Missing Mark's Deli

For such an up-and-coming "Renaissance City," Providence has remarkably few places to just get a quick sandwich downtown. Lately, I've been missing Mark's Deli, which used to be at the corner of Union and Washington Streets, behind the Biltmore, and was a convenient place to pop in for an egg sandwich (around 99 cents) up till 11 a.m., or any kind of deli sandwich you wanted till around 3:30. Mark's was nothing fancy, but you knew you could get a good egg salad there, or corned beef, or whatever you wanted for $4 or $5. It wasn't going to have some kind of grain-fed roast beef or locally made cheese or whatever, but it was going to be fast and good. The skinny guy behind the deli case would make you a sandwich almost before you had the words out of your mouth. You could eat it at the table there, in a basket with a sprinkle of potato chips, or you could take it back to the office.
Now there's a Dunkin' Donuts where Mark's was, and that's fine. Starbucks was
starting to take over downtown, and we'd lost a Dunkin' on Fountain Street some years back when the company started putting in latte machines and there just wasn't room for a barista at that particular hole-in-the-wall. But now, where do I go for a plain sandwich? I went around today and looked, and here's what I found: Local 121, Bravo, Tazza, Cuban Revolution. I had a Best Cuban Sandwich half and a cup of black bean soup at Cuban for around $8. With tip, $10. It was okay, but I miss Mark's.