If you’re like me, you usually order your favorites at your go-to restaurants.
You order the ribs and the cheese plate at the Rendezvous. Maybe lasagna or spaghetti at Pete & Sam’s.
Well, guess what? There are a lot more items on the menus at those restaurants as well as others that have been around a while. People just don’t realize they’re there.
The ham-and-cheese sandwich at the Rendezvous is something that gets overlooked, says owner John Vergos. His dad, the late Charlie Vergos, began his restaurant in 1948 with that sandwich. “Gosh, he’d sell 200 or 300 a day,” John says. “That’s what really started the restaurant going. That’s how he supported his family.”
Fineberg Packing Co. used to smoke his dad’s hams because he didn’t have the pits in those days, John says. Charlie would cut the slices of ham off the bone. Now, John says, “We don’t cut it off the bone. We haven’t been able to find a good ham to do that with. We buy boneless hams.”
The original sandwich was “ham-and-cheese on rye with either regular mustard.”
They used French’s mustard, but now customers can get French’s as well as a sweet glazed mustard that blends Tiger Tail mustard with Rendezvous seasoning.
The ham sandwich began to be overshadowed when his dad introduced ribs “sometime in the ’50s” at the Rendezvous. “We still served a lot, even up until the ’70s. Then we added a lot more different products and we just took our eye off the ball.”
They stopped making the sandwich the way Charlie made it. “We got away from it for years. We started grilling it. Not making it the way he did.”
The ham wasn’t “nice and thick in the middle.” Instead of rye bread, they served it with white bread or Texas toast and mayonnaise. “We let it slide. We didn’t take it seriously.”
About a month ago, they went back to the original way of making the sandwich. John announced, “I’m determined to serve the original ham-and-cheese sandwich the way my dad built it. Stacked the same on rye with mustard.”
Surprisingly, another “little appreciated item” at the Rendezvous is the shoulder sandwich, John says. “I’ll match it with anyone.”
The barbecue is smoked for 12 hours, he says. “It’s all pulled by hand and minimally chopped — no fat, gristle — clean. I hate when I eat a shoulder sandwich and bite into a thumb-size piece of fat. It’s jumbo size with beans and our slaw on the side.”
Meanwhile, an item that isn’t a big seller at Mortimer’s is their “Pecan Ball,” says owner Sara Bell. It was a huge hit at the legendary Knickerbocker Restaurant, which her father, the late Vernon Bell, owned.
It’s vanilla ice cream rolled in chopped pecans with chocolate sauce. The Mortimer’s version includes whipped cream and sometimes a cherry on top.
They sell a ton of their banana pudding, but Bell doesn’t know why they don’t sell a lot of the pecan balls. “Once they try it, it’s addictive,” she says.
Another item along that same line is their Knickerbocker Shrimp Salad, Bell says. “That was huge at the Knickerbocker. It’s just shrimp with a little mayonnaise, celery, and a dash of Worcestershire. It’s like a chicken salad, but it’s made with shrimp.”
Even Pete & Sam’s includes items hidden in plain sight on the menu. Many people are surprised to discover the restaurant, which also opened in 1948, sells fried chicken, says Sammy Bomarito, one of the owners. Or steaks. “In general, people don’t necessarily think of us as a steak place,” he says. “And we’ve got some of the best steaks in the city.”
Other longtime items aren’t top sellers. “The bacon-wrapped chicken livers are one of the things we’ve had on the menu forever.”
A lot of people don’t try that, Bomarito says. “But that’s a little hidden gem, if you will.”
Another is the “stuffed celery,” which has been on the menu for decades. It’s celery stuffed with a bleu cheese, Gorgonzola, and mayonnaise mixture and green olives. The four celery sticks come with black olives, peppers, and lettuce with paprika sprinkled around.
Dino’s Grill is famous for its spaghetti, ravioli, and other Italian fare. But their muffuletta is another story. “People are sort of surprised we have it,” says owner Mario Grisanti.
They’ve had it on the menu for “as long as I can remember,” he says.
“We get our bread from Gambino’s [Bakery] in New Orleans, so it’s traditional muffuletta bread. And we do ours a little bit differently. We just do salami and ham and cheese. Most people do salami and mortadella with cheese. Then the olive dressing we put on top is the same dressing we put on our Italian salad. It’s green olives, black olives, banana peppers, celery, onions, oil, vinegar, and Italian seasonings.”
It’s a “New Orleans-style muffuletta. We just have our own little take on it. The way we’ve been doing it forever and ever.”
Finally, Coletta’s Italian Restaurant, which opened in 1923 at its 1063 South Parkway East location, has an extensive menu. Ravioli and its barbecue pizza are famous at Coletta’s Italian Restaurant, which opened in 1923 at 1063 South Parkway East. But not everybody is aware of other items on the menu.
“We have hamburger steaks, which are real good,” says owner Jerry Coletta. “Well, it’s basically about a half pound of ground beef we cook.”
It comes with “fries and a little slaw. And that’s a good meal. Not many people get it.”
Also, he says, “A lot of people don’t know we sell hot wings and honey wings. And they’re real good.”
In other words, in addition to your knife and fork, bring along a magnifying glass and dig into your menus when you go out to eat.