First Look: Pisillo’s Massive Italian Sandwiches A Welcome Addition To The FiDi

It was by chance that I discovered Pisillo, the new Italian panini shop on Nassau St. (btw. Fulton & Ann). The menu is simple with a roster of sandwiches and not an Italian-American park in the bunch. In fact, there aren’t any hot options at all, only cold cuts, cheese and a few vegetable toppings. You also won’t find any mayo or marinara sauce. These are all good things. 

Most of the sandwiches cost $10 or more depending on what meat and cheese it contains, but you’ll find that they are humongous and can easily be shared between two people. I ordered the “Catanzaro” sandwich ($9.90) that contains soppresata, smoked mozzarella, hot pickled peppers and hot spread, which is a spicy giardiniera. You can get it on white or wheat bread or pay extra for semolina, sfilatino or ciabatta.

The sandwich was put together quickly, but well, with the thinly-sliced meat, thick pieces of the mozz and a not insignificant amount of the hot spread. The pickled peppers balanced nicely with the fatty meat and cheese, and the bread did a good job of holding everything together. This thing was basically a foot long and I could have stopped eating at the midway point but ended up finishing it.

I had made an earlier comparison between Pisillo and infamous Soho sandwich shop Alidoro simply based on the menu. While the size and prices of the sandwiches are similar, Pisillo will have to add more rules about what they will or won’t put on your lunch. Bottom line: If you don’t mind paying more than $10 for a huge sandwich with quality ingredients, pick this over a place like Subway every time.

Pisillo Italian Panini, 97 Nassau St. (btw. Fulton & Ann), (212) 227-3104

ADVERTISEMENT

4 Comments

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    Been there a number of times, all of them it’s been quite good and it’s definitely ‘Alidoro-esque’. The bread you get makes a big difference: The sfilatino is fantastic, but the ciabatta disappoints.

  • A very solid spot. I took a trip today. The breads are amazing. Sandwiches are what you’d expect from this type of place. Very large. Not overly stuffed, but for the quality of meat they use, it is not surprising. I am very pleased, and will definitely go back. The sfilatino was excellent.

  • I think it’s nice to have Italian sandwiches as an option in this area, however, when I walked in I was not expecting such a large sandwich. It would be cool if they had some smaller ciabatta rolls for people who do not want a baseball bat sized hero. I also saw that they have a porchetta sandwich, i’m curious to go back and try this.

    • You are blessed to have something like this near your office! While your words on screen translate to “I’m whining about the size” I trust that you meant it would be “cool if they had cheaper sandwiches, even if they were smaller.” A far more rationale explanation…..

Leave a Reply

You must log in or register to post a comment.