Bay Cities Italian Deli: For The Super Bowl, A Godmother & A Brazilian

For anyone else who drove by the closed Bay Cities Italian Deli on Monday and about choked on their coffee when they noticed the workmen on ladders attacking the roof, paint dropcloths on the ground and masking tape bandaging up the windows, and wondered if something was amiss or, better, if the always-insanely-crowded import shop might actually be expanding... well, no. Manager Hector Carlos says they're always closed on Mondays (pitying stare) and that they were using the time to replace the roof tiles, "beautify" the outdoor tables ("a Tuscan look"), and expand the seating area. Okay, okay. Just checking.

A. Scattergood

But it's a good thing we stopped in, as we can now remind football fans everywhere to think about ordering those 26-inch Godmother sandwiches early for the Super Bowl. Super Bowl XLI is only 3 1/2 weeks away, and Carlos says that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest event of the year for Bay Cities. The 26-inch sandwiches are the most popular items and, in addition to the Godmother and the Caprese sandwiches (the 2 most-ordered sandwiches for the game), there are two sandwiches on the menu that weren't there last year: the Spaniard (mozzarella and Jamón Serrano) and the Little Lorenzo (Parma prosciutto and mozzarella). If you're not a football person, you can still head over for your Castelvetrano olives, your Gioia burrata, your Italian-made Nutella, your freshly baked epi baguettes, your Lübecker Marzipan, et. al.--and get a Brazilian wax next door at La Beaute Spa instead. Gameday is a relative term.