blowing your bottom out” when overloading typical hotdog buns. It’s moist, sturdy, yeasty. It stands up to all that oil from the fried inners.

The hot dog is fried to a level just before ripper. 2 are put on the bottom with mustard, fried onions, peppers, then fried potatoes equivalent to half a large russet then ketchup. It’s very filling, even the single. It holds up to the what feels like 1 pound mobile feast.

I honestly thought the potatoes would have some seasoning on them. They are kind of bland. You have to get the peppers and I would have liked some sautee’d onions and not fried for more crunch.

I didn’t get to try the pizza’s but can say the cold subs were blah and the only hot sub that caught my eye was the sausage parm which instantly reminded me of a traditional ragu and I liked it more than most chicken parms.

Apparently their version of “cali” is lettuce, tomato, raw onions, mayo and ketchup. The tomato and ketchup combo is really more popular in Utah, but your probably not going to sell any Utah Steak’s or Utah Burgers. Weird how they did diced sautéed onions in my burger, but not my Italian double or single dog.

It’s pretty hard to specialize in this Italian dog, cheese steaks, burgers, pizza’s, cold and hot subs. Stick to a few and you’ll be around another 60 years, otherwise no one will order the cold subs which was apparent in talking with locals. They only get a handful of items, ever.

If I’m ever in Newark again I’m coming back. IF. IF you are ever in Newark you too should stop by.