If you’re working out at Core Solutions, located inside Westbrook’s Dana Warp Mill, you’ll have little trouble figuring out where the new Doughboy’s Deli is.

The brightly lit red-and-yellow sign beckons through the mill windows from the shop’s location just across the street.

It says, “Enough with the squats, already. What you really need is a steak and cheese.”

Doughboy’s opened earlier this month on Bridge Street, offering a deli menu fit for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Owners Tina and Chris Dougherty formerly owned Back Cove Deli, a respected sandwich shop near Portland’s Back Cove.

The new space in Westbrook is crisp and bright, not at all like the quaint New England corner-store look of Back Cove Deli. There’s no indication that Doughboy’s is intended to be a relocated replica.

Open at 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday, early commuters can swing in for a breakfast sandwich ($2.25), breakfast wrap ($3.75) or muffin ($1.50). The bold reds and blacks of the freshly painted space will awaken even the groggiest of early risers. If not, there’s always the hot Green Mountain coffee ($1.29 for a small).

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But a deli’s true devotion is to its lunch meats, and the way cheese, mustard and pickles can elevate sliced turkey from “so-so” to “something you look forward to” around lunchtime.

The deli sandwich is well represented here. Doughboy’s features hot and cold sandwich classics such as the ham Italian ($4 for a small), BLT ($4 for a small) and roast beef ($5.25 for a small).

There’s also a capicola ($5 for a small), egg salad ($3.75 for a small), prosciutto ($6 for a small) and loaded veggie ($4.50 for a small), among others.

On the hot side, there’s corned beef ($6), meatball parmesan ($5.25 for a small), boneless hot wing sub ($5), steak and cheese ($6.75), Reuben ($7.50) and grilled chicken ($6.75). There’s also the Rachel, a variant of the Reuben that swaps pastrami and coleslaw for corned beef and sauerkraut (and not to be confused with the Jennifer Aniston-inspired haircut).

Sandwiches can be done up as wraps as well for lunchers who like the one-handed efficiency of a tightly wrapped tortilla. I ordered a pulled turkey club wrap that came packed to the gills with fresh turkey, wonderfully crisp bacon and a spring mix of lettuce that felt almost fancy.

The serving was so generous, in fact, that it still essentially took two hands to handle. A friend who ordered the grilled chicken wrap even remarked, “It’s huge!”

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And unlike some other area sandwich shops — the ones that cap the mayonnaise and lock the doors when 5 o’clock rolls around — Doughboy’s is open until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 p.m. on Friday and 7 p.m. on Saturday.

The deli is aiming to become a go-to for easy dinners, in addition to easy breakfasts and easy lunches. The menu currently offers wings ($7), boneless wings ($7), hamburgers ($5.25) and cheeseburgers ($5.75), as well as baskets (which include fries) featuring chicken tenders ($6.50), haddock tenders ($7.75) and clam cakes ($5.75).

An array of the usual salads, including Greek ($5.75), grilled chicken Caesar ($8.50) and steak ($8.50) are also available — though lettuce might not suffice for the folks who just spent an hour doing plyometric squat jumps while staring at the Doughboy’s Deli sign out the window.

They’re going to want a steak and cheese.

The Features staff of The Portland Press Herald anonymously samples meals for about $7.

 


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