Brancaccio's Food Shop gets a lovely review in the NYTimes $25 and under category, with special love for the meatball sandwich:
But the real winner here is an old New York favorite, the meatball sub ($8). When you watch them making the meatballs in the open kitchen, adding pine nuts and raisins just as the chef and owner Joe Brancaccio’s grandmother did to hers, you know these meatballs are light, beefy and fun to eat; so is a tomato sauce that’s shot through with fennel. This is a sandwich that’s savory and sweet, substantial and refined; and it’s served until 8 p.m., just in time for dinner in the neighborhood.
While we shall agree that the sandwiches are quite good (and enormous), we love the place, and Joe, for the food he cooks up new and fresh every morning. It is the easiest place to get an amazing dinner to go for miles around, and you just never know what he'll have today. And for the lazy ones, you don't even need to go pick it up - he'll deliver.
Brancaccio’s Food Shop, 3011 Fort Hamilton Parkway (East Third Street), Kensington, brancacciosfoodshop.com, (718) 435-1997