An Inside Look at Papa Perrone’s Grease Truck Special

Papa Perrone's

Gee, do you think Midtown Lunch’ers would be interested in a truck that sells sandwiches modeled after the Rutgers grease trucks?  Uh… I’d say so.  Papa Perrone (on 55th btw. Mad+Park) answered the call of the Midtown Lunch Sandwich Challenge yesterday by serving up a chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, and french fries sandwich with marinara- a well known combo made famous by the Rutgers grease Trucks.  I showed up just after Noon to get mine (knowing that if Papa Perrone only had enough mozzarella sticks and french fries for 20 sandwiches, these things were going to run out fast.)

Papa Perrone's

At $7 it’s tough to argue with the price, and the sandwich was as much of a mess as you would imagine.  I’ve actually never had a sandwich from the grease trucks (I just knew I wanted one from the description), so I have no basis for comparison.  But I think Lunch’er Kevin was right on in the comments:

Chicken fingers is basically the same chicken he uses in the chicken parm. He puts 2 big pieces in the 10 inch hero. I happen to like his chicken parm dishes so I thought it was good. French fries are crinkle cut and still had crispness to it. Mozz sticks were your standard fanfare, but good nonetheless. To finish it off Papa Perrone’s own marinara sauce.

The end verdict was it tasted exactly like what you think it would. A blend of its components depending on what you got within each bite. Surprisingly, the sandwich wasn’t greasy or heavy by any means. Was I blown away by it? No. Would I go for it again, absolutely. I think JP needs to throw this on some garlic bread to bring it up a few notches. That would definitely add a different component to it.

Papa Perrone's

The only thing I would disagree with was the fries. Mine were pretty soggy (as you can imagine) and kind of mealy (the way you would expect frozen crinkle cut fries would be.) I would have also liked a higher mozzarella stick to rest-of-the-ingredients ratio. (What can I say? I love my mozzarella sticks.) If he put it on garlic bread it would definitely send it up another level… and I’m pretty sure all you would have to do is ask- now that he is willing to put any sandwich he serves on garlic bread (for an extra charge.)

I’m sure the OG sandwich from the Grease Trucks is better than this Midtown version… but whatever. I’ll take it. It’s a good freaking sandwich. And, apparently it was such a huge hit yesterday that the Papa Perrone truck will be offering the sandwich every Tuesday starting next week. Nice.

Related:
Papa Perrone Completely Redeems Themselves With New Sandwich Challenge Entry
New Pizza Truck Serving Up Artichoke Pie in Midtown

30 Comments

  • Wayne gets all the invites (sniff)……but ive got Sarah, my sp.ops veggie.

  • i just had the fried eggplant meatball parm on garlic bread. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM awesome sandwich! you guys must try this! mamma mia!

    in effort to satisfy my stomach, i forgot to take a picture to post on my blog. next time…

  • i cant stop thinking about that eggplant/meatball parm! it really hit the spot!

  • Needs more bacon.

    P.S. Coming in from my blackberry…
    Why was my “name” field prepopulated with “Goats?” Hm..mm.

  • omg – heart attack waiting to happen…

  • I had one. My only complaint is that 24 hours later you are hungry again.

  • Hi Zach. I don’t mean to be didactic, but you spelled “lunchers” incorrectly. It does not have an apostrophe.

    Swine flu is nothing compared to the plague of apostrophe abuse. It just keeps spreading.

  • @Ike – I spell it that way on purpose… it’s short for MidtownLunch’ers. i know it’s wrong, but I’ve been doing it that way since the beginning…

  • Mmm… I had sandwiches stuffed with fries & cole slaw recently.. I’m told the undercooked/mealy fries are on purpose. Well, ok. As long as you know about the problem, I guess. lol

  • I tried this yesterday. It’s a heart attack special and very enjoyable. Each part was good. The chicken. The fries. The Mozzarella sticks. I had it on garlic bread for an extra $1. Great sandwich. Now I think I’m going to Chop’t and Free Foods for the rest of the week. lol

Leave a Reply

You must log in or register to post a comment.