Kevin Joyce slices green pepper while making an Italian sandwich at Amato’s on India Street in Portland. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

Three to five times a year, Richard Harper places a long-distance food order, one that covers 2,700 miles.

Whenever he wants to treat himself, relive childhood memories and emotionally revisit his Maine roots, Harper has Italians from Amato’s in Portland shipped to his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.

“Oh my God, that bread is amazing — you can’t find that anywhere else,” said Harper, 61, a Falmouth native and executive vice president of a meeting and event planning firm. “The fun part is that they ship me the sandwiches deconstructed, and when I put them together, I pretend I’m in Amato’s kitchen.”

The Maine Italian is fiercely loved by generations of Mainers but sometimes derided by people from away, in part because it lacks any notable Italian fillings. It started as a simple workingman’s lunch, sold by Italian immigrant Giovanni Amato and his family to Portland dock workers more than 110 years ago.

Over the years, corner stores and markets all over Greater Portland and southern Maine began selling Italians, too. Most places still use the same ingredient list today: boiled ham, American cheese, sour pickles, olives, tomatoes, green pepper, onions, salt, pepper and oil, on a very soft split-top roll.

The Maine Italian continues to be a staple at corner stores and pizza shops, even as the state’s food scene has become more sophisticated and pricey, and as Portland has earned a national reputation as a food tourism destination. Its popularity is at least partly due to the fact that it’s inexpensive comfort food, with a large usually selling for around $7 or $8. Fans also rave about the taste, and about watching the ingredients being freshly sliced onto their sandwich.

But the appeal for many Mainers is rooted in nostalgia, in their memories of grabbing Italians for the beach or a family party in the days before drive-thru lanes and Door Dash. There’s also a sense of pride in the fact that while other places may call something an Italian sandwich, it’s nothing like a Maine Italian.

“The world is changing — everything is changing constantly, so it’s nice to have some traditions you can fall back on,” said Karen Rumo, 59, a mental health worker from Windham. “The Italian is a tradition for so many of us in Maine. It’s something we grew up with. It was a huge treat to get them when we were kids, and we can still get them today.”

A RITE OF PASSAGE

The Maine Italian is part of the state’s history and culture, and its lore has spread to people beyond Maine’s borders. Amato’s and its role as the originator of the Maine Italian gets mentioned by guides during some of the Maine Day Ventures food tours in Portland. The sandwich and pizza chain now has 52 locations across New England and ships about 50 deconstructed Italian sandwich kits a week — packed in ice — to people all over the country. They are menu-priced, plus the shipping costs. Mainers wintering in Sarasota, Florida, can get fresh-made Italians from the Maine Line food truck there, run by native Mainer Kurt Turner.

It’s hard to say exactly how many places are keeping the traditional Italian alive in Maine, but Botto’s Bakery in Westbrook supplies the signature “Italian stick” rolls to some 40 shops and stores across southern Maine (Amato’s makes its own rolls). At least three old-school places known for their Italians have changed hands in the last several years — Corsetti’s in Westbrook, Anania’s in Portland and George’s Sandwich Shop in Biddeford — and in each case the new owners have vowed to keep making the iconic sandwich.

“I love the Maine Italian — it’s like a rite of passage living in Maine,” said Chet Carter, 35, an auto service writer who grew up in York and lives in Portland. “There are so many places today where you can’t go out for less than $50 a head, so it’s cool to get a $7 sandwich that’s a meal in itself. I know I can afford a better sandwich, but it’s a tradition, and I know it’s going to be good no matter where I get it from.”

John Amato, great-grandson of founder Giovanni Amato, at Amato’s on India Street. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

The sandwiches have also become part of the learning curve for people who move to Maine from away. Danielle Del Bianco, of South Portland, says she was “disappointed” to learn about Maine Italians when she moved to the state about 10 years ago. She has several problems with them, including the fact that they don’t have a top, unlike most subs, and their open-faced structure makes them very hard to pick up.

“They should almost stick another hot dog roll on top — it’s such a chore to eat,” said Del Bianco, 37, who manages a dog day care and is originally from Vermont. “It needs some spicy meats, maybe capicola. Just more flavor in general.”

Charles Woods, 39, of Poughkeepsie, New York, has never understood the appeal of the Maine Italian, although he knows that his wife, Yarmouth native Alyssa McDermott, loves them passionately. He’s confused by the lack of Italian meats, typical of Italian sandwiches in New York. He’s further confused that in many Maine shops, the menu board has a general heading for “Italians” with different kinds listed underneath, maybe a roast beef or a turkey Italian, for instance.

So, at first glance the word “Italian” appears to be a synonym for “sub.” But if you order just an Italian, or a “regular” Italian or the “Original Real Italian” at Amato’s, you get the time-honored combination of boiled ham, American cheese, sour pickles and all the rest. So, it’s really rather specific.

A couple of years ago, Woods went on Reddit to ask. “Is a ‘Real Maine Italian’ a Real Italian Sandwich?” He got 46 responses, mostly from non-Mainers who agreed with his take, that Maine’s version was not a real Italian sandwich. But he also heard from two or three Mainers, basically saying “how dare you” malign the Maine Italian. His wife agrees with them.

“I’ll defend it until the day I die,” said McDermott, 38. “At Jersey Mike’s (sub chain), everything comes out of a bag. With the Italian, everything’s sliced onto the sandwich. It’s a part of Maine’s unique culture and it should be recognized.”

Mackenzie Ross makes an Italian sandwich at Corsetti’s in Westbrook. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

A SANDWICH OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS

Giovanni Amato was a native of Italy and a baker who started selling his bread from a cart to Portland dock workers around 1902. By 1910, Amato and his wife, Michillina, were stuffing ham, cheese and veggies inside their bread to make a more complete lunch for the dock workers, said John Amato, 58, the couple’s great-grandson. They used ham and American cheese because they were easy to get in Portland at the time, and the veggies were chosen because people decided they tasted great together. Many of the dock workers were Irish and probably wouldn’t have been interested in salami or capicola. The name of the sandwich likely comes from the fact it was made by Italians, on bread baked by Italians.

Sam DiPietro, at DiPietro’s Market in South Portland. His family began making and selling Italians in the 1940s. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

In the days when Portland had a store or market on just about every corner, customers began asking for Italians and store owners obliged. Sam DiPietro, an owner of DiPietro’s Market in South Portland, said his grandparents opened a store in 1944 on Cumberland Avenue in Portland. At first they sold mostly groceries, but then the Italians started to sell really well, with ham and cheese. The shop eventually became known as DiPietro’s Italian Sandwiches and was open until 2013.

Amato’s owner Dominic Reali eating an Italian around 1967, before he bought the company. Courtesy of Amato’s

DiPietro’s father, Santo DiPietro, started his own store on Cottage Road in South Portland in 1972. In the days before fast food and delivery were everywhere, Sam DiPietro, 59, remembers that his father’s store would have a dozen or so Italians wrapped and stacked on the counter, ready to go, because the demand was so high.

Ed Anania’s father started a corner store with his brothers in the late 1950s, not far from the original Amato’s on India Street in Portland. People started asking for Italians when they’d come in for groceries. Eventually there were three Anania’s stores, selling Italians and other foods, in Portland and South Portland.  The family sold the South Portland store in 2018, closed the Congress Street location last year and sold the Washington Avenue location to that store’s former manager this year.

Amato’s was run by the Amato family until 1972, when another Italian immigrant, Dominic Reali, bought the store after working there for about seven years. He made a couple of small changes to the Italians, including using slightly-more-sour pickles and Kalamata olives, said John Amato, who works as general manager of Amato’s bakery.

Amato’s on India Street in Portland, circa 1960. Courtesy of Amato’s

The impact of Amato’s on the larger sandwich world goes beyond the Maine Italian. When Subway sandwich chain co-founder Peter Buck died in 2021, his obituary in The New York Times noted that before he and Fred DeLuca opened their first sandwich shop in Connecticut in the mid-1960s, Buck drove DeLuca to Portland to see how Amato’s made sandwiches. Buck had grown up in South Portland and was a fan.

“I think Amato’s really did get the ball rolling — they’re definitely the king when it comes to Italians,” said Ed Anania, 64, now retired from Italian-making. “I’d like to think in Portland, at least, we were a close second.”

The question “What’s your favorite place to get a Maine Italian?” got some 360 replies recently on the Portland Maine Encyclopedia of the 1960s, 70s, & 80s Facebook page. Many named Amato’s, but others listed DiPietro’s, Severino’s in Westbrook, Quality Shop in Portland and a couple dozen others, including several that have long been closed. Several of the places people named have new owners – but the same Italians.

When Eli Small bought Corsetti’s in 2018, which has been in Westbrook since the 1970s, he decided to keep Italians on the menu. He even reverted back to rectangular boiled ham slices; the previous owners had used round smoked ham slices. In February, the Washington Avenue Anania’s was taken over by Zach Lord, a Maine native who went to culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island and has worked in restaurants all over the country. He came back to Maine and worked at Anania’s for about three years before buying the Washington Avenue shop. And he’s still making Italians there.

George’s Sandwich Shop in Biddeford has been in business since 1948. When new owner Mike Clukey took over from the shop’s founding family in 2022, he already knew how important the Maine Italian was to the business, and to his customers.

“It’s my biggest seller. People don’t want it to change. They want it the way it’s always been,” Clukey said.

HOW TO MAKE A MAINE ITALIAN: A tale of 3 sandwiches