Hmmm. Never thought about that as an option, but that might very well scratch my itch. It's really the combo of the roll, cheese, veggies & spices that makes up 75% of the "hoagie" flavor.

Hahaha 🎯

Interesting. I grew up in the heat of the Coal Region and "hoagie" was definitely the default term used throughout my city. I suspect the linguistic split in that region is probably dictated by the historical percentage of Italian-Americans in the particular city/town, with the more densely populated cities falling on the hoagie side, and the more rural areas splintering off toward the "sub" side. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the usage of "hoagie" has declined in recent years given the large number of New York City-area and Hispanic transplants that have arrived in the area in the past 20 years.

The most difficult part of moving back to Philly as a relatively recent convert to pescetarianism is the never-ceasing temptation of the hoagie (and all of the other classic Philadelphia meat-based sandwiches). I've had Luhv's vegan hoagie and it's a really solid sandwich, but it's pricey and requires a special trip to RTM. There's something particularly alluring about knowing that you can walk into almost any corner deli in the city and get a delicious high-quality hoagie (or cheesesteak for that matter). sigh

Yep! L'angolo is legitimately great. Their grandma pies are also very good.

I haven't tried Pizza Jawn simply because all of the photos I have seen of their food look gratuitous. Maybe it's something I'd want to eat while hammered at 3 a.m., but those days are long in my past.

Even with the inevitable flooding issues, from a community perspective, I'd rather have ground floor retail space there rather than a surface parking lot.

I'm all for more mixed-use development in this part of town to strengthen the connection between the heart of Main Street & Wissahickon, but underground parking & ground floor retail on that plot sounds like a recipe for disaster with the inevitable continuing flood problems. That CVS next-door, which was totally flooded out back in 2021, only just reopened in the last few weeks! I guess the only practical other development solution is to have surface parking & an elevated building, but that would be awful from a community/urbanist perspective. 🤷‍♂️

Haven't purchased it here in Philly, but in the past I've found it at Asian supermarkets.