A. Litteri has been a purveyor of all things Italian in the Washington area since 1926. It started out as a store in the warehouse district, and for decades has been a top place to go for Italian meats, cheeses, and wines. A. Litteri switched to a retail-only operation, and has gained and held a reputation as one of the best Italian sandwiches in the Washington area.
Things have changed over the years around A. Litteri’s spot at 570 Morse Street, NE. Blue collar Union Market has become a huge food hall surrounded by expensive apartments and condos and lots of affluent young people.
I’d never been until recently. While we lived on Capitol Hill, I had Mangialardo’s just down the street, and since then I’ve tried to limit my consumption of Italian subs. Most recently, however, I’ve been slowly surveying the Italian sub opportunities around the area in search of the best. That naturally took me to A. Litteri.
I miraculously found an onstreet parking place four blocks away, and sauntered over to Union Market to look around at the 67 food and beverage booths. Some looked interesting, and I know that Yasmine has a great falafel, but I was focused on an Italian sub and bustled over to A. Litteri.
A. Litteri is a remarkably crowded store. It’s barely possible for two people to pass each other in one of the aisles without at least jostling each other. Bending down to read a lower shelf wine label could put the cross-aisle bottles at risk.
I looked around the place a bit and then squeezed my way over to the counter and ordered.
I chose a nine-inch Italian Classic, their core sub, on a hard roll. I added some hot sopressatta to the standard mix, as I had at Vace. Voila!
Here’s side view.
This is a fine sandwich, with excellent quality meats and a delicious roll. The flavors are terrific, and you won’t find better in the area. One point. The roll, delicious as it was, was very dense, so that it created an imbalance in the sandwich — the bread/filling ratio was off. That’s not a problem really, as there’s a very easy fix. When I go again, as I certainly will, I plan to ask them to scoop out some of the bread to improve the meat-bread ratio. It’s the same thing I’ll do at Vace. You may want to do the same when you go. You will go, won’t you?
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