Honeysuckle Provisions’ ‘Dolla’ hoagies are some of the city’s best sandwiches

When Omar Tate was growing up in Germantown, a trip to the corner store for a $1 hoagie was a cherished part of his childhood in the 1990s.

“All across the city, really,” said the chef, now 36. “I could get a turkey hoagie with mayo and everything on it, add chips and a juice, and have lunch for $1.50.”

The memory of that ritual, and the promise of a good lunch, says Tate, was the spark for the “Dolla” hoagie menu at Honeysuckle Provisions, the Afrocentric grocery and cafe he and wife Cybille St.Aude-Tate opened in the Garden Court section of West Philadelphia last fall. Of course, there’s been a bit of inflation over the years. The fact that Honeysuckle’s 6-inch hoagies actually go for $12 (and up) might prompt a double take due to the menu name.

But that’s the going rate for quality sandwiches in Philly these days, and I’ve paid more for far worse. While certainly taking fair pricing into account, Honeysuckle is most focused on serving high-quality, handcrafted food to their neighborhood with a focus on Black producers and foodways. And they’re doing exactly that in the charming little retail space on South 48th Street, with scratch ingredients on every level, from its fantastic hot sauce and miso made from black-eyed peas grown on their urban farm beneath the Market-Frankford El, to the local produce case and sandwiches that represent the initial core of the cafe’s menu. It all begins with the excellent baking.

Baker Sterling Pope is producing beautiful breads using heirloom grains from Castle Valley Mills and Anson Mills, turning out flaky hot pockets stuffed with smoked collards and eggs, “Yamz” milk bread loaves made from sweet potato flour, the BLACKenglish muffins breakfast sandwiches with black-eyed pea scrapple and the light but flavorful sourdough sandwich rolls made from Sonoran wheat.

Those seeded Sonora rolls are the foundation of Honeysuckle’s hoagies. And the fillings are house-made, too. Honeysuckle’s turkey hoagie is now my current favorite turkey hoagie citywide thanks to the moist, fresh breast meat that’s cooked sous-vide with citrus, herbs, and koji, sweetened with Ethiopian honey, and then paired with local greens, havarti, and a vegan mayo made from benne seeds.

The Haitian, priced at $18.04 to mark the year of Haiti’s independence, is a flavorful nod to St.Aude-Tate’s Haitian roots that pairs spiced ham, pulled griyo pork, spicy pikliz, and Brie in a grilled sandwich (not unlike a Cuban) that has a philanthropic perk: 30% of its cost is donated to the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance.

If the turkey hoagie is my go-to choice, the turnip hoagie is Honeysuckle’s most fascinating endeavor. Tate, who consistently showcases local Black farmers, purchased loads of turnips from Joe L. Bartee’s farm in Elmer, N.J., pickled and then smoked them. Sliced thin and piled high on a hoagie roll with all the fixings, they can resemble smoked turkey enough that Tate says customers have returned to the store just to double-check. Our sandwich was still so crunchy (the roots can vary in texture, Tate says), we didn’t make that mistake. I also wonder if it’s missing one ingredient to lend it more balance and complexity. But it was delicious enough on its own turnip terms, I already consider it one of the most distinctive veggie hoagies in a town where produce-driven sandwiches have never been better. The importance of that, in a neighborhood that’s lacked such ambitious options, cannot necessarily be counted in “dollas.”

— Craig LaBan

“Dolla” hoagies, $12, Honeysuckle Provisions, open Thursday through Sunday, 310 S. 48th St., 215-307-3316; honeysuckleprovisions.com