2546 E. Jolly RoadHey, I’m back in Michigan. I’m still not in Southwest Michigan with this blog, but at least I’m back in the right state. That’s a start, right?
My first week back in Michigan and I’m still on the road, but at least I get to sleep in my own bed at night and drop my daughter off at school in the morning.
A co-worker and I took the trip to Lansing and spent most of the evening running around. We were actually on our way back to Grand Rapids when we got stopped and sent back to Lansing to pick up one more task. We were about to Portland and this new meeting, of course, was on the east side of town.
I took I-496 through town and got off a the Jolly Road exit. When I came to the intersection of Jolly and Dunkel Roads, I saw a familiar sign. I wasn’t planning on grabbing dinner but when you see a Jersey Giant Subs, how can you pass it up?
Jersey Giant Subs got it’s start in the Lansing area and currently has eleven stores around town and in nearby communities. I don’t remember this store being there when I lived in Lansing seven years ago, but I hadn’t got hooked on Jersey Giant at that point yet either.
The sub shop is part of a larger strip mall on the southwest side of the Jolly/Dunkel intersection just outside of the Lansing city limits. The space is shared with a Biggby, a Verizon Store and two other storefronts. There are entrances off of both roads, but if you’re coming off Jolly, like I was, you actually enter at the neighboring Tim Horton’s driveway and make your way back to the parking lot in front of the outlet.
The shop itself is pretty small. The work area takes up a large portion of the shop, but there are green laminate booths lining one wall for the few people that don’t grab their sandwiches to go.
The order area is opposite the door. There was an employee waiting for me when I walked in. After exchanging pleasantries, I ordered the Jersey Devil on white. This massive sandwich contains all of the meat options Jersey Giant offers. There’s roast beef, ham, turkey, capacola, salami, prostini, pepperoni, and cheese. It takes a few minutes for everything to be sliced up and piled on to the sandwich.
Once the monster meat portion of the sandwich was competed, the sandwich as slid down to the veggies station. They don’t do a lot of veggies at Jersey Giant…just a few basics. I got my sandwich with lettuce, Jersey Juice (oil and balsamic vinegar), oregano, and salt and pepper. That right there is enough for an incredible sandwich, but Jersey Giant stocks one final topping that I can never resist. Authentic Chicago-style giardiniera. The pickled vegetable mix adds a little bit of heat and a little bit of sweetness to the sandwich and the flavor is just unbeatable. It’s easy to slice meat and throw it on some bread, but the addition of the giardiniera and the signature Jersey Juice is what makes me crave Jersey Giant Subs.
The sandwich maker sliced the 16″ sandwich into four smaller, more manageable slices and wrapped up the sandwich in butcher paper. The sandwich cost me a little over $14. Most people would either be able to share the sandwich with someone or get two meals out of it. Most days, I go with the two meals option, but I hadn’t eaten dinner yet and by the time I finally was able to unwrap the sandwich, I hadn’t eaten all day.
It was actually a couple more hours before I had a break long enough that I could eat dinner. That extra two hours let all that vinegar soak into the bread and the meats and sort of marinated everything it touched. The waiting actually made the sandwich taste even better. I don’t know if that’s because I was just really hungry or because good things do come to those who wait. Either way, the sandwich really hit the spot after a long day on the road with very little down time.
If you follow my blog, you’ve read about my love for Jersey Giant in the past. There’s really not much more I can say other than I have a very hard time driving by a Jersey Giant when I’m hungry because there is no better sub sandwich out there.
