Torrisi Chicken Parm

the fuck you think i had, bish?

Obviously, it was going to be the Chicken Parm. I don’t have a whole lot to write about Torrisi, but I’d like to get the negatives out of the way: I was there at 3:30, in the middle of a shift change. I was the only one there. I ate in, tipped on the sandwich, but no one wanted to offer me any service other than handing me the sub. There were two people (probably the GM and assistant) holding a meeting at an adjacent table, and someone with a lot nicer camera than mine came in and took shots, talked with them for a second, and left. There was water available for everyone if you poured it yourself. I don’t mind this and I get it, but I do mind lukewarm water. Even though I wasn’t visited by a waiter, I felt rushed out of there. So many things going on around me and no one paying me any attention. I probably wouldn’t care about anything if they offered me cold water when dining.

Let’s talk about chix, man!

This sub has been talked about to death, so I had to try it, and I have to report on it here for you right now. The first time I had scheduled to go to Torrisi, I was going to meet a girl there and go on a Soho food tour. I get there and they tell me that they don’t serve the Chicken Parmesan Sub at dinner. She gets there a minute later and tells me she’s a vegetarian.

What. The. Fuck.

Is that the poorest form imaginable? So someone tells you that on a date you’re going to go on a food tour, and you don’t even think to tell that person that you’re a vegetarian? Like your average Soho food tour is going to focus on the vegetarian and vegan options of the finest restaurants in the area. I still don’t know why I didn’t just send the girl home right there. What a fucking waste-of-time, classless, selfish move. One of my friends asked me why I was going on a date with a girl who didn’t have the balls to tell me she was a vegetarian. I didn’t really feel it out as well as I could have; I met her at the Lost finale, she was hot, I asked her out. Flitty actress-type. Serves me right? I don’t know.

The sandwich – made with locally-sourced tomatoes, house-made mutz, house-made bread, a pleasant chicken cutlet, and fresh basil. The sandwich was on point. The bread crunches on the outside, soft on the inside, chicken crispy on the outside moist on the inside, Ice cream, Ice cre-I-Ice cream paint job. I would like a couple more leaves of fresh basil on the sandwich the next time I go; the flavor is faint when matched up against the rest of the sandwich. I don’t need it to kick me in the face, I just want to taste it.

Pumped about this sandwich. It’s certainly a redo (that means it’s damn good), but not before I get the Turkey. There’s a lot of hullabaloo about the Turkey, too (and Tippecanoe).

Here’s my recommendation (to Torrisi): close for an hour at 4. It’s not going to kill you. You don’t have a big enough space to hold meetings when other diners are present. If you’re dying to keep the restaurant open all day long, go over to McNally Jackson to hold your meetings and hold your pre-shift in the kitchen.

If that doesn’t happen, my other recommendation is to avoid Torrisi from 3-5 for anything other than take out. That being said, it’s a decent Chicken Parm. Is it the best I’ve ever had? Maybe. Will it blow your mind like Leo’s Latticini in Corona? Probably not.

Torrisi Italian Specialties
250 Mulberry Street ‎
New York, NY‎ 10002
(212) 965-0955