Something old, something new The best sandwich in the area? Get outta town! BY ANDY KING
	K&D SANDWICH SHOP 9 Union St, Portland | 207.871.0313 | Mon-Sat 6 am-6 pm FULL BELLY DELI Pine Tree Shopping Center, 1060 Brighton Ave, Portland | 207.772.1227 | Mon-Fri 7 am-7 pm, Sat 7 am-4 pm

When coworker Sarah mentioned that a new sandwich shop had opened up a couple of months ago right next to Three Dollar Dewey’s, I immediately obeyed my Pavlovian impulse to check it out. Two sandwiches, a salad, a bag of Doritos, and a Mug root beer later, I realized a couple of things that I must have known deep down for a long time.

This isn’t meant to be a slam on the K&D, whose sandwiches aren’t particularly well-made, but aren’t expensive, either. Actually, they’re downright cheap, but you can expect everything to come from bottles available to anybody at Hannaford or Costco. I’m not exposing any hidden secret; when I asked for dressing for my Caesar Salad (romaine, croutons from a bag, fake parmesan from the shaker it came in), my server opened the fridge, freely took out a Ken’s Steak House bottle, filled a container, and handed it to me. No biggie, but you’ll like the salad as much as you like Ken’s Steak House Caesar dressing. That’s how they’ve chosen to operate: nothing homemade, and graciously reflected in the price. They sell a lot of candy there, too, going for the impulse-buy market.

The Old Port is getting kind of ridiculous. Am I late getting on this bus? I think I might be.

Driving out of town, on Rte. 25, slightly despondent and more than a little hungry (I’m not the hugest fan of Ken’s Steak House, but that’s just me, a Paul Newman’s fan), I remembered that the Full Belly Deli had recently relocated after the Pine Tree Shopping Plaza underwent some ongoing renovations. Did this ageless wonder head into the Old Port? Or Downtown, even?

Nope, it moved about 100 yards down the parking lot to another strip nearer to Marden’s, still in the Pine Tree Shopping Plaza. Is the new location hip? No. Shiny and flashy with expensive marketing? No. Cutting costs to make up for exorbitant leases? No.

No Web site, no slick advertising.

But my God, have you been to the Full Belly Deli?

I’m going to expose my preference here, but these sandwiches are exactly what I wish would be within walking distance of my house, not to mention what I’ve been dying for ever since I moved to this city. And I’ve pretty much given up on it, or anything like it, ever being in the Old Port for precisely the above reasons. Shame on me for not traveling outside the downtown area sooner; shame on me for trying to keep the faith.

A two-inch thick pastrami on dark rye with Swiss and brown mustard, wrapped up in grease-stained butcher paper? There are just a few people who think that’s classy. I’m one of them, and you should be, too. Look at the picture on this page — look at it! — and if you don’t get all teary eyed, than it’s clear you’ve never had a sliced tongue sandwich. The beef combo — pastrami and brisket — looked too good, just on the huge white menu on the wall, to pass up, and a small beef knish served as my amuse bouche. It’s not the cheapest, but by using good ingredients and serving up sandwiches the size of your head, the Full Belly are entitled to their pricing. If you can’t slap down seven bucks for a sandwich like this, you need to straighten out your priorities.

The cooks are a motley crew, one sucking on a lollipop, another offering my baby a piece of American cheese, but they’re clearly in the brisket-slicing, order-yelling, fast-wrapping tradition that makes genuine delis so fun and unique.

So if many of you are asking me where I’ve been and why I’m admitting my ignorance of such a fine sandwich shop, especially one of such long standing, it’s to make a subtle point: You can eat at a new place every week for two and a half years, trying to grasp the trends that are shaping the city’s food scene, and completely pass by the smallest places that deserve the most praise. Don’t be afraid to sometimes shun the shiny, get out of town, and try something reliable that has been looking you in the face for years.

Andy King can be reached at dinnerwithandy@yahoo.com. This will be Andy’s final column for the Phoenix, after 2.5 years of continuous food writing. Wish him well.