David Tucci describes his two South Austin sub sandwich shops as true hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Through 10 years owning Tucci’s SouthSide Subs, he said he only invests money in something if it will make his food taste better.
“It’s all about the food and keeping the customer service to the level of the product,” he said. “We don’t really care about the dining room decorations or marketing. It’s about real food made by real people.”
Originally part of Austin’s Delaware Sub Shop chain for over 15 years, Tucci said he broke his two restaurants away in 2008 to create East Coast-style subs with lighter Italian bread and deli meat shaved thin and stacked tall. He said his goal was to invest money where national sub chains were not: in the ingredients.
Tucci said he first reached out to New World Bakery in Kyle to craft a custom bread that replicated the sandwich bread from Philadelphia the he grew up eating in Pennsylvania. He next made sure his shop only served Boar’s Head brand deli meats, something national chains would never invest money in, he said.
