Good to Go: Find Lunchtime Relief Through Jimmy’s Italian Sandwiches

Good to Go is a column where our food writers explore Dallas’ restaurant scene through takeout orders, delivery boxes and reheated leftovers.

Melissa and I have been cooking a lot. I got up the other morning and reeled off scratch breakfast tacos down to handmade corn tortillas. Melissa organized a Zoom progressive dinner last weekend, where three couples each took part of the meal and porch-dropped the dishes to the others. It was legit one of the best meals I’ve had this year.

And of course you’re all familiar with my highly popular series of stories in which I get Dallas chefs to teach me, er, you to cook (such as John Tesar and Mark Wootton, with more to come).

All the extra practice makes you better at picking flavors that go together, and the extra confidence you gain in technique and efficiency in the kitchen can make you an exponentially better cook.

But man, there just comes a time when you open up that fridge and those leftovers stare back at you with dead eyes, and it doesn’t matter how good it was last night, you are not eating it again AND DON’T EVEN PRETEND I’M GONNA COOK.

That was 11:45 a.m. at Kingston Manor.

So off I went to Popeyes to get us some New Food that Someone Else Cooked. I’ve always suspected that peoples’ complaints about “service” at Popeyes was coded language, but damn. Popeyes is either the most popular lunch spot in town right now, or they need to hire a process engineer to sort out that drive-thru mess.

But in a perfect boo-yeah, Jimmy’s Food Store is right around the corner, and its sandwiches are a Dallas Observer favorite.

With good reason. I grabbed us a muffuletta and an Italian Stallion. I suspect that many of you are already familiar with the muffuletta from Jimmy’s, but the thing that I noticed was the quality of the olive salad filling. Pickled carrots! Slight domestic strife caused by me picking through the half we didn’t eat to find the pickled carrots. Heating this sandwich improves it.

I actually like the Stallion better, though. Mortadella, capicola, sopressata, pepperoni, provolone, porchetta, coppa, mozzarella, prosciutto and enough tart antipasti to fully balance all the pork fat. I ate this cold because I was worried what heat would do to the veggies. My signature catchphrase came to mind: I was right.

Our total was $18.38 with tax for two enormous sandwiches that are certainly going to become a second meal, both because of their deliciousness and because I’m over whatever happened this morning. In a development I can’t explain, they are cheaper than the normal menu price right now. Is Jimmy’s running a COVID relief program through Italian sandwich discounts?

Do not go back and read that ingredient list in a comic Italian accent, bigot. Italian sandwiches as Americans experience them are actually very American, though honestly come by as they were developed by Italian immigrants. Jimmy’s is making some awfully good ones.

Jimmy's Food Store, 4901 Bryan St. (East Dallas). Premade sandwiches available for takeout. 214-823-6180.