FOOD

‘Watts for Dinner’: Brooklyn-style comes to Marco Island

Will Watts
Correspondent

Our next doing destination is The Brooklyn Delicatessen on Marco Island. While this is our first visit to this establishment, it is a familiar stop for pizza and more; the former home of The Italian Deli. Proving no pizza oven will rest for long here.

The sign out front proclaims that the “best PIZZA on Marco IS BACK!” That pizza is done “Brooklyn-style” hence the name.

Two types of pizza are available regularly, cheese and pepperoni. There’s also pizza by the slice (menu notes (“when available”) and a Sicilian (also “when available).

The Sicilian is described as a square, thick crust pizza with the sauce on top, mozzarella cheese below and topped with oregano and parmesan cheese.

The deli offers cold and hot subs. Cold choices include roasted turkey, roast beef, ham and the chicken cutlet. Hot ones include eggplant, veal or chicken parm; meatball or Italian sausage and peppers.

Specialty “Brooklyn Subs” include “The Prosciutto,” “Chicken Cutlet Italian Style,” hot corned beef, hot pastrami and “The Brooklyn Italian” featuring sliced mortadella, capicola, soppressata (a dry-cured pork salami), ham, salami, provolone, roasted red peppers, lettuce, fresh mozzarella and tomato and vinaigrette.

All sandwiches are served on ciabatta bread.

The restaurant offers several “heat and eat” meals that must be ordered in advance — like chicken and veal parmigiana, baked ziti, lasagna, eggplant farm, manicotti and more.

There are also a selection of soups, salads and sides. There are a few tables outside, but this is primarily a takeout spot; just like before.

We took home a pepperoni pizza, a turkey sandwich and a chicken parm. 

The turkey sandwich ($12.99) was absolutely my favorite dish. The shaved turkey is piled high. The bread is fresh. You can pick from lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, roasted peppers, oil and vinegar.

We got it all, except oil. The sandwich is amazing. I highly recommend it and I will be back for more!

The chicken parm ($14.95) comes with two cutlets in marinara, covered with cheese. We cooked up some pasta and heated up the cutlets (instructions are included), having one each. The breading is light and tasty — very much like a Milanese. The sauce is tasty. You’ll enjoy this chicken, no matter whether you choose it as a sandwich, with a side or cook up your own pasta to go with it, like us.

Our pizza ($19.95) featured a thin crust. It was good, but it might be premature to call it Marco’s best. Given that cheese and pepperoni were the only ones available, I’m not sure it’s even fair to judge against any others.

Needless to say, we wish this business tons of success. And based on the foot traffic we saw, they’re well on the way. Happy eating!

More‘Watts for Dinner’: The Crazy Flamingo – Great food, insanely-good prices

AndHey Marco Island, looking for a place to eat?

Prices indicate time of visit and may vary. This newspaper pays for all meals related to dining reviews. We do not solicit or accept free food.

If you go

The Brooklyn Delicatessen