When you’re over 100 years old like Defonte’s, you’re allowed to do whatever you want. You can be a little peeved when a customer walks in at 3:15pm, even though you close at 4. You’re allowed to accept cash only, and to ignore the phrase “gluten-free”—though we did see someone get the breadless contents of a sandwich dumped in a takeout container here once. And you're allowed to serve something called a “hot salad” that is neither hot nor salad, but actually a cold, crunchy combination of lightly pickled vegetables that balances out even the tallest and most teetering stack of cold cuts. Defonte’s is allowed to do all that stuff—not only because they opened in 1922, but because they still open at 6am every day except Sunday. And because their overstuffed Italian sandwiches remain the gold standard of the sandwich world. It’s not just the sandwiches that make Defonte’s great though. It's the full Red Hook experience of eating a Nicky's Special with three kinds of meat by the water at Valentino Pier. It’s standing in line next to someone who drives to Brooklyn from New Jersey every week, just to feast on the Zio Vito. It’s the framed photos of everyone from Gigi Hadid to the entire cast of The Sopranos on the wall. And it's the knowledge that everybody in those photos, or crammed against the counter, has one thing in common: a shared love for Defonte's fried eggplant. The vegetable is sliced paper thin and batter fried, and it retains a crunch on even the sauciest of combos. It’s the kind of magic ingredient that makes you wish everything in life was as simple as a sandwich at Defonte's. In case of confusion or doubt, just add fried eggplant.