It's not enough to serve grinders in the Hartford, CT region. If you want to be successful, you have to sell GIANT grinders. That's how grinder shops name themselves, Sal's Giant Grinder or Manchester Giant Grinder or, in this instance, Franklin Giant Grinder on Franklin Street in Hartford. Pictured above is a meatball and sausage combo with peppers. The meatballs themselves are so giant that they are sliced into wide, thick discs in order to fit in the soft loaves. Our half-sandwich must have weighed over two pounds.

They are very strict about which grinders get toasted in the oven (in fact, the place has a rough-and-tumble urban attitude in general that we especially appreciate, but some might find off-putting), and meatball or sausage grinders don't get the toasting. Too bad. Among the few grinders they will toast, we saw a bunch of beef/chicken cutlet sandwiches emerge from the kitchen and they looked like winners (especially in the combo configuration). That's what we'd order on a return visit.