Driving through downtown Detroit, restaurant after restaurant had their doors shut and closed signs posted. Finding somewhere to grab takeout is not an easy task, but nestled on Washington Boulevard is a small sub shop, La Pecora Nera.

After calling my order in ahead of time, I drove down the empty streets and soon arrived at a cozy Italian deli, with a white brick counter and a chalkboard menu. The restaurant had options varying from coffee, to breakfast sandwiches, to subs soups and salads. I ordered an Italian Meatball, Caprese and Turkey Bella sub.

When I arrived to pick up my order, the restaurant appeared to be very clean, and the two workers there were wearing gloves. They were very friendly and seemed excited to see customers in these hard times. They gave me the subs to go and I was out the door to go eat them at home.

The wrapping on the subs was charming, they were wrapped in thick white deli paper, which they stamped their logo on once they wrapped them, and finished with a twine bow.

The first sub I tried was the meatball, a classic that’s pretty hard to mess up. It was your average meatball sub, didn’t blow me away or disappoint.

The Caprese was a bit disappointing with the produce selection. Being a vegetarian sub the meat isn’t the highlight of the sub, so the produce has to be the star. The tomatoes were mealy and the entire contents of the sandwich were a bit sparse. The mozzarella was delicious and seemed very fresh, I just wish there was more of it in ratio to the bread.

Finally, the Turkey Bella was pretty good, but not something worth raving over. The sandwich had potential to be great, with the garlic and herb aioli, bacon, mozzarella, tomatoes, lettuce, turkey and basil, but the flavor didn’t blow me away. There was a lot of flavorless turkey and not a whole lot of the other stuff that makes the sandwich special.

The deli was adorable and the staff was super friendly, but overall the sandwiches weren’t worth writing home about. If you’re in the area and are hungry for a solid sub, stop in, but it’s not worth going out of your way for.