I tried the first Ricci’s hoagie in Charlotte. Here’s what you can expect.
One of Philadelphia’s oldest hoagie shops has stepped outside the city’s borders, and — lucky for us — its first location has landed in Charlotte.
Ricci’s Hoagies has been feeding hungry fans in Philly for more than 100 years with handcrafted, made-to-order sandwiches made on Liscio’s rolls with freshly sliced meats.
When Ricci’s opens in Charlotte on Wednesday, March 11 at Centro NoDa, the first 50 guests in line will help celebrate that long history with 1920s-era pricing — sandwiches will start at just 60 cents.
For everyone else, a small starts at $10.99, and a regular size tops out at $17.99 for a cold Corned Beef Special or a hot The Fung, which sounds like a mushroom but is actually a chicken cutlet with roasted peppers, sharp provolone cheese and prosciutto.
Michael Pagliarella, who owns Ricci’s Hoagies, and his dad, Richie, showed us around the NoDa shop with Charlotte franchise owner Todd Garofalo to give CharlotteFive editor Melissa Oyler and I the first look at the place.
In fact, we got the very first sandwiches Ricci’s has ever made in Charlotte: an Old Fashioned Italian for me, and a Ricci’s Eggplant for Melissa.
I didn’t even make it past the picnic table right outside the door before sitting down to dive right in.
Here’s what we found.
What to expect at Ricci’s
I’m a certified sandwich lover, and with more than 30 sandwiches to choose from and customize, there had to be a starting point. That’s the Liscio’s bread — brought in daily from the bakery in Philadelphia. The choices are Italian or seeded, and I was all in on an authentic experience, so I took the experts’ advice to go with the seeded roll.
Pagliarella’s recommendation for an authentic hoagie experience was the Old Fashioned Italian, so I quickly got on board. From there, I freed myself from further decision-making and let the staff take the wheel. (Who am I to tell a guy wearing a South Philly hat and a Ricci’s shirt how to make an ideal South Philly hoagie? I’m just in for the ride.)
I stepped aside to watch as the lead trainer sliced open the store’s first logs of soppressata and prosciutto, then sliced them thin and piled on a hefty mound of sharp provolone cheese crumbles. Roasted red peppers, juicy red tomatoes, shredded lettuce, paper-thin onions, olive oil, red wine vinegar and a few shakes of seasonings finished it off.
Please note at this moment that while mayo is available at the shop, and you’re welcome to add whatever you’d like to craft your own creation, it’s a bit of a no-no if you’re going for a strictly traditional taste.
“I wouldn’t,” the trainer said, almost laughing while shaking his head. “Not with prosciut.”
Also key to the fully Philly experience is the shop’s assortment of Herr’s chips, also sourced from Pennsylvania. Ricci’s stocks every variety you could imagine — baked chips, kettle chips and even cheese curls — in every flavor you could crave, including Old Bay and Jalapeño Popper. I’d usually reach for sour cream and onion, but Pagliarella steered me toward his favorite, the Honey BBQ.
Familiar faces in Charlotte transplants
How did Charlotte end up snagging this Ricci’s out of everywhere else it could have landed? That’s thanks to Garofalo, a Pagliarella family friend who moved here about five years ago.
“It’s a family-first environment,” Pagliarella told CharlotteFive. “Come in. We want to know your name, and we kind of want to know, hey, where you from? Are you a transplant? If you’ve been here your whole life? And we want to get to know your order and what you’re what you’re about.”
Pagliarella added, “You see a lot of people from the Northeast. Yesterday, we were in here training. My dad actually ran into a friend he hasn’t seen in 25 years from across the street.”
Turns out, that old friend’s daughter lives right upstairs in the Centro NoDa apartments, and he had come to visit her, yelling, “Richie Pags!,” as he spotted the elder hoagie icon across 36th Street.
“So 25 years he hasn’t seen the guy, and just like that, he runs into somebody. And that kind of speaks to the brand of Ricci’s, but also just shows you the Northeast pull that’s coming down here and the diversity of the neighborhood,” he said.
What does a Ricci’s Hoagie taste like?
And, here, we’re back to where the hoagie meets the mouth.
I’ll admit, it’s been at least a few weeks since I’ve had a big sandwich, as I’ve been working with a nutritionist steering me toward whole grains and seeds instead. But — very truthfully — that added to the excitement for me.
The first bite? Pretty darn good. The seeded Liscio’s roll stood out as fresh and tender.
As I chomped through a little more, I took the pro tip to add on a few of those Honey BBQ chips as a flavor and texture enhancer, and that concept didn’t disappoint. Eaten by themselves, those chips are as sweet as candy, and I can see why Pagliarella’s hooked.
The fresh meats were high quality, and the way they were gently layered helped keep the sandwich intact — not like one of those sandwich explosions where the meat slides right out and you’re left to power through bites of soggy bread.
But, for me, the star of the show was that sharp provolone cheese. It added a salty layer that triggers that primal urge to go back in for another bite, and then one more.
I think Melissa found her eggplant cutlet enjoyable, too, but I was in the zone and too honed in on my own munching to get much detail. I’d eat that Old Fashioned Italian again any day. (And I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I will.)
(Editor’s note: This is Melissa. It was delicious!)
Ricci’s Hoagies
Location: 719 E 36th St, Charlotte, NC 28205
Cuisine: hoagie sandwiches
Hours: Sunday–Thursday, 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.; Friday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m.
Instagram: @riccishoagiesclt
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