Portland, ME
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Boiled ham, American cheese, sour pickles, olives, tomato, green pepper, onion, salt, pepper and oil on a soft split-top roll. The India Street shop where Giovanni Amato started it, plus four corner stores across Greater Portland.
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Press picks, until locals rank their own Top 5s. Sourced from the local food press. As seen in Portland Press Herald. Updated September 2026.
Amato's Sandwich Shop · East End
Giovanni Amato sold bread from a cart to Portland dock workers around 1902 and by 1910 he and his wife Michillina were stuffing ham, cheese and vegetables inside it, which the Press Herald records as the start of the Maine Italian. The company now has fifty-two locations across New England, but this India Street shop is the original and the one the paper photographs. Order an Italian, ham and American cheese under the vegetables the first customers settled on.
Corsetti's · Westbrook
Eli Small bought this Westbrook shop in 2018, one of three old-school Italian makers the Press Herald says changed hands recently with the new owners promising to keep the sandwich. Small went further and reverted to rectangular boiled ham slices after previous owners had switched to round smoked ham. Order the Italian, made with the rectangular ham he brought back.
Anania's Variety Store · East Deering
Ed Anania's father and uncles opened a corner store in the late 1950s not far from the original Amato's, and customers grocery shopping there started asking for Italians. The family sold the South Portland store in 2018 and closed the Congress Street shop, and in February former manager Zach Lord bought this Washington Avenue location. He trained here for three years and is still making Italians. Order an Italian.
George's Sandwich Shop · Biddeford
In business in Biddeford since 1948, and one of three old-school Italian makers the Press Herald counts as having changed hands in recent years, each time with the new owners promising to keep the sandwich. Mike Clukey took over from the founding family in 2022, and the paper reports he already knew how important the Maine Italian was to the business and to its customers before he bought it. Order an Italian.
DiPietros Market · South Portland
Sam DiPietro's grandparents opened a Cumberland Avenue store in 1944 and the Italians sold so well the shop became known as DiPietro's Italian Sandwiches. His father Santo started this Cottage Road store in 1972, where a dozen Italians would sit wrapped and stacked on the counter ready to go. Order an Italian, the version Portland ate before delivery apps and drive-thru lanes.