Dickie Dee's

380 Bloomfield Ave., Newark, NJ - (973) 483-9396

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Posted By Michael Stern on 12/15/2007 1:09:00 PM

Dickie Dee’s serves tremendous sandwiches stuffed into circular loaves of Italian bread. It is a vintage city eat place best known for deep-fried hot dogs, but you can also get two-fisted sandwiches filled with Italian sausage, hamburgers, and griddle-sizzled cheese steaks. All sandwich meats are available with the locally-favored array of luxuriously oily compliments, which include fried peppers and onions and chunks of fried potato. Some folks come for a loaf of bread stuffed only with potatoes and/or vegetables, no meat whatsoever. Dickie’s makes nice thin-crust pizza, too.

The attitude behind Dickie’s counter is as delicious as the food. At mealtime, the order line moves fast, and if you hesitate when it comes time to say what you want, expect to be glared at, maybe yelled at, then – if you are still slow – ignored. Sluggish customers deserve to be shunned, for this is a place that flips the bird to the very notion of leisurely, gracious dining. People who come to Dickie Dee’s are mostly regulars who know exactly what they want and are prepared to order and pay, eat it and beat it. As the sandwich is made to order, the cook will call out to ask what you want on it in the way of condiments; and this is another time you don’t want to be slow responding. We suggest ketchup as a nice complement for the potatoes that go atop all the other ingredients in a Dickie’s sandwich.

Carry your tray to a table and ease into a permanently-attached molded plastic chair. Lay out plenty of paper napkins for the inevitable spillage, and dig into a great sandwich that is a New Jersey original.

Scorecard

Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace

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Reviewers Photos [Upload Your Photos]

"A menagerie of two fried all-beef hot dogs, lightly cooked onions, hot peppers, and potato wedges bathed in mustard and ketchup, shoved in a delightfully spongy Italian bread."
Adam Cohen

"The order counter. Behind the glass, the man is making sandwiches."
Michael Stern

"Oil painting of hot dogs, peppers, and potatoes on the wall of the restaurant next to a bowling trophy"
Michael Stern

"Behave yourself!"
Michael Stern

"Dickie Dee's has been a favorite neighborhood sandwich shop for half a century."
Michael Stern