Because there was no line here on this Sunday morning. Not yet, anyway.<\/p>\n
Co-owner\/operator Philip D\u2019Amico told me later, after I\u2019d finished my breakfast and introduced myself, that the space in front of the counter usually starts piling up around 10 a.m. But in this moment, I am marveling that one of the final pieces of my \u201cbeloved foods from home puzzle,\u201d maybe the very last one, has snapped into place.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m letting it all sink in.<\/p>\n
To my right, there\u2019s a guy at a table having his own egg sandwich and coffee. His blue-silver hair is combed straight back. He\u2019s wearing black shorts and a black shirt, black sunglasses and a thick gold bracelet.<\/p>\n
This guy gets it, I think. Central Casting couldn\u2019t have sent me a better paisan. I thought about double-checking to see if he was from New York, but I decided we were both here for serenity. When I watched him leave in a huge, black Cadillac SUV, I smiled.<\/p>\n
![\"My](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-nyc-bec-damico-and-sons-oviedo-01_b3e8e8.jpg\")
My friend, who ordered the Taylor ham version, was skeptical. Not anymore. (Amy Drew Thompson\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
I guess he could have been from Jersey, but he was legit. And I am legit. And we were both here because this egg sandwich is legit.<\/p>\n
So is the one I found recently at a perma-parked downtown Tampa food truck called Bacon, Egg\u2019n Cheese<\/a>. It\u2019s been a luscious occasional treat since the discovery. I love the way their menu reads \u201cBECSPK all one word,\u201d but the sandwich is $10.<\/p>\n I pay it happily, mind you. But the one at D\u2019Amico\u2019s is $6.99. And it\u2019s actually a little better, because it\u2019s so close to home.<\/p>\n Hopelessly devoted to cookies? Try this spiced take on classic oatmeal<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been scoping out a few places around town lately, hoping for synchronicity, but the sandwiches had scrambled eggs. To me, this is immediately a disqualification unless you ask for it, which, in 30 straight years growing up in New York, working at my dad\u2019s breakfast-and-lunch joint, has only rarely ever happened.<\/p>\n Antonino D\u2019Amico is similarly perplexed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not the right way,\u201d he says. \u201cI mean, if you wanna order it that way, be my guest, but the only way, really, is over-easy. You bite into it, the yolk comes out a little bit, that American cheese oozes out, almost like a cheese pull when you fold the halves away from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n And the Kaiser roll. It\u2019s a must. The only way. D\u2019Amico\u2019s gets theirs from a bakery in New York called Malone\u2019s, and while they lack the poppy seeds often seen, they\u2019re perfect just the same. They offer the sandwich on a bagel, too, but I\u2019m not sure why.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t know what a Kaiser roll is,\u201d Philip D\u2019Amico explains. \u201cSo we kind of have to offer the plain bagel, the sesame, the everything.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t even ask where they get them. I don\u2019t care. I don\u2019t even think it matters in the context of an egg sandwich.<\/p>\n The brothers laugh and agree, but business is business. I respect this entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you know, most of our customers now, we try and put them onto the Kaiser roll, and once they\u2019re on it, they don\u2019t want to switch.\u201d<\/p>\n It was just called an egg sandwich when I was growing up. You didn\u2019t have to say bacon or cheese. You didn\u2019t even have to specify \u201con a roll.\u201d<\/p>\n You might say \u201csalt, pepper, ketchup\u201d when you ordered it, quickly, all in one breath. Or \u201cSPK,\u201d like the sign in Tampa. Or the guy behind the counter might phrase it in the form of a question, a quintessential New York call-and-response.<\/p>\n \u201cLemme get an egg sandwich\u2026?\u201d you might ask.<\/p>\n \u201cSalt, pepper, ketchup?\u201d would be fired right back.<\/p>\n For me, the answer is \u201cno, thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n Best Italian: 2025 Orlando Sentinel Foodie Awards<\/a><\/p>\n Sometimes, I grab a packet and put it on the second half \u2014 I don\u2019t trust other people to ketchup my sandwich \u2014 but this is a natural dance, one I grew up with, one that has been repeated, from Brooklyn to Long Island to Queens to the city. I have ordered them in corner bodegas and sprawling Midtown delis, and they are always the same. Always.<\/p>\n The eggs (always two, always fried) might differ slightly in doneness. Yolks range from explosively, deliciously runny to a gorgeous oozy smear you\u2019d only see when the two halves are separated (these sandwiches are always cut before they are wrapped; D\u2019Amico\u2019s knows this) to something harder, but almost always, there\u2019s at least a smidge of orangey, not-entirely-set yolk.<\/p>\n M\u2019ama Napoli is giving Winter Park \u2018The Boot\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n I guess you could ask for it over hard, but most people, I\u2019ve noticed, don\u2019t specify. It\u2019s like the ultimate preschool lesson: you get what you get, and you don\u2019t get upset.<\/p>\n And you always know what you\u2019re gonna get.<\/p>\n Over time, and I\u2019m not sure if it was just a natural evolution or the influx of \u201cnew and imported\u201d New Yorkers into the mix, it became the bacon, egg and cheese. Or the B.E.C. Some people, though I\u2019ve heard this only occasionally, turn the acronym into one word, pronounced \u201cbeck.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m never going to call it a \u201cBEC.\u201d It\u2019s not my way, but I don\u2019t mind if you do. This sandwich, by any other name, and more importantly, in my neighborhood, is just as sweet.<\/p>\n The brothers D\u2019Amico run this incredible market with their parents, John (from New Jersey) and Maria (from Sicily), as well as their sister, Rosie, and brother-in-law, Carlos. They moved down to Orlando from New Jersey with their parents when they were small, but regular visits back to see relatives, and the folks who brought them, give them insight into this sandwich and the northeastern American-Italian experience.<\/p>\n It brings folks like that guy in the Caddy, and others from \u201cNew York, New Jersey, Connecticut, P.A., Mass, people from up north,\u201d says Philip D\u2019Amico, here with frequency, many of them driving an hour or more to eat and shop. (Jersey and Pennsylvania transplants will find a Taylor Ham\/Pork Roll option on the breakfast menu, as well.)<\/p>\n It is a beautiful store, with scads of Italian imports and heat-and-serve foods, a deli counter for heroes (subs and hoagies for some of you), and arancini, for Sicilian-style pizza squares and pinsa romana.<\/p>\n Chicken Cacciatore: a big pot, big love Sunday supper<\/a><\/p>\n There is a pastry counter for every cookie, cake and cannoli you could want. There is coffee. There is gelato. \u2018Tis the season, so the Pannetone and torrone are out in force, stacked in colorful bundles on the shelves. There is pasta, dry and fresh-frozen. There is an olive bar. There is wine.<\/p>\n The salamis are properly suspended, and they may not hang from a low-slung ceiling in Bensonhurst, but the vibes are there. The same goes when you ask Maria D\u2019Amico about the cuccidati, and she tells you that although they don\u2019t make them on site, they remind her of her grandmother\u2019s.<\/p>\n The same also goes when they fire back a \u201csalt, pepper, ketchup?\u201d after you order your egg sandwich.<\/p>\n There are waits sometimes. And now, maybe, they\u2019ll be longer. But I could never gatekeep something that made me this happy. In fact, it\u2019s killing me not to just blast it all over social media right now, but the D\u2019Amicos are in the Thanksgiving crush as I type this, anyway.<\/p>\n I ask Antonino D\u2019Amico if he\u2019s worried that a story could bring more customers, that regulars might be annoyed.<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday, my wife was in Newark,\u201d he tells me. \u201cShe went to this place called DeLucia\u2019s. They\u2019re rated the No. 1 pizzeria in New Jersey. It\u2019s an hour-and-a-half wait, right from when they open, just to get a pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n The owners, he says, are grateful. They\u2019ve got a sign on the door thanking customers, but letting them know there\u2019s going to be a wait.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one\u2019s complaining. It\u2019s the best pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n The pizza porn proves itself at Tratto Avalon Park | Review<\/a><\/p>\n D\u2019Amico & Sons\u2019 kitchen is already doing about 1,000 egg sandwiches a week, says Philip D\u2019Amico, and while it can get busy, there\u2019s really no line. Once their order are in, people mill about, peruse the shelves, and fill their baskets.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of a mad house, but we have a good system and a good guy on the grill,\u201d says Antonino D\u2019Amico.<\/p>\n They sometimes have 40 sandwiches going at once.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can be a little chaotic for people who aren\u2019t used to it, wondering \u2018why the yelling?\u2019 but the people from New York, they\u2019re just waiting there. We don\u2019t do the tickets or the numbers. We want to keep that classic, fun feel.\u201d<\/p>\n And, he says, keep it quick.<\/p>\n \u201cYou walk in: \u2018Bacon, egg and cheese on a roll.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018You got it \u2026 NEXT!’\u201d<\/p>\n Want to reach out? Find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram\u00a0@amydroo<\/a>\u00a0or on the OSFoodie Instagram account\u00a0@orlando.foodie<\/a>. Email:\u00a0amthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. For more foodie fun, join the\u00a0Let\u2019s Eat, Orlando Facebook group<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you go<\/p>\n D\u2019Amico & Sons Italian Market & Bakery: 1170 Oviedo Mall Blvd. in Oviedo, 407-542-0783; damicoandsonsmarket.com<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t![\"I'm](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-nyc-bec-damico-and-sons-oviedo-04.jpg\")
I’m still kind of reeling from the feels this sandwich gives me. D’Amico’s has filled one of the essential missing pieces in my “foods from home” compendium. (Amy Drew Thompson\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n![\"D'Amico](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-nyc-bec-damico-and-sons-oviedo-09.jpg\")
D’Amico & Sons opened a few years ago in the former Chamberlin’s space at Oviedo Mall, and business has grown steadily ever since. With big changes coming for the property, brothers Philip and Antonino D’Amico project things to get even better. (Amy Drew Thompson\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n![\"IYKYK.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-nyc-bec-damico-and-sons-oviedo-02.jpg\")
IYKYK. And if you don’t, you don’t. And that’s OK. You will. (Amy Drew Thompson\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n![\"Maria](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-nyc-bec-damico-and-sons-oviedo-08.jpg\")
Maria D’Amico, center, is flanked by sons Philip, left, and Antonino, right, on a Sunday morning at their Oviedo market. (Amy Drew Thompson\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n![\"Eggs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-nyc-bec-damico-and-sons-oviedo-07.jpg\")
Eggs on the flattop at D’Amico & Sons in Oviedo. I can’t even with the joy I’m feeling right now. (Amy Drew Thompson\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n![\"I've](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-nyc-bec-damico-and-sons-oviedo-01-rotated.jpg\")
I’ve lived in Orlando for 20 years. D’Amico & Sons’ egg sandwich is the final piece of the “New York foods I miss” puzzle. Jersey peeps: they do Taylor Pork Roll\/Ham, too, but I won’t speak to that. Come try it and let your homies know. (Amy Drew Thompson\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n