Mama Louisa's Hero Shoppe

Work took me out to Crown Heights/Prospect Lefferts today, so I didn't do my normal Friday walkabout.  Instead I ended up at one of the best delis I've ever visited - Mama Louisa's Hero Shoppe, on New York Ave. & Rutland, just around the corner from Kings County Hospital.  From outside, it looks like a fairly conventional, traditional kind of deli, but once you get in there, you'll know you've entered a different class of place altogether, and you'll be smiling . In addition to its dizzying array of heros, and other good stuff (rock lobster, brisket, ravioli, cabbage soup, artichoke parmigiana) , this store is crammed with hand-written signs,  & a million of life's necessities: water balloons, hairdryers, frisbees, corkscrews, clippers, painkillers, all sorts of candies (Junior Mints Deluxe!), Play-Doh, playing cards, furniture polish & glue. You might have gone back to another era - somewhere in the mid 70's?  -  & you feel that maybe you could live very nicely off everything they sell here.  Contentment!  The place is jamming at lunchtime, with a line of burly guys waiting for their food.  The helpings are huge, the prices are good, & the food is all-out excellent.  Service is brisk, serious, but friendly. I had the artichoke-parmigiana hero - a giant, messy delight.  This place will nourish even the most jaded soul, depressed by the relentless tide of urban homogenization.  Get over there.  Quick.