Its impossible to find an Italian sub in NYC

From pennsylvaniatrip08

We have lots of food options in NYC, but there are certain gaping holes in our local food. I grew up in Miami and spent some time in Boston. For me, the perfect Italian sub is a mix of cold cuts and then lettuce, tomato, sweet onions, then topped with pepper relish, a sprinkle of oregano, and oil and vinegar. Just outside of the city, you can find subs made this way, though sometimes you have to make sure they don't put pickles and mayonnaise on it. I find this combination of cold, sour, sweet and tangy to be perfect.
In Miami, we had one place that was absolute sub perfection this way. It was called Georges Super Subs. They didn't have the pepper relish, but on each table there was a jar of pepperoncini. The sub was layered first with meat and cheese to protect the bread. Then a layer of shredded lettuce and tomato. A sprinkle of Oregano. Then a house dressing I believe to be no more than cheap salad oil and white vinegar, with a little bit of salt and garlic powder. Another layer of meat and cheese, then it was topped with TONS of finely shaved sweet onion and a bit more oregano and dressing. It was huge. They shoved a fork in each one. To eat it, you had to take the fork, and use it to wedge the onions and other contents into the bread and grab it. Once you picked it up, you could not put it down, or it would explode. You would take a bite of sandwich, then take a bite of pepper. It was absolute sub perfection. Sadly, it closed long ago.
The store was not owned by "George" anymore when it closed, but the son of the Original owner had a place in Tampa called Gordys. Tales had it that Gordy made a similar sub, but that sadly is long gone as well. There was even a mini empire of Gordys with stores in Gainesville and Kendall. Sigh.

So my perfect sub was gone, but I contented myself with, and grew to enjoy the above described above. The one pictured may be the most perfect one I have had in couple of years. Its from a joint called Subs and Six Packs in PA. We were driving along and passed it. I did a U-turn and came back to try it. It just had to be good. And it was. The Italian was exactly what it should be. But there are lots of great subs all over PA.

My current favorite one is at the White House Sub Shop in Atlantic City. It needs no press as the line is huge. They specialize in their own pepper relish which rocks. Click on the Link to see Roadfoods article about it.

Just about any pizza joint in Boston makes an okay Italian sub too.

But for some reason, when you get a sub in New York, even in Little Italy, they cannot resist the urge to top them with marinated mushrooms or roasted red pepper. Both of those flavors overwhelm rather than compliment the meat like the hot pepper relish does. Another head scratcher was when I asked for hot peppers at an italian deli and they put what was basically red pepper flakes marinated in oil which was plenty hot, but it was only hot and painful to eat. I guess I will just have to make my own, or go on more road trips.