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Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
The Fino's crew, with Kelly English, who saved Fino's from the dustbin of history, at far left/back. His brother Todd, fifth from left in the front, serves as manager.
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Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
A veggie sub.
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Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
A breakfast sandwich.
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Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
Customers enjoying a meal.
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Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
Italian roast beef.
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Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
Fino's cannoli.
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Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
Fino's main window.
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Photographs by Justin Fox Burks
Pizza with freshly made dough.
It’s Tuesday night, roughly a week after Fino’s reopened in June. A couple sits at one of the tables studying the menu. A pair of old friends catch up at another table. In a far corner of the restaurant, a mother warns her child, “Don’t even think about it.”
Did we dare even think about it? That after the Midtown restaurant closed its doors in late December, we would once again know those sandwiches, that cannoli?
Yes, Fino’s is back under the sure hand of Kelly English of Restaurant Iris and Second Line. “People are really excited to have their sandwich shop back open,” English says. While English has vowed not to change a thing, there are some changes nonetheless. There’s new paint on the inside. Stark white tiles have been added to the indoor columns. The restaurant looks brighter, cleaner, and more spacious.
But the menu? It’s almost exactly and gloriously the same. English is using the same purveyors and following the old Fino’s recipes to a T. You’ll know it when your teeth do a tug-of-war with that famously tough bread. It feels like a great hug from a friend you haven’t seen in a long time.
There’s the Acquisto with its mile-high pile of ham, mortadella, and salami. (Can a mouth even open that wide?) and the veggie sub with its three cheeses, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and right-as-rain (and oily!) olive dressing. The Italian roast beef, a hot sandwich, is one English is particularly proud of. The roast beef is covered in onions, garlic, and tomatoes and then wrapped up and put in a low oven for 10 hours.
Perhaps the biggest change is that English added breakfast and extended the hours to include dinner. Of the breakfast offerings, English says he was inspired by those he used to have when he lived in New York, like bagels and lox or the sort of thing you’d order in one breath, eggbaconcheesesaltpepper.
The first time English went to Fino’s, years ago, he was drawn not by the sandwiches but by the market. (He needed olive juice for his restaurant.) In a nod to that experience, he has a growing market area with house-made mozzarella and ricotta cheeses, take-home meatballs and lasagna, plus locally made treats and Fino’s merch. Beer is sold, as well.
English considers Fino’s a pillar of authenticity — a place so important he hated to see it abandoned. “We wanted to make sure that this one survives,” he says.
1853 Madison Ave., (901-272-FINO) $
