Dante's Italian Deli

Suck it Boston.

And now, onto our main story of the night. A while back, some friends of mine had been raving about a sandwich place that was nestled in between Oak Tree Lanes and the Emergency Pet Clinic in Diamond Bar off Diamond Bar Blvd, so I finally decided to check it out today after class.

The deli not only offers sandwiches, but a variety of other items such as pizza, salads/sides by the pound, and home made Italian food, such as spaghetti and lasagna. They also serve various coffee drinks (they advertise using "illy Brand Coffee" although I confess I know nothing about coffee brands) and gelato.

After perusing the menu and giving it some thought, I ordered a small (roughly 6 inch) "Grilled Chicken" ($6.25) and a small "The Italian" ($5.75). Argh...that last phrase is bugging me..."a small the" just doesn't sound right even though I know it's okay. But moving on from my anal grammar tendencies...

I'm not exactly sure how one is supposed to take a picture of a sandwich, but here it is.


Fresh sliced mozzarella, tomato, roasted garlic herb spread on white bread. The chicken was made to order and was still warm when I got home to eat it. It smelled delicious. The first thing I noticed was when I took a bite of the bread. It was really soft, and although it had soaked up some of the oil/grease from the chicken, it still held its form. I'm not really sure what kind of bread it was and will ask the next time I go in. The chicken was a little on the dry side. The tomatoes were fresh and gave the chicken/gooey cheese a tangy compliment.


An inside look of 1/2 of the Grilled Chicken.


"The Italian:" Italian dressing, salami, mortadella*, coppacola**, ham, provolone cheese along the standard shredded iceberg lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, red onions all thinly sliced along with some mayo and mustard. They use Boar's Head brand for their sandwich meats. For some reason, I had been craving a nice cold cut sandwich, and this definitely hit the spot. Everything was fresh, just like the chicken sandwich, and the same type of bread was used. I ate half of this and saved the other half for a late night snack, which I happily consumed not too long ago. The only complaint I had about this place was that I wished the pickles weren't sliced so thin and would have liked a spear or two on the side. I always do appreciate a good pickle.

Bonus: As I was about to pay, I noticed a sign that said Happy Hour. Curious, I read the finer details which stated that all sandwiches, pizzas, and entrees were 50% off from 2-5 PM everyday, combos not included. My final price for these two delicious sandwiches? $6.99. Winner winner.

I'd definitely check out this place again, not just for their happy hour prices, but to try out their other sandwiches and items. I'll have to see their take on my favorite: tuna sandwiches.


958 N Diamond Bar Blvd
Diamond Bar, CA 91765
dantesitaliandeli.wordpress.com

End Notes: I had no idea what mortadella or coppacola was nor had I ever tried it before until today, so I looked it up.

*To anyone who is interested, mortadella "is a large Italian sausage^[1] or cold cut (salume /sa'lume/) made of finely hashed/ground heat-cured pork sausage which incorporates at least 15% small cubes of pork fat (principally the hard fat from the neck of the pig). It is delicately flavored with spices, including whole or ground black pepper, myrtle berries, nutmeg, coriander and pistachios and/or olives." Taken from Wikipedia.
**Coppacola/Coppa/Capicola is a traditional Neapolitan Italian cold cut (salume) made from pork shoulder or neck and dry-cured whole. The name coppa is Italian for nape, while capicola comes from capo—head and collo—neck of a pig. Taken from Wikipedia.
***Lastly, for any Sopranos fans out there who, like myself, always wondered what the hell a "gabagool" was they were referring to capicola but were using a Neapolitan dialect. Again taken from Wikipedia.