Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [66]
Salerno’s
139 Moosic Rd.
570–457–2117
Old Forge, PA
LD | $$
Salerno’s is a tavern where many people come only to drink. We recommend a visit for Old Forge pizza, a style of pie unique to this area around Scranton. Most of the Old Forge pies are squared off rather than round, airy crusted, and topped with sweet marinara sauce and a mild blend of Italian and American cheese. It’s an easy-to-eat pizza, simple and friendly.
At lunch you can get only red pizza, which is a twelve-slice pie big enough for two healthy appetites. At dinner, Salerno’s better-known creation is a white pizza—a double-cruster made with a blend of several cheeses between the crusts.
There is a broad menu beyond pizza in this neighborhood tavern: sausage and peppers, chicken parmesan sub sandwiches, pasta e fagiole. Many customers eat at the bar, where they can knock back draft beers and watch the wall-mounted TV.
Tony Luke’s Old Philly Style Sandwiches
39 E. Oregon Ave.
215–551–5725
Philadelphia, PA
BLD | $
Tony Luke’s is an old-time city haunt where it is easy to believe that the Delaware Valley in general and Philadelphia in particular is America’s great sandwichland. Tony Luke’s is a small restaurant with uncomfortable counter seating for only a few dozen people (there’s a lot of take-out business), open from dawn until late at night. It is decorated in the traditional South Philly style, i.e., with autographed 8 X 10’s of celebrities. In this case, many of the glitterati are club boxers who apparently enjoy meals here between bouts.
The sandwich menu is huge, ranging from hot dogs (aka Texas Tommies) to traditional Philly cheesesteaks topped with Cheez Whiz, and even cheesesteaks made from ostrich meat. The greatest of them all is roast pork, which is garlicky slices and shreds of juicy meat piled inside a long Italian loaf along with cooked-soft broccoli rabe. Chicken and veal cutlets are also particularly wonderful, with or without provolone and either a heap of broccoli rabe or spinach so well-cooked it is more like a condiment than a vegetable.
Service is brash and fast. When you place your order and pay for it, they take your name; and when the sandwich is ready, they call you to the counter, front and center.
Kentucky
Bell’s Drug Store
Main St.
270–521–7187
Sebree, KY
L | $
As we drove into the small town of Sebree on a backroads eating tour in the company of Kentucky food authority Louis Hatchett, Louis suddenly called out, “Orangeade!” We pulled into a parking place across from the sturdy old brick-façade building that is Bell’s Drug Store. It is a working pharmacy with shelves of patent medicines and knickknacks for sale and a short soda fountain counter up front. Here is where milkshakes are whirled, sundaes and floats constructed, and cherry Cokes brewed to order.
We placed our orangeade orders and then, a moment later, the soda jerk turned to us with a tragic look on his face. “We have run out of oranges,” he lamented. But there was still a good supply of lemons, so we ordered lemonade and lemon ice and watched him go to work squeezing juice to make them. We ordered one lemonade made with an extra lemon (50¢ surcharge): what a mighty sweet-tart wallop! And the lemon ice was something different: nothing but fresh lemon juice poured over crushed ice and seasoned with a dash of salt. When the mixologist handed it to us, he pointed to a large sugar dispenser that had been filled with salt (and conspicuously so labeled!). “There’s more salt if you’d like,” he said. To our taste, it was just right as presented, the sprinkle of salinity enriching the pure citrus power.
While sipping and slurping at one of the small tables opposite the soda fountain, we struck up a conversation with Charles Davis, a gent in well-worn overalls who was savoring a fountain beverage while standing near the counter. He confessed that he was diabetic,