Top 25 NJ Sandwiches 2021 Challenge: Rose's Special, Carmen's Deli

 You might have missed the NJ.com article last week "New Jersey's 25 Greatest Sandwiches, ranked" or maybe you are not a subscriber.  Well, despite clearly ripping off my Talercio's Sandwiches, ranked (and my upcoming Brennan's, ranked blog coming this week) I'm happy Jeremy and Pete did the heavy lifting for me.  That's because starting this week, I will be driving my hot girl Jetta to all of these locations and trying the sandwiches myself under the anonymity of a small-time blogger and because I don't write for a media corporation, you can trust me.  "So how did you like the 25th ranked sandwich from Elsie's?" Funny story, since I'm clearly a professional, I (a very dumb person) didn't check to see if Elsie's was even open on Sunday's (spoiler: they aren't), so you can imagine how hard I was laughing at myself after driving an hour and 20 minutes to Haddon Township.  Luckily for me, Elsie's isn't South Jersey's only deli, so I called an audible and headed 2 miles down the road to Carmen's Deli, which is number ten on this list.  So excuse me for swapping these two, you live, you learn.  Carmen's almost always appears on "Best Of" lists not only for NJ but for the entire country, so I was pretty excited to go in there for the Rose's Special, named after a former owner.  Carmen's Deli opened in 1966 in the bizarrely named Bellmawr which you might recognize as the location of the bearded gym owner who defied the Governor's order to close this year.  Unfortunately, I didn't see him in the deli while I was there, and it seemed like Carmen's might be going through some renovations as they share the building that's basically branded with nothing but Dominos signs (back off, Dominos, everyone knows who you are). 

The Rose's Special features all the Italian meats (capicola, prosciutto, soppressata) along with not one but two different provolones (regular and sharp), roasted red peppers, onion, and an oil and pepper blend.  I have to admit to all of you that I'm not really a big fan of provolone, especially when it's sharp, but this is a really good sandwich and I'll tell you why.  The bread was absolutely elite, and the cold cuts were as fresh as you can get.  They call it a hoagie roll, but you will never catch me dead using that word.  If you like Italian meats and provolone, though, you have to absolutely try this sandwich, you can tell when a place really knows what they're doing, and Carmen's nails the sandwich execution. The subs here are $12 but they are big enough for 2 so you are really getting two for one, or if you are me, lunch and dinner.  So there you have it number 10 on the list opening up this exciting new feature, which I will be dropping every Monday until August. 

Carmen's Deli is located at 42 E Browning Rd, Bellmawr, NJ 08031