East Idaho Eats: The Works Deli and Grill

POCATELLO — A sandwich place in Pocatello is serving up cold stacked subs, with a hot side of cottage fries that will have customers drooling before the end of their order.

“I usually (order) a grilled chicken or BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato), with avocado. I like it! They put a lot of bacon on the BLT’s, everything tastes really good,” customer Jen Harden Brook says.

When customers enter The Works Deli and Grill, they usually order one of two things, a classic sandwich or a warm sandwich. Customers can also get a salad, or select one of 12 options for fries.

Instead of using pre-cut meat slices, customers can watch their meats and cheeses being sliced as they order.

“That’s one of our big things that people like. They can sit right here and watch it get made and watch everything we do,” owner Geoff Ranere says.

Ranere says customers frequently order a club sandwich, The Works, or Boss’ choice. Inside the Boss’ choice are four meats, ham, capicola (a spicy ham), peppered pastrami and salami. On top of that, customers can add their choice of cheese, and vegetables. Ranere says adding a hot side of beer battered fires, or cottage fries — shaped like slice pickles — are a must.

“People usually love the fries with it. (It’s the) combination of the warm fries with the cold sandwiches,” Ranere says.

If customers want something a little more filling The Works sandwich is their pick. It pretty much has everything on the entire menu layered endlessly onto one sandwich. It includes 12 meats and three cheeses, plus any desired vegetables or sauces. Ranere says he sells around a dozen Works sandwiches daily.

“It’s got all of our meats. It’s got ham, turkey, salami, pastrami, roast beef, pepperoni, peppered pastrami, and then three kinds of cheeses on it — cheddar, provolone, and Swiss cheese,” Ranere says.

Customer Gil Judkins loves coming to The Works because of great food, but mostly because of the friendliness of the workers.

“You walk in and the employee’s know you so they call you by name kind of like (the television series) ‘Cheers’, only called The Works. I come here because the food is good and they serve you in a quick manner,” Judkins says.

Ranere says a second The Works will be built in the near future, but he did not specify the new location with EastIdahoNews.com. He also said The Works is soon to be adding a delivery service where customers can call in orders ahead of time.