D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches (Westborough)
Mile Post 105, 11 Massachusetts TurnpikeIt was about to be a really long drive home.
A colleague and I were in Boston for a work assignment last week. We left Wednesday morning. Drove all day and got to Dedham, MA where our hotel was about 7:30 PM. We worked from about 8:30 AM to 10 PM Thursday then got up at 7:30 AM on Friday and worked in Boston until 2:30.
We then started our drive back to Michigan.
Most people would get halfway and stop for the night but I was really determined to get all the way home. L had a figure skating competition at 8 AM Saturday morning and I really wanted to make it there if I could.
The drive from Kalamazoo to Boston took about 12 hours so I was hoping to be home by 3 AM.
The drive from Boston to Kalamazoo didn’t go as smoothly. We hit traffic on the Mass Turnpike almost immediately.
My colleague started working on some of the stuff we got in Boston on the drive home but he had a really hard time finding some of my files on the drives that I gave him. I obviously couldn’t look while I was driving so I told him to wait until I found a rest stop.
He found what he was looking for right as I pulled in to a rest stop but since we were already off the highway, I suggested we just grab lunch. Neither of us had eaten yet and we both wanted to limit stops on the way home as much as possible.
We stopped at the rest area at Mile Post 105 on Westbound I-90 in Westborough, MA. The thing I really like about driving through New York and Boston was that they had these really nice areas to stop that good food options and gas stops. They’re similar to the ones you find on the Indiana Tollroad and the Ohio Turnpike but there seemed to be more of them so you had more options to stop.
The Massachusetts rest stops weren’t quite as nice as the New York ones. The design is a little dated and a little stale but they still had a lot of food options set up in a mall food court type of setting. This one has a Dunkin, Boston Market, Cheesy Street Grill, Fresh City, Auntie Anne’s, and the one I was looking for, a D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches/Papa Gino’s.
I headed to the Papa Gino’s/D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches counter on the north side of the building. There was a little bit of a line when I got there which almost scared me off. I didn’t really want this to be a 15 minute stop if I could help it. The line moved pretty quickly though as most people were just grabbing pizza slices from the Papa Gino’s portion of the space.
My colleague stayed in the car and started going through the files of mine he just found. He told me to just get him something without onions. An Italian if possible.
I got him a regular Toasted Italian and got myself a regular Steak with Cheese. The cost came out to about $25 for the two sandwiches.
There’s a much bigger seating area on the other side of the building but there are a few tables near the D’Angelo so I just sat there to wait for my sandwiches to be ready. Like the rest of the building, the furniture is really dated and slightly uncomfortable but I wasn’t going to be sitting there very long.
It took a little over five minutes before I saw the woman who took my order grab two sandwiches from the kitchen and start looking for me. I walked up to the counter to grab them then headed back to my car.
The Steak with Cheese sandwich is as simple as it sounds. It’s grilled steak with melted American cheese. This is such a simple, classic sandwich. No veggies to get in the way and enough meat to fill you up. The bread this sandwich came on was really tasty and really a star in it’s own right. It’s a soft Italian roll that really soaks up all the flavor without getting soft or soggy.
D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches was on my short list of places to eat while we were in Boston. I knew it was going to be a really, really quick trip and we weren’t going to have time to really explore all of the restaurants that I would want to find. I was well aware fast food was going to be our main meals on travel days as well so I wanted something uniquely New England if I could find it. D’Angelo is just that. The chain of about 80 restaurants was founded in Dedham, MA and only operates in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
The sandwiches are pretty simple and pretty similar to what you expect at a sandwich chain. The bread is what really sets this place apart.
I had a goal to stop at one of these rest stops on our way home before getting out of Massachusetts and it worked out well when we thought we needed to stop to figure something out. I wasn’t going to waste the chance and I’m glad I didn’t.
SW Michigan Dining 