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By Dolores Kostelni Special to The Roanoke Times

Timothy Rowland and Rhonda Thomas are co-owners of Geonetti's Specialty Subs, which occupies the downtown Roanoke space vacated by Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea last summer. They've cleaned the place up and furnished it sparely and adequately with dark tables and chairs.

Semi-self-service reigns: Grab a menu on the way in. Decide what you want while standing in line. Place your order at the counter, pay your bill, get your drink and soup or salad of the day and stake out a table so you have a place to eat when your number is called.

THE MENU

The menu features 27 varieties of subs (on Italian and whole-wheat bread) and salads. Sides include house-made chili ($2.59-$3.19); dill pickle spears (25 cents), chips (89 cents), Italian meatballs ($3.99) and assorted cookies (79 cents). The size of the sub determines the price, no matter the filling: an 8-inch is $5.49, a 12-inch is $7.99 and a 16-inch is $9.99. There are also 6-inch lunch special subs available.

THE GOOD

The first sandwich I ordered was a 6-inch honey-baked ham sub from their Lunch Special Oven Baked Classics list. It turned out to be the lunch of my dreams: A perfectly balanced, picture-pretty and delicious sandwich. A couple of thinly sliced pieces of lean ham, fitting neatly on the mayo-smeared Italian bread, came topped with "the works": a thatch of shredded lettuce, a few pieces of provolone cheese and sliced tomatoes, plus some red pepper relish moistened with a tasty vinaigrette. It was wonderful, and most importantly, easy to eat. The sandwich stayed together with each bite down to the final mouthful.

Although I really wanted chili as part of the package deal, it wasn't ready at 11:15 a.m. (too early). I settled for a cup of minestrone and a small ice tea, all for $5.99. This lunch is great and the price is right, I thought. I couldn't wait to tell readers about this fantastic bargain.

THE NOT SO GOOD

Two days later, I returned with my husband a little after noon, when the long lunch line was in progress. The chili still wasn't ready, so we went with bags of potato chips as our sides.

This time I ordered an 8-inch Authentic Cheese Steak, which the menu described as consisting of thinly sliced rib eye, sauteed onions, mozzarella cheese and "the works" (cheese, mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion, Italian oil and red wine vinegar, and red pepper relish). These ingredients make the sandwich not authentic at all, but because it added a tasty dimension to my first ham sandwich, I decided to get it.

My husband decided on a 6-inch corned beef sub with provolone cheese. Both sandwiches came on the wonderful Italian bread. However, one bite and we knew these were among the worst sandwiches we had eaten in our lives.

At best, my sandwich was misnamed. It's not the Authentic Cheese Steak but an imposter that was sliced all the way through and in half, which isn't authentic. The fillings should be piled onto the bottom part of a roll (or bread, in this case) that has been sliced lengthwise (but not all the way through), helping to keep the fillings inside.

Also, the thinly sliced rib eye turned out to be scraps of meat heaped in one pile on a mother lode of mayonnaise, which squirted out as I bit into it. Sometimes I had to pull what I thought was meat out of my mouth because it was only fat and gristle, which couldn't be chewed.

The corned beef sub had three half-pieces of sliced meat stuck in one pile at one end of the bread with a glob of mayo in the center. Both sandwiches were wet from a drenching of oil and vinegar. Sloppy stuff.

THE BOTTOM LINE

I believe the reason for the differences in the sandwiches from one day to the next was the lunch rush. Two days after the bargain lunch of my dreams, the sandwich makers became careless during the noon rush hour, slopping them together. But that's not a good excuse. Management needs to take care of this negligence quickly. And when will the chili be ready?