Memories of Pearl River

In 1975, my aunt Fannie Cassetta was the cook for Joe Brevetti, whose store, Joe’s Deli, was located on Central Avenue. My aunt Fannie was an excellent cook. She made hot dishes like veal parmigiana and baked Ziti. I remember her wielding a long handled wooden spoon which she stirred the giant pots of pizza and meat sauces. Her meatballs were devine. Business was good, but Joe had stiff competition from other Italian eateries in town. There was Tony’s on Middletown Road, Fordham Pizza on Main Street, and Sal’s on Central Avenue. They needed to come up with a new item to draw people in which was cheap and quick to make. Joe made the pizza but the process of kneading dough and making a pie was labor intensive. The only ones doing this work were Joe and Fannie. The pizza counter and hot dishes along with the hero trade kept them all very busy. So they thought, and my aunt remembered an item that her mother made that was quick, cheap and portable for the takeout business aside from a slice of pizza. Pizza cost .35 cents a slice in those days. The sauce roll, as it was dubbed by Joe, was a six inch italian loaf cut lengthwise and a ladle of meat tomato sauce with bits of meat ball filled this sandwich. They sold for .25 cents at first and the local kids could not get enough of it. Many kids would stop into Joe’s and have one as they walked home from school. Then finding a place to sit and talk while drinking .15 cent sodas to wash it down. Many people today remember walking into Joe’s and first getting assaulted by the aroma of cold cuts and fried chicken and veal cutlets  and the meat sauce. All served by a small heavy set Italian American woman with coke bottle glasses who served these delights over a small counter at the back left side of the store. I have the meatball recipe she made given to my mother, and make my own sauce rolls, but it’s not the same somehow. I revisit those days at times in my dreams and wake up hungry.