Best Sub Shop


Important: This article was last updated on September 21, 2005. Please call ahead to confirm hours, prices, dates and other information.

  E-mail story   Print story



Readers' picks

Best Breakfast
 The Original Pancake House, various locations

Best Cheap Eats
 Taco Bell, various locations

Best Chain Restaurant (Tie)
 The Cheesecake Factory and Olive Garden, various locations

Best Barbecue
 Tom Jenkins B-B-Q, Fort Lauderdale

Best Mexican
 La Bamba, various locations

Best Chinese
 Toa Toa, Sunrise

Best Thai
 Siam House, Fort Lauderdale

Best Mall Food Court
 Aventura Mall

Best Pizza
 Downtown Pizza, Fort Lauderdale

Best Hamburger
 Cheeburger Cheeburger, various locations

Best Diner
 Lester's Diner, Fort Lauderdale

Best Romantic Restaurant
 The Melting Pot, various locations

Best Italian
 Il Mulino, Fort Lauderdale
 
LaSpada's Original Hoagies
4346 Seagrape Drive, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, 954/776-7893; 2645 S. University Drive, Davie, 954/476-1099; and 7893 W. Sample Road, Coral Springs, 954/345-8833; www.laspadashoagies.com

 LaSpada's doesn't so much make subs as manufacture them, assembly-line style, with a team of as many as four sandwichmakers whose movements are as choreographed as a Boom Boom Huck Jam stunt. It takes all that to keep up with the blitz of customers who line up at lunch and for tailgate-party orders at this unsurpassed sub shop chain. LaSpada's is renowned for the heft of its 8- and 12-inch subs, but size is only part of what makes them so sumptuous. The secret, if you can call it that, is in the freshness, from the Italian bread that is baked daily to the choice cold cuts that are sliced when you order and the cheeses and ripened vegetables, particularly the juicy, red tomatoes. No one does it like LaSpada's, and no one does it as well.