Giolitti Delicatessen - Annapolis, MD

It's been a while since I did a restaurant review, mostly because many of the places we visit tend to be chain and "regular" restaurants. In fact, sometime soon, I'll have to do a review of one of our favorite regular restaurants in the area. For today, though, I'm reviewing a local-to-Annapolis restaurant, Giolitti Delicatessen.

There's actually a bit of a story as to how we got to this place specifically, but it's a story we've been over again and again. You know, one of those, "What can you go for?" "I dunno, what can you go for?" "Uh, I dunno." Typically this leads to a chain restaurant or a regular of ours, but today, we were in the mood for something different.


Matt wanted a deli, and I was in the mood for breadsticks, plus we had a "plan" today as to where to go (Westfield Annapolis, by the way), so we ended up looking for something in the area that we could both settle on. And that's when we came across Giolitti.

THANK HEAVENS we did! I'm a bit premature in raving about this place, but we were seriously so impressed, it's going to become our we're-hungry-and-in-Annapolis restaurant from now on. There's a reason why they've received this honor:


First, they had a lot of great options available. Right next to the cashier, who happened to be this little old lady who I swear must've come over straight from Italy, was a glass case with some of their specials, including lasagna, chicken parmigiana, and white pizza with arugula and roasted red peppers. We were salivating just looking behind that counter.

We settled on sandwiches, though, and I'm so glad we did. You can actually design your own sandwiches there, so Matt ended up getting genoa salami and ham on focaccia, with Havarti cheese, lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar dressing, mayo, mustard, and hot cherry peppers.


I, of course, went for their vegetarian sandwich, a delightful combination of roasted eggplant, mozzarella cheese, lettuce, tomato, and oil and vinegar dressing on focaccia.


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Ooh, and they came with a pickle spear!

In short, our sandwiches were incredible. I was especially impressed with the bread, which was so soft and delicious and had the right bread to herb ratio. It practically pillowed our respective fillings. I seriously need to learn how to make bread like this. NEED.

It wasn't long before our sandwiches were devoured, so it was actually kind of miraculous that we managed to snap these pictures before they were gone. (Matt, of course, wanted to know why on earth I wanted to take these; "Let me guess, for your blog." Yes, how did you know!)



We were also impressed with how the restaurant was laid out. It was rather small -- there was a little area in the front with a few tables, and a smaller area in the back where the "overflow" could sit -- but it reminded Matt of old-town Italy, which he's actually visited. Someday I'll go with him, and I'll likely think of this little restaurant when we do.

They also had an impressive wall of wine selections, none of which we actually had... but trust me, if we had the ability (and at that point, the appetite!), we might have.



Anyway, our bellies full and our destination ahead, we had to leave Giolitti. One thing's for sure, though: After this experience, we'll definitely be back. After all, they have an entire menu we have to eat our ways through!