Eastside Hoagie Showdown
Last month we told you it was coming. Eastside Vibe’s first annual Hoagie Showdown (actually it might be the first of its kind by any publication). We were spurred on by our May issue’s Pub Grub at Pete’s Cafe. Pete proudly claims to have the best hoagie on the Eastside. It was great but it made us wonder, who really is the best? You know what, almost every contestant invited said they have the best. We knew right away this was going to be a real honest to goodness showdown. We told them all to “Put your hoagie where our mouth is and we’ll get down to the real deal!” We knew it would be unfair for us to judge the contest. So we brought in hoagie connoisseurs Richard and Dennis Bell as well as local restaurateur Chris Hamm owner of Latitudes Cafe & Martini Bar (they don’t serve hoagies). Chris also shares the Bell’s fond affection for one of the Eastside’s most traditional treats...the Hoagie. We scoured the Eastside for anyone that served hoagies to invite (corporate companies excluded of course) and found 12. The Contestants. Angilo’s (Day Heights), McNamara’s (Day Heights) DeMeo’s (Milford) Bad Habitz (Milford) The Works (Loveland) Newtown Village Tavern Sports Page Cafe (Mt Carmel) Tostado’s Grill (East End) Maloney’s Pub (Anderson) Garzelli’s (Cherry Grove) Gramma’s (Owensville) Pete’s Cafe (Milford) The list turned out to be a well rounded selection of Eastside pubs spanning one end of the Eastside to the other. Chris Hamm (owner of Latitudes) was kind enough to open the Milford location just for our contest. Chris gave us the keys to the kitchen so we fired up the convection oven, dished out the appetizer plates and started slicing the hoagies up. Each hoagie was served hot and as fresh as possible. In fact, the actual quality would be the same as a Friday night delivery order. The kitchen was strictly off limits (even to Chris!). We took no chances with the contestants getting a sneak peak at any of the wrappers or bags the hoagies came out of. This was a serious showdown after all. The scoring was broken down to a simple criteria. A score of 1-10 was given to the following categories; toppings, bun, meat, sauce, cheese, taste and overall. We kept it fair by allowing only steak hoagie entries. Many of the contestants offer meatball, chicken, fish and sausage hoagies. However, a variety that diverse could not be judged fairly and evenly across the board. So we stuck to the traditional steak hoagie. In the end we ended up with a total of 13 hoagies. Why? Well two pubs gave us one mushroom sauce steak hoagie and one with pizza sauce (Bad Habitz and Newtown Village Tavern). Newtown Village Tavern also gets an honorable mention for making the hoagies for our contest even though they are closed on Mondays. That was cool! Speaking of closed, Pete’s Cafe (the original pub responsible for inspiring us to put on the contest) was closed. Pete could not be reached and therefore was not entered in the contest after all. It’s a shame because one of the Latitudes staff asked if we had a Pete’s hoagie and told us they think it’s the best. Sadly we had none. Before the actual judging took place the Mountain Dew was replaced with water so as to have a clean palate. Water bottles full, fresh pens and scorecards in hand they were hungry and ready to go! After 30 minutes of intense and strangely silent deliberation the results were in. The judges had scored the entries, loosened their belts, stretched and waited anxiously for us to tally the results. The first, second and third place results are as follows: (210 possible points)Name total points The Works 188 Bad Habitz 188 (Pizza sauce version) Bad Habitz 184 (Mushroom sauce version) Tostado’s Grill 177 Yeah we know it’s a tie for first. However, The Works was the only entry to use shredded steak (Philly style). Since we only intended for contestants to submit traditional steak hoagies, we have to give the “Best Eastside Hoagie” award to Bad Habitz. Their fat juicy steak pattie was definitely not a J.T.M. style pattie most other people used. That’s what most likely shot their scores up. Their hoagie is all around a high scorer but the meat pattie was unique to the contest and maybe even unique to the whole city. The Works had a great entry but since it wasn’t a steak pattie it wasn’t really a traditional hoagie. If we had included non-traditional hoagies it still may have won. Maloney’s entered an Italian sausage hoagie we didn’t submit for judging and it was great! DeMeo’s also makes a mean Italian sausage hoagie so the top spots could have been completely different if we didn’t stick to the traditional steak hoagie entries. The fact that Bad Habitz not only tied for first but also took second with only a 4 point difference really shows how good their hoagies are. If we had noticed that The Works hoagies are shredded steak we may have passed them up on this particular contest but to be fair we did say steak hoagie and a steak hoagie it was. We should have specified steak pattie hoagie. We feel it’s our fault there’s a tie so were giving a “Best Eastside Hoagie” award to The Works as well. They did make a hell of a hoagie so they deserve it. Tostado’s took the third place spot but their hoagie is far from third rate. It was delicious (it also was not a J.T.M. style patty). Tostado’s just uses a regular 8oz. sirloin steak. Wow! That’s a nice twist. An honorable mention goes out to Garzelli’s with the Western Hoagie. Bacon and BBQ sauce set this hoagie apart from the rest, a delicious twist on an old favorite. Garzelli’s toasted bun also added a nice touch. The judges enjoyed almost all of the entries but in the end there is only one best. For now it’s Bad Habitz. We feel so bad about Pete’s Cafe missing out on the contest we are going to pit Pete’s and Bad Habitz one on one to see if Pete’s can still pull out in first place. After all, there can be only one best right? One cool thing is no matter which one wins Milford can already claim the fame of having the best hoagies on the Eastside. Look for the head to head showdown in our July issue.
