Little Charlie's REVISIT — The Reno Sub with Diablo Sauce

Key Takeaways

• Little Charlie's Pizza — 2030 N. Dixie Hwy, Suite 108, Elizabethtown (front of Best Buy, next to Red Lobster). 270-900-1119. Pizza by the slice goes out around 10:30–10:45 AM at about $4/slice.
• The picks this week (all three were on the table on air): The Reno Sub ($15 — Italian sausage, peppers, onions, mozzarella, Diablo sauce — "legit," fork-and-knife sandwich, feeds two). Buffalo Chicken Calzone — Michele's pick, drizzled with buffalo, get a side of extra buffalo for dipping. Chicken Parm Garlic Knot — chicken parm built inside a garlic-knot bun cooked in garlic butter, Michele's favorite bite of the day.
• The Diablo sauce on the Reno is a marinara base with crushed red pepper and Calabrian chilies — Britten on heat: "It has to be flavor. For me to do heat, it has to be flavorful heat." Britten's quote of the day: "I'm going to rename that sandwich to Rachel because that was one of the hottest things I've eaten in E-town in a long time."
• Why it works: in-house dough, cheese prepped fresh, ingredients layered on-site, with creative weekly specials the kitchen rotates through. Last week Britten had a chicken cutlet sandwich with Caesar salad on it.
• Pro tip: subs change Tuesday/Wednesday. Call ahead if you want a specific sandwich and they'll set one aside.
• Manager: Ezekiel "Zeke" Daraway — open to suggestions on what to put on the menu.

Summary

Britten and Michele McDowell revisited Little Charlie's Pizza this week with one mission: prove their sandwich game. Britten led the framing — "some of the best sandwiches in Hardin County" — and the table backed him up. They came back with three: the Reno Sub (Italian sausage and peppers with a Diablo sauce Britten called "legit"), the Buffalo Chicken Calzone (Michele's pick — she's a buffalo junkie and ordered a side of extra buffalo for dipping), and the Chicken Parm Garlic Knot (a chicken parm built inside a garlic-knot bun — Michele's favorite bite of the day).

The case Britten built: most people walk into Little Charlie's thinking pizza. The sandwich menu is the sleeper. The kitchen makes its own dough, preps cheese fresh in-house, and the Italian flavor profiles are interchangeable enough that the kitchen comes up with creative weekly specials. Subs change Tuesday and Wednesday — call ahead if you want the Reno.

Address, phone, and pro tips below. 2030 N. Dixie, Suite 108. Front of Best Buy, next to Red Lobster. 270-900-1119.

Watch this segment: https://youtube.com/watch?v=VDqZpZfwzCo Full episode: https://youtube.com/watch?v=bLUZL3xv0A8

Full Article

Rachel set it up: "Britten and Michele, the experienced eaters — you went back to Little Charlie's. And from what I saw in the video, they did not come light. Roll it and let's walk through it."

What rolled was three plates on a table and a quietly emphatic case from Britten that the best sandwiches in Hardin County are sitting inside a place most people drive past assuming "that's a pizza place."

The Reno Sub. Italian sausage, peppers, onions, mozzarella, and what the kitchen calls Diablo sauce. Britten's read of the heat: "It was basically a marinara sauce with crushed red pepper and some other — I think there's some Calabrian chilies and some other things in there. You got a couple of different flavor profiles for the heat, and they really layered it in very well." About the spice principle: "For me to do heat, it has to be flavorful heat. If it's just hot for the sake of hot, yeah, I don't do that."

The sandwich itself: "Look at that. I'm going to rename that sandwich to Rachel because that was one of the hottest things I've eaten in E-town in a long time." The build is two halves of one giant sandwich — fork-and-knife required after the first bite. About $15, and "that would feed both of us." The kitchen also offers it with vodka sauce instead of Diablo if heat isn't your thing — "if I have a chance to go regular or hot, I'm always going to go hot just to see."

The Buffalo Chicken Calzone. Michele's pick. "You guys hear me talk on here all the time that I am all about the sauce," she said. "I like tons of sauce, tons of extra au jus, tons of extra dressing. So the calzone was great as it was. But it just had like a drizzle of buffalo on the top of it. And I want to like dunk every bite so that it's like just total, total sauce. So, of course, all you have to do is ask. So I asked for an extra thing of buffalo sauce and went to town. But it is amazing. Oh, man, it was really good." Britten in the video, leaning into the dunk: "I'm a buffalo junkie. I love it. I love that calzone. The dough is great. Love that salty mozzarella. I'm going to dunk in some buffalo and make it even more better. Yes, sir."

The Chicken Parm Garlic Knot. Michele's favorite bite. The build: "Chicken parm, extra sauce, and garlic, and some garlic butter." The garlic knot is cooked in garlic butter with fresh garlic on top. The cutlet is halved, layered, sauced top and bottom. "It's really, it was very complete," Michele said. Britten in the video: "It's one of my favorite sauces ever since. Look at that bite. The sauce. I mean, it's just a great bite. It's crunchy. It's salty. That's excellent." You can eat it with your hands — though Michele warned: "I don't know if I would eat it with a white shirt driving down the road."

The case for the sandwich menu. Britten's full framing: "That's something I say. Because, you know, especially at lunchtime, I like a sandwich. You know, like a burger, like, you know, all those things that go with it. But, you know, hands down, I've had sandwiches at several different places, several different burgers. But you go there, and this is something — Ezekiel Daraway is their manager and somebody that I'm pretty good friends with. And Zeke's always said, hey, if you see something that we can try to make it, you know, see what we have. And the sandwich game is something I think that it's kind of like several places. You know, there's always something on the menu that I'd call a sleeper. And their sandwiches are sleepers. Because people go in, they see the pizza display. They see, you know, they might see the special, the pasta or whatever. And they just get overlooked. And, I mean, they do a great job. They're very creative. They come up with some great ideas."

The example: last week Britten had a special that was "a chicken cutlet, some sauce, and it had a Caesar salad. It was Caesar salad on it. And it was really neat."

The bread is fresh, the kitchen does its own dough, and Britten noted you get a "very large portion — you get a good bang for your buck, too. I think that sandwich is $15. Yeah, it's really good. I mean, that would feed both of us."

Practical info: 2030 N. Dixie Hwy, Suite 108, Elizabethtown — 270-900-1119. "If you're staring at the front of Best Buy right off of Dixie Highway there to the left, there's a small plaza there. It kind of sits in front of, like, TJ Maxx and Ross and to the right of Red Lobster. So it's right there in that shopping center. So it's very easy to access." The slice display goes out daily, usually by 10:30 to 10:45 AM, around $4 a slice.

Pro tip from Britten: "They usually change the subs on, like, Tuesday, Wednesday. So that may have been the tail end of it. So if you've got to run through an appointment, you might as well say, hey, throw one in a bag for me. Yeah, I might make a phone call in advance."

A viewer comment came in real-time during the segment. Kevin Parrett, who Phil called "our traveler," had just returned from taking a student group to New Jersey and New York. His take: "Little Charlie's, like in New York City, makes their pizza fresh in store. Love it so much. Better than the chains."

Britten's final word on Hardin County in general — said while wrapping the segment with Phil: "For us to be as rural a county as we are, to have the food scene that we do, just have the safety that we do, to have the infrastructure, the growth — I mean, I think we're very fortunate."

The verdict on Little Charlie's specifically — "go grab one. I mean, it sounds like an amazing — I have to try it. I'm going to make a phone call before to make sure I get the one that I want. But you've got me hungry. And you always do." Rachel, speaking for everyone who has ever watched The Experienced Eater on an empty stomach.