Cheap Eats: Scotty's Gas Station sandwich surprise

It's Tuesday, lunchtime, and Eating Companion and I are strolling into Scotty's, a little sandwich shop located inside the Marathon gas station just north of Stickney Point Road, on US41, the same Marathon that strangely houses an Arby's. The two restaurants face one another from across the gas station's lobby, and EC and I can imagine there being a little bit of tension between the corporate meat slingers, and this little locally-owned gem.

Scotty's does a number of American standards, steak sandwiches, Italian beefs, pulled pork sammies, Cubans, corned beef sammies, as well as hot dogs. They boast a small breakfast menu as well. Most of the sandwiches clock in around $5.

It feels strange ordering such a wide array of both urban and rural American sandwich staples from one place, especially considering that that place is inside an internationally franchised gas station, but we end up going for: a hot pastrami and swiss on marble rye ($4.49), an "Italian Beef Straight From Chicago" ($4.99),  a pulled pork sammie ($4.99), and a 6" Cuban ($3.99).

Several patrons cruise into the building headed for Arby's, only to notice Scotty's and change their minds, which is kind of cool. There are three small tables in front of the Scotty's counter, and we snag one. The food is right behind us.

EC nabs the Italian beef before we can even see what's what. It's served wet (Italian beef is slow cooked in broth, removed from the cooker, allowed to cool, sliced thin, then reintroduced to the broth; you can get it dry [pulled from the broth, shaken dry], dipped [pulled from broth, placed on bread, then the whole thing, bread and all is dipped into the broth], or wet [pulled sopping wet from the slow cooker and placed on the bread, with a few spoonfuls of broth poured over for good measure] ), topped with pickled vegetables and peppers called giardiniera, all on a really dense Italian roll. The thing must weigh two pounds, and requires a special technique to eat, leaning way out over the table, taking bites over the sandwich's container, making sure the juice that kind of goes all over the place doesn't end up all over your arms and face and what not. It's super salty, tangy, and flavorful, a really decent attempt.

Our friends are digging into the pulled pork sammie and the pastrami and swiss. The pulled pork is slow-smoked dry, with a sweet, zesty North Carolina-style sauce dumped generously on top. It's tender and spicy, not half-bad for gas station fare. The pastrami is stacked high with super salty, thin-sliced meat, not quite as beastly as those EC and I used to nail at all hours of the night at Katz's in NYC, but respectable. Warmed up, it's super greasy and glorious.

The cuban is dense, the dense bread pressed to a crusty, toasty husk. Like the rest of Scotty's offerings it's got a serious stack of meat to it. The roasted pork is tough and flavorful, the whole thing basically a salty, cheesy, meaty, brick of a sandwich.

EC's mopping up the remians of his Italian beef, which is certainly the table favorite. I'm impressed with, if nothing else, Scotty's attention to detail when it comes to each regional sandwich's respective bread. The rolls are all about as good as it gets with respect to their variety, and I mean to ask where they get their bread done, but there's a line and we have to be going.