Late Night Hard Grubbin

1. The Deli Sandwich

We get it. You've enjoyed your share of adult beverages and now all you can think about is hard grubbin. That enormous sense of urgency begging you to grub so ferociously you reach point your eyes can no longer stay open. In this series, HG's adept team of writers will explore the exciting and sometimes shameful world of late night hard grubbin. Many reviews will likely be nonsensical with poor photo documentation, but such is the world of late night hard grubbin. It's never pretty and sometimes downright frightening.

One of my late night hard grubbin favorites is the deli sandwich. I consider myself very lucky to live in NYC where there's always a 24 hour deli/bodega open that will make you a sandwich. At 4am these places are amazing scenes of drunkeness and over-grubbin. Never will you see a finer assortment of assholes as you'll find at 4am in a 24-hour deli (or any late night grubbin establishment for that matter).

Pictured to your left is a late night sandwich I had piled high with both turkey and roast beef. That's a great thing about the late night deli sandwich; most of these guys will put whatever you want on a sandwich. Whats that? You'd like pastrami, turkey, roast beef, and two types of cheese put on a roll? Go for it, you've earned it. This HG recommends always asking for your sandwich hot. Warm deli meats with melted cheese is exactly what you need to fuel your hard sleeping.

Generally, we would advocate ordering a hero with several types of deli meats heated (preferably grilled but sometimes you'll have to settle on the microwave) with simple toppings like pickles, lettuce and tomatoes. If you've chosen the right number of meats this hero should be huge. Many delis offers sandwiches like steak and cheeses or buffalo chicken, which sound delicious, but be wary. It can sometimes be a gamble to stray from simple deli sandwiches at 24-hour delis, but like any roll of the dice, you could come up a winner. Many times you should consider a simple sausage, egg and cheese in a hero which is almost always guaranteed to be delightful.

We urge you to get the sandwich home as fast as possible (run if necessary) and have a seat in front of the TV. After the first half you'll probably be thinking, "wow, that's a lot of food, I should probably stop and go to bed." Deep in your heart, you know that's not who you are. Go ahead and enjoy that second half; no one's watching. You won't feel that pressing shame until the next morning when you wake up on the couch with a good portion of the sandwich in your lap and still in your mouth. Not to worry pal, it's already noon and you're ready to forget last night's conduct with another hard grubbin session.