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Gandolfo’s New York Delicatessen stacks up its sandwiches in Rancho Cucamonga / February 19, 2015

Gandolfo’s, which first opened in Provo, Utah after the original owners moved west from New York, is a fusion of Italian and Jewish sandwiches, many of which will bring back memories to New York transplants. I was particularly enamored with some of the names of its creations including The Polo Grounds, East Village, Holland Tunnel, Coney Island, Knickerbocker and Throg’s Neck Bridge.

While you won’t find knishes, chopped liver, kishka, pastas or crunchy Italian rolls, there is pretty much something for everyone on their extensive menu, which is broken down into sections such as Breakfast Bagels & Sandwiches; Chicken breast, ham and roast beef sandwiches and New York Favorites along with Nathan’s Famous hot dog selections. Deli salads are made fresh daily including vinegary sliced mushrooms sprinkled with hot pepper flakes, red rose creamy potato salad and a crisp coleslaw tinged with mayo.

Rest assured that owner, Sean Whaley, doesn’t scrimp on the amount of meat used — no front end loading here. He and his wife, Danielle, own the Rancho Cucamonga spot as well as one in Mission Viejo. The Inland Empire deli does the most business in the 13-state mini-empire.

To start, it’s apropos that we begin with the New York Favorites. These are all served on in-house baked French rolls and have more of an Italian style. The Big Apple contains hot capocola, roast beef, pepper jack, lettuce, feta, tomato, onions, pepperoncini, mayo, oil and vinegar. You can barely close the roll, given the amount of ingredients, but it’s a great sandwich using first class meats.

From the same section, you’ll find the New York Giant, which chock full of flavor, but fairly fatty. It’s a sandwich filled with pastrami served with dill pickle slices and yellow mustard. Most pastrami afficionados would likely prefer spicy brown mustard, but hey, there’s no shortage of meat here. For $3.75 more, you can make it a whole roll.

The next sandwich, the Carnegie Hall, is served on rye (marble rye may be in the works in the future) and is gargantuan, a deluge of lean corned beef, turkey, Swiss cheese, cole slaw and Russian dressing (basically mayo and ketchup). Literally, two could share a sandwich with a couple of deli sides and be comfortably full