Month: January 2025

Gabriel’s Subs

Gabriel’s Subs (https://sites.google.com/view/gabrielssubs/home) is a rarity in Orlando — a friendly neighborhood sub shop that has survived and thrived since 1958.  Not many restaurants have been around that long in our relatively young city, and especially not in College Park, an area where many trendier restaurants just don’t last for any number of reasons.  Through all the turnover, Gabriel’s remains a retro-yet-timeless destination where generations of families and hungry teenagers continue to dine.  My high school experience consisted of being a lonely, horny, increasingly bitter outsider, counting down the days to graduating and escaping to college (which I looked at like the witness relocation program), but I guarantee that if I had attended Edgewater High School in College Park, I would have at least looked back fondly on the proximity to Gabriel’s Subs.

I only recently made it to Gabriel’s for the first time, and it was so good that I fixated on it for almost two more weeks before I had a chance to return.  A friend with good taste had recommended the cheesesteak sub, with the caveat that it might not be as impressive as other cheesesteaks I’ve had, but it would be something singular and special.  Well, this dude called it.

The cheesesteak at Gabriel’s is a pretty simple thing: grilled ribeye steak, sliced so thin it is practically shaved, then sauteed with onions and served on a soft roll with American cheese, my preferred cheese for a burger, breakfast sandwich, or a cheesesteak, as it turns out.  Nothing melts quite as satisfyingly or pairs with hot, greasy meats quite as well as good ol’ American.  I added hot cherry peppers to mine, which I will always do when they are an option.  

It was boiling lava hot and pretty greasy, so the above photo was the only one I got, and it didn’t really show much.  I had to go back, to try that sandwich again to see if the first one was an anomaly, or if it would always be that good — and on my second visit, I snapped two slightly better photos.  Note the different colored basket for cheesesteak #2:

You see, stalwart Saboscrivnerinos, there are definitely more authentic cheesesteaks around that are more like the classic Philadelphia version.  My personal favorites in Orlando are identical sandwiches served at John and John’s – A Pizza Shop and Cavo’s Bar and Kitchen.  But what makes Gabriel’s cheesesteak special to me is that it tastes JUST LIKE a Krystal or White Castle slider burger, but in sub form.  It’s uncanny, especially after adding a squirt of yellow mustard to my second cheesesteak to match the Krystal flavor even closer.
I left off the pickles (honestly my least favorite part of the Krystal and White Castle flavor) and of course added the hot cherry peppers, which make almost everything better for me, but it was such a comforting, familiar savory flavor profile.  The meltiness of the cheese melded with the steak and onions on those soft rolls hit just right, and I can’t say enough nice things about it.  It is also reminiscent of that New York borough bodega classic sandwich, the chopped cheese, moreso than any other Philly cheesesteaks you’ve had.

RING THE ALARM, because Gabriel’s serves onion rings, and I had to try them!  I prefer battered onion rings to this breaded style, but I ate them with a mountain of ketchup, scalding my tongue the entire time because they were so hot out of the fryer.

While I was trying a historic sub shop for the first time, I couldn’t leave without ordering their version of an Italian sub.  Gabriel’s calls it the grinder, and it comes with hard salami, capicola, imported ham, prosciuttini (which I’ve only ever seen on Jersey Mike’s #13 Original Italian), provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, Italian dressing, and I added on sweet peppers.  This is the grinder back at home, in front of my familiar microwave on my familiar green plates, after the flavors had a chance to meld together in the fridge for a few hours.

They really load up those soft sub rolls, so it’s a bit messy to eat, even by Italian sub standards.  But it was really tasty.  It’s hard for me to dethrone the namesake Stasio sub from Stasio’s Italian Deli and Market, but Gabriel’s grinder was really satsifying, and I’d happily order it on any return trips.

In fact, I got one on my very first return trip, to get a better photo (and also because I wanted another one, with hot cherry peppers this time)!

Is it overstuffed?  Yes.  Is it messy?  Indubitably.  Is it spicy?  Oh, indeed.  But so am I.

My friends and dozens of readers know that a sub — and especially an Italian sub — is probably my favorite meal.  I am always on a quest for good food, but I seek out sandwiches and subs wherever I go because they always sound good to me.  I am thrilled to have finally discovered Gabriel’s Subs after living in the Orlando area for 20 years, but better late than never.  And after trying it twice, I totally get it.  I’m on board.  Like Beefy King, a similar time capsule of a restaurant that has withstood changing tastes and trends by continuing to do what it does best, Gabriel’s is an iconic institution and a certified classic.  If you are a fellow fan, what is your usual order, and how long have you been ordering it?

An Vi

As all Orlando residents know, the vast majority of our Vietnamese restaurants are mostly located together in the Mills 50 district, centered around East Colonial Drive and Mills Avenue, east of downtown Orlando.  There are a few more in Orlando’s Chinatown, centered in Pine Hills on West Colonial Drive, west of downtown.  A few Vietnamese restaurants have come and gone in the Seminole County suburbs, closer to where The Saboscrivner lives, but they are never fantastic, and they rarely last.  So when An Vi (https://www.anvirestaurant.com/) opened relatively close to home in Casselberry (I think in 2023), we hoped for the best.  I am pleased to say it did not disappoint after two visits — one for takeout and the second for dining in.  Chef-owner Joseph Nguyen and his wife-partner Rose Nguyen opened An Vi after running two Vietnamese restaurants in Seattle, and my favorite city’s loss is our gain.

For our first takeout order, my wife requested lemongrass tofu with rice vermicelli noodles (bun).  I didn’t try any, but she loved it.

We ordered shrimp pad Thai noodles to share, since we hadn’t had pad Thai in a long time, and it always hits the spot, even from a Vietnamese restaurant.  Especially from this Vietnamese restaurant.  I love it when the pad Thai is a little bit tangy, even approaching sour, and An Vi nailed it.  Some places make it too sweet, without that acidic tang to balance it out.

We also shared an order of gumbo, that Cajun stew that usually contains shrimp, chicken, andouille sausage, and the “trinity” of onions, celery, and green bell peppers, served in a rich roux thickened with okra and ladled over white rice.  If getting gumbo at a Vietnamese restaurant sounds even weirder than getting pad Thai at a Vietnamese restaurant, consider that many Vietnamese immigrants settled along the Gulf Coast in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and there is a wonderful culinary fusion cuisine called Viet-Cajun.  (King Cajun Crawfish is one of several Viet-Cajun restaurants around Orlando that serves this style).
My wife and I both adore good gumbo (although I like mine much spicier than she does), and An Vi’s version did not disappoint either of us.

I am famous for my love of sandwiches, especially banh mi, the Vietnamese sub sandwich that is a product of French colonialism.  While the menu teased a ribeye French dip banh mi that sounded amazing, I was told it is no longer available.  I chose my standard, a house special pork banh mi, with a few different pork-based cold cuts, pickled carrot and daikon radish, and fresh cilantro and jalapeno peppers served cold on fresh, crusty French bread.  It is a surprisingly light and refreshing sandwich, compared to the heavy gut-bomb Italian hoagies and Jewish deli monoliths-on-rye I love so much.  I usually like a lot of mayonnaise (usually Kewpie brand) and pork liver pate on my banh mi, but I didn’t notice any on this particular sandwich.

Despite being a bit dry as a result, it was generously stuffed with the various meats and vegetables. 

About a month later, we were both hungry on a Friday night and climbing the walls after working from home (and eating at home) all week.  I took my wife to dinner at An Vi, since it is so close, and we knew we would get seated and served quickly.  My wife always loves summer rolls with peanut sauce at any Vietnamese restaurant, but we almost didn’t order these, since they were called “fresh rolls” (also known as goi cuon) on An Vi’s menu.  But when we saw them being walked out to another table, we asked, and she was glad we did.

She ordered a house special vermicelli platter that came with a lot of neat meats in addition to the rice vermicelli, but she didn’t love all of them.  Luckily, I did.

It included grilled beef, chicken, and pork sausage skewers, all with a slightly sweet, tangy, and funky flavor from being brushed with fish sauce.  There was also sugarcane shrimp, with ground shrimp brushed with fish sauce and reformed around a length of sugarcane before being grilled, and a fried spring roll stuffed with pork.  While she liked the vermicelli and all the crushed peanuts, I think the funky fish sauce flavor turned her off these grilled meats, so I happily devoured them.  I think I’ll order this exact dish for myself on our next visit to An Vi.

I had a feeling she might not love all those unique meats, so I ordered a fried catfish banh mi sandwich because I wanted to try it, but also because I know my wife always loves fried catfish and might end up preferring it.  I was right — it was good, and she loved it.  This banh mi almost reminded me more of a New Orleans-style po’ boy sandwich, the way it was dressed without the traditional butter, pate, or pickled vegetables.  The side of Cajun fries really hit the spot too.

Since Pho Huong Lan is my absolute, accept-no-substitutes favorite restaurant for pho, I tried the bun bo hue at An Vi instead of pho.  Labeled as Hue’s spicy beef soup on the menu, it was warm and refreshing, spicy without being overwhelmingly so.  I was so glad I had the foresight to wear an expendable shirt for all the inevitable splashing of the oily orange broth.It was good, but the bun bo hue at Pho Huong Lan still wins.

I ordered a side of French bread (the same bread they use for the banh mi) for dipping in the rich, spicy broth and for eating plain to cut the heat.

I hope An Vi makes it in Casselberry, where too many good restaurants that are considered “exotic” don’t last.  While our first impulse when we crave Vietnamese food is still to schlep down to Mills 50, I am glad An Vi is so close to us, and I’m sure we will be ordering plenty of takeout over the cooler months ahead.