How far should you drive for a good sandwich? In my case, the answer is 34 miles, the distance from my home to V & S Italian Deli in Boca Raton. People who appreciate sandwich artistry of the old-school Italian variety owe it to themselves to make the pilgrimage to this small sub shop in a strip shopping center on North Federal Highway. When I got in line for my first-ever visit on a recent afternoon, the queue stretched out the door and crawled at a snail’s pace. Was it really worth the wait? “Yeah, it’s good,” a woman next to me said. “You gotta be patient.”

V & S stands for Vinny and Sal Falcone, brothers from the New York borough of Queens who opened the deli in 1985. Vinny, 64, is older by seven years, so his name goes first. The eatery has been in the same location all 32 years, and newcomers keep joining loyal regulars. Once inside, I was instantly transported to the neighborhood Italian sandwich shops of my Brooklyn youth, places such as Sonny’s Heros in Canarsie and Jimmy’s Famous Heros in Sheepshead Bay, cramped stores where customers cradled cold subs wrapped in white paper and hot subs wrapped in foil and headed off to offices, construction sites, the beach, ballgames and the racetrack.