Contrary to what most students think, the Emporium is more than just a place to order calzones from late at night. In reality, at restaurants like Albie’s, you can escape from eating lunch at the dining hall with solid food at a decent price.
Albies’ storefront is traditional looking. I would describe it as archetypal of the American lunchtime sandwich shop. The large windows and blue awning make it seem familiar even at first glance. The most striking thing upon entering the single-room establishment is the large mural painted on the entire wall to the right of the entrance. It depicts Fenway Park and Boston skyline on the far end, Albie’s and the Narragansett Seawall and coastline in the center, and the Statue of Liberty and New York on the other end. Immediately, I got a sense of the immense pride that the owners of the restaurant must have in their sense of place as part of the Northeast.
The floor is tiled, and filled with food-court style tables (no booths) and a few bar counters throughout. In the rest of the dining area, a bulletin displayed the week’s newspaper clippings, and another had flyers, ads, and bulletins from around the greater community. On the other half of the room is the ordering counter with the full menu written above it, and a cooler for drinks against the wall.
The menu consists of mostly what you would expect from a sandwich shop, with a few unique surprises. It includes pretty much standard lunch fare: appetizers, like chili cheese fries, onion rings, and mozzarella sticks, hot dogs and burger platters, hot and cold sandwiches and wraps, salads for the health-conscious, and even a section for breakfast items. However, the real stars of the menu are the “Phat” sandwiches and wraps, which feature outrageous combinations of ingredients. For example, the “Phat Albie” is made up of chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, fries, bacon, lettuce, tomato and honey mustard, all inside the sandwich.
I chose to get the Phat Grenade sandwich and an order of fries for lunch, considering how unique all the phat sandwiches were. It consisted of chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, tomato sauce, and provolone cheese. (As a word of caution, considering how much is packed into these sandwiches, I would not recommend getting a side order unless you are extremely hungry.) It was surprisingly delicious, and somehow all the ingredients tasted like they actually belonged together, forced into a single sub. The fries were acceptable, if totally unseasoned, but they were completely overshadowed by the absurdity of my sandwich.
The line for ordering wasn’t too long, and the place didn’t seem crowded, even at 12:30 p.m., but that was probably due to the holiday weekend, it being Columbus Day. Even so, the wait for the food was a little bit long, around 15 minutes. I wasn’t upset because of the sheer number of separately prepared ingredients that go into one sandwich, but maybe opt for a simpler choice like a ‘regular’ deli sandwich if you’re in a rush.
Even though the menu is pretty focused on lunch, Albie’s does deliver late at night, like many other eateries in the emporium, until 2 a.m. on weekends. Whether you’re looking for something unique to try, or a fix of fried ingredients crammed into a sandwich, or maybe just a comfortable, familiar place to eat lunch, Albie’s looks to be a strong choice no matter the occasion.