8 1/2 Sandwiches

I feel like it’s hard to find a beautifully drab, hole-in-the-wall type place that seriously serves up some of the best the city has to offer.  Often you’ll know of these places as relics, but they’re always looking for that extra bit of pizazz, the generic art deco collection to cover up the yellowed walls, or the standard Joe DiMaggio/Sorpanos ate here kind of memorabilia that you so often find in a successful Italian restaurant.  There’s money to be made there because there are always going to be a large chunk of the population that will pass over these dingy huts for lack of clean, comfortable style.  I’ve known many of them and I understand why these restaurants renovate to attract them.  $_$

I’ve known people that have lived in Richmond for 5 or more years and have never eaten at 8 1/2  Pizza.  ”It looks like shit” I’ve heard one guy say and I can’t really argue with him.  But that’s the charm that I can appreciate.  Go inside, punk rock music.  Skate videos on the TV.  The hood over the oven blasting air.  Employees are never too friendly, a little short.  Know what you want, how to order, pay and wait.  One table to sit at.  Newspapers sprawled across the bench.  Read an article about Jeremy Lin.  Order’s ready.  Go to Scuffletown park and eat in silence.

This was the kind of thing that I’d look forward to most when coming down from New York.  I’d always get the pies, never tried anything else.  Yesterday two friends and I opted to get some heros due to the hour long wait for pizza.  These fuckers are delicious as exepcted.

Lots of flavor, some excellent bread and you won’t pay more than eight bucks for most of the sandwiches.  Go get em!