Of all Melbourne’s sandwiches, these are the ones our critic happily drives an hour for

We are living in a golden age of sandwiches here in Melbourne, a boom that shows no signs of slowing. But where, among all of this focaccia and Turkish bread, are the New York deli sandwiches? We have New York pizza and New York bagels, so why not the sandwiches?

I’m not talking about the huge Reubens you get at Katz’s and other Jewish delis. I’m talking about the more workaday hoagie, hero and grinder, bought from a deli (or bodega, depending on the neighbourhood and, honestly, the ethnicity of the proprietor).

My love affair with these sandwiches began during my first week of grade 12 when I, at a new high school in Tarrytown outside of New York City, was taken to the North Tarrytown Deli by a girl named Jackie. She ordered a sandwich on a hoagie roll with smoked turkey, muenster cheese, lettuce, mayo and salt and pepper. This sandwich was such a revelation – the bread soft, the lettuce cut on the slicer so it was shredded and crunchy, the turkey sliced thin but stacked thick – that it remains my order in New York delis to this day.

In other parts of America, I’ll order some kind of Italian sub or grinder, usually multiple kinds of meat on that same long roll. In Australia, the closest we tend to come is a conti or continental roll, most prevalent in Western Australia but gradually becoming more available in Melbourne, too.

What’s more common is the far more Italian panini or focaccia sandwich, which many establishments are doing beautifully. But I find focaccia too sproingy, too much of a distraction, and the filling never seems to be hearty enough to overcome the personality of the bread. Which is why, on a whim, I found myself driving an hour from home towards Suburbia Deli in Bentleigh on a recent rainy Wednesday, lured by the photos I’d seen on social media of something very closely resembling a New York Italian deli sandwich.

Suburbia Deli scratches an itch for me and my own nostalgia, but it will do the same for someone else with a very different background, which is part of its beauty.

What I found was something akin to a hybrid, a sandwich influenced by Italy and Australia and, interestingly, the weekend sandwich traditions of one Melbourne Greek family. What I was not, was disappointed. Suburbia Deli is a fantastic addition to Melbourne’s sandwich landscape, and it’s already growing.

The first shop was opened in Mordialloc in June of last year, with a second location added in May in Bentleigh. The deli is a multi-generational family affair. Maria and Angelo Georgopoulos, who have been in hospitality for decades, co-own the shops with their son Nico and his wife Marissa. Nico remembers his parents bringing home cold cuts, cheese and bread each weekend after he and his siblings played team sports, the whole family making sandwiches together.

For Suburbia, a family friend makes all the cookies and brownies, and Nico’s best man does the shop fit-outs. They’re growing quickly, and are in the midst of building a third location in Parkdale, which they hope will allow for more in-house production of sweets and non-sandwich savoury goods.

The defining characteristic of Suburbia’s sandwiches is generosity: meats and toppings are piled on so that there is far more filling than bread. The secondary feature is that bread, which is a soft oblong roll developed especially for the Georgopouloses by Bakery Lievito in Carrum Downs. It is soft inside, with a medium-crunchy exterior, engineered to be appropriate for fresh or grilled sandwiches.

I prefer most of these sandwiches fresh, but that may be my New York nostalgia talking. There’s no turkey and muenster, and no build-your-own option, but the No. 6 – which comes with mortadella, leg ham, salami, provolone cheese, tomato and pickled chillies – does a lot to satisfy the Italian grinder itch. And some of them do beg to be toasted, like the No. 3, a roast beef, provolone and sauerkraut number that gets all melty in the best ways when given some heat.

I’m excited for the Parkdale location, if only because it might bring more of the Georgopouloses’ home cooking to the fore. Right now, the spanakopita – made from grandma’s recipe, all dill- and lemon-forward in a melting filo casing – offers a delicious glimpse into what that might entail.

We love sandwiches for all kinds of obvious reasons, but one is that we don’t need chefs or even particularly ambitious home cooks to do them extremely well. They are part of our home life, part of our cafe life and a beautiful example of the ways in which our various ethnic traditions collide between two slices of bread.

Suburbia Deli scratches an itch for me and my own nostalgia, but it will do the same for someone else with a very different background, which is part of its beauty. Mostly, these are some of the best sandwiches around, made by one family for their wider community with huge amounts of love. What a perfect Melbourne story.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.