D'Elia's Grinders
2093 University Avenue
Riverside, CA 92507-5205
Website here.
Monday, 4/18/11
Updated 9/12/15: I went back a few months ago and had their Philly cheesesteak sandwich, which was goood and priced reasonably. :) You can definitely find a great sandwich for a great deal with fresh crusty bread here. I think I've been there four times now and have been happy each time. I still don't agree about how amazing the bread is; it's good but not to the point where I would order just bread to go.
Sooo...I had high, high hopes for this place because Blake's friend AND my mom's co-worker recommended it. And their sign says, "It's the bread!" And my mom's co-worker said they have amazing bread and that they drive all the way down to Riverside just for that darn bread. Hearing things like that makes me want to jump in my car and buy it. Or walk three miles up the Berkeley hills in search of over-priced but amazing pumpkin pancakes from Fat Apple's. The first time I tried eating at D'Elias Grinders I ended up with Blake and Scott at a different Grinders (Butch's Grinders) a few miles away. Oops. That one was good too, by the way, and I think its meatball sandwich might have been better than the one at this place. Not sure because I had them a few months apart. Anyway, the meatball sandwich I got at this Grinders with Blake the second time he visited was good but not super duper amazing. This roast beef sandwich was the same. It was a pretty good deal. Good-quality ingredients and good bread for $3.90. Still. Back to the bread? It was NOT all that it had been hyped up to be. While I can see how it's the perfect bread for these types of sandwiches, it still was just normal French bread. Crusty exterior, soft interior...nothing special. I guess I am a bread snob? Or I'm just picky in general. I don't know. It was still good though...and I will go back; I just won't be rushing back. Does this paragraph even make sense? This was a rough week for me at school.
2093 University Avenue
Riverside, CA 92507-5205
Website here.
Monday, 4/18/11
Updated 9/12/15: I went back a few months ago and had their Philly cheesesteak sandwich, which was goood and priced reasonably. :) You can definitely find a great sandwich for a great deal with fresh crusty bread here. I think I've been there four times now and have been happy each time. I still don't agree about how amazing the bread is; it's good but not to the point where I would order just bread to go.
Sooo...I had high, high hopes for this place because Blake's friend AND my mom's co-worker recommended it. And their sign says, "It's the bread!" And my mom's co-worker said they have amazing bread and that they drive all the way down to Riverside just for that darn bread. Hearing things like that makes me want to jump in my car and buy it. Or walk three miles up the Berkeley hills in search of over-priced but amazing pumpkin pancakes from Fat Apple's. The first time I tried eating at D'Elias Grinders I ended up with Blake and Scott at a different Grinders (Butch's Grinders) a few miles away. Oops. That one was good too, by the way, and I think its meatball sandwich might have been better than the one at this place. Not sure because I had them a few months apart. Anyway, the meatball sandwich I got at this Grinders with Blake the second time he visited was good but not super duper amazing. This roast beef sandwich was the same. It was a pretty good deal. Good-quality ingredients and good bread for $3.90. Still. Back to the bread? It was NOT all that it had been hyped up to be. While I can see how it's the perfect bread for these types of sandwiches, it still was just normal French bread. Crusty exterior, soft interior...nothing special. I guess I am a bread snob? Or I'm just picky in general. I don't know. It was still good though...and I will go back; I just won't be rushing back. Does this paragraph even make sense? This was a rough week for me at school.
6 comments:
I think you have to have eaten here back when there was almost no fast food (one of the first McDonald's was nearby and not open for several years when I started), in order to appreciate this place. And out in this area, french bread of this quality in subs was rare for a very long time (until the vietnamese community grew).
And so for a bunch of baby-boomers, nothing you can say about this place will drop it from #1 in their minds.
Ohh. Interesting! Thank you for the comment. It definitely was not bad; I just let my hopes get too high.
As a Gen Xer who grew up on Grinder Haven, in Ontario CA, which was a sister restaurant for D'Elias, I can still say, it is all about the bread. I have yet to find a bread similar. HOWEVER, to me, it isn't about the crusty exterior that rips up the roof of your mouth. When the bread is really fresh, it has an amazing mouth feel, chewy, yeasty, yummy! Just yesterday, I stopped by Riverside on my way home to Palm Springs, and picked up 3 hams. Here is my trick to getting the perfect Grinder, cut them up, put them in plastic bags for a couple of hours. The soy oil and the moisture of the lettuce rehydrates the bread. By 6 am this morning, yes my husband and I had ham grinders for breakfast, they were PERFECT! We are debating taking a trip back today to get a couple more! I just wish I knew how to make this bread, the rest of the ingrediants are available at any grocery. :)
ohh thanks for the comment! i know what you mean about that "amazing mouth feel, chewy, yeasty, yummy!" haha that is basically how i explained this bread i had elsewhere. maybe i just need to get a sandwich on a day when the bread is fresh...or maybe i just don't appreciate how spectacular this bread is compared to other breads because i am just used to other places' breads that are fresher, yeastier and fluffier than the bread i tried at grinder's those two days. i should go back soon.
As long as I've been going there (about 50 years), it's always been light (not extra-virgin) olive oil, and I've never heard of seasoning a sandwich with 'soy' oil. Maybe they changed, but back to the bread. It's more like Italian cibatta crisp rolls on the outside. Compared to the soft skinned French bread I learned to bake at a Lucky's market, or any of the supermarket deli versions of French bread (which I would actually characterize their crust at leathery.
I still enjoy these french loafs with cheese and red wine, but they're nothing like the sandwich bread at D' Elia's. Nothing at all!
Yum! I love bread. Thanks for the comment. Wow...50 years!
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