Banh Mi Near Me in the East Village: Xe Máy Under Physical Graffiti

Xe Máy Sandwich Shop sells its Super Cub Classic bánh mì for $14 from a basement counter at 96 Saint Marks Place, New York, NY 10009, on the block between First Avenue and Avenue A. The doors open at noon and close at 9 pm seven days a week. The Infatuation calls the graffiti-covered shop easy to miss, under a tenement famous from the Physical Graffiti album cover. For banh mi near me in the East Village, this is the stop with the crackliest bread on St Marks.

Xe Máy sits below street level in one of the twin 1890 tenements at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place that Led Zeppelin used for the cover of its 1975 double album Physical Graffiti. 6sqft notes that the designers cut one floor out of the photo so the buildings would fit a square sleeve, and that the cornice had already been removed. Look for the graffiti-tagged stairwell under the stoop rather than a bright sign, because the shop is easy to walk past.

The closest train is the L at the First Avenue station on 14th Street, then a walk south down First Avenue and a left onto St Marks. Coming from the 6 at Astor Place, walk east along St Marks Place past Second and First avenues, a straight line through the busiest stretch of the street. The shop is on the block that runs into Avenue A, and that block ends right at the west edge of Tompkins Square Park.

Alan Woo and Davis Ngo opened Xe Máy in 2011, and the Village Voice reviewed it in January 2012 as a newcomer chasing the banh mi taco trend. According to the shop's own story, Ngo spent nearly three decades working alongside his family in their Chinatown sandwich shop before branching out, and he built the menu on the recipes and techniques passed down to him. Woo arrived from photography, drawn into cooking out of curiosity that grew into a career.

The name means motorbike in Vietnamese, and the sandwiches carry scooter names to match: the Super Cub, the Pilot, the Sidecar and the Lam'bretta. That menu has barely shifted since the Voice visit. In 2012 critic Lauren Shockey ate the classic and the coconut curry lamb, praised the bread as lightly warm, perfectly crusty and chewy, and told readers not to miss the basil limeade. All three are still on the board today.

Every bánh mì comes on a white or whole wheat baguette with cilantro, pickled carrots, daikon, cucumber and chili mayo. The Super Cub Classic, at $14, layers barbecue pork, headcheese, pork roll and pâté, and it is the sandwich The Infatuation tells first-timers to order. The Pilot is lemongrass chicken for $14.50. The Hog, at $15.50, is grilled pork with scallion oil and fried shallots, the most aromatic option on the list.

The rest of the board sits at $15.50 each. The Sidecar pairs grilled beefsteak with a pineapple chutney, the Lam'bretta is coconut curry lamb, and the Duke is a Vietnamese meatball sandwich with provolone and homemade tomato sauce. The Mean Green is the vegan option: soy-glazed portobello, spiced tofu and a cauliflower spread, made without chili mayo and served only on the whole wheat baguette. Ordering it on white bread is not an option.

Heat is a separate choice, so say it when you order. Medium adds sriracha, Spicy adds jalapeño with sriracha, and Xtra Spicy stacks jalapeño, sriracha and chili garlic. The Classic handles the full treatment well because the pâté and headcheese are rich enough to absorb it, while the lemongrass chicken in the Pilot is easier to taste at Medium. If you share a table with someone who avoids heat, order the spice level per sandwich.

The banh mi tacos that drew the Voice in 2012 are still here at $4.75 each on corn tortillas, with the same pickles, cilantro and chili mayo as the sandwiches. Fillings mirror the baguettes: lemongrass chicken, the Hog, beefsteak with pineapple chutney, coconut curry lamb, meatball with provolone, and a portobello and tofu version without mayo. Two tacos and a summer roll make a lighter lunch than a full baguette on a warm afternoon.

Fresh rolls come two to an order at $9.50, filled with tiger prawn, barbecue pork or portobello with spiced tofu, plus vermicelli, lettuce and mint with peanut sauce. Drinks run from hot Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk at $4 to iced coffee, basil limeade fizz and iced lychee green tea at $5.50 each. Molly Fitzpatrick of The Infatuation gave the lychee tea a certified Not-Too-Sweet stamp in her July 2026 review, and recommends it with the Classic.

Skip the $2 bag of kettle chips. It is the one thing here you can buy at any bodega on First Avenue, and the same money goes most of the way toward a taco. Salads are the other route for anyone avoiding bread: green salads and vermicelli bowls come with pickles, crushed peanuts and fried shallots, plus fish sauce or soy ginger vinaigrette, from $14.50 for chicken or grilled pork to $15.50 for beefsteak or tiger prawn.

Do not come planning a sit-down meal for four. When the Voice visited, the room had four stools at a tiny L-shaped counter, and the critic noted it was most comfortable to order to go. The shop is still built for takeaway, so the best plan is to carry the sandwich one block east to Tompkins Square Park and eat on a bench. Doors open at noon, which makes this a lunch and early dinner stop, not a breakfast one.

The shop links its own online ordering page from its website, and catering trays are booked through CaterCow, which is useful for office lunches. If you would rather sit down, or the counter is crowded, Bánh Anh Em on Third Avenue is the East Village alternative The Infatuation rated 9.0 in April 2026, with crackle-crusted bread from a steam oven. Expect a waitlist there, because its review describes a line of people trying to sign up that snakes out the door.

Xe Máy has added a second branch on First Avenue near 74th Street on the Upper East Side, in the former Migrant Kitchen space that East Side Feed reported on in September 2025. That branch opens an hour earlier, at 11 am, and closes at 9 pm daily, so it is the better option if you need a banh mi before noon. The St Marks basement is the original, though, and the only one with an album cover overhead.

Walk east to the end of the block and you reach Tompkins Square Park, a 10.5-acre square bounded by Avenue A, Avenue B, East 7th Street and East 10th Street. It opened in 1834 and is named for Daniel D. Tompkins, the vice president under James Monroe. One of its elms is known as the Hare Krishna Tree, linked to the 1966 founding of the Krishna movement in the United States, which makes it a fitting landmark to find with lunch in hand.

Near Avenue A, south of the 9th Street transverse, stands the Temperance Fountain, a granite kiosk with four columns erected in 1888 so people could drink clean water instead of alcohol. It was a gift from Henry D. Cogswell, a San Francisco dentist and temperance crusader. The park is open from 6 am to 1 am, so a 9 pm sandwich still has somewhere to go. Before leaving St Marks, look back up at the stoops of the Physical Graffiti buildings.

Xe Máy Sandwich Shop, 96 Saint Marks Place (basement level, between First Avenue and Avenue A), New York, NY 10009. Open Monday through Sunday, 12 pm to 9 pm. Bánh mì $14 to $15.50, tacos $4.75, two-piece rolls $9.50, Vietnamese iced coffee $5.50. Spice levels Medium, Spicy and Xtra Spicy. Vegan Mean Green comes on whole wheat. Online ordering and CaterCow catering are linked from xemaysandwich.com. Nearest subway is the L at First Avenue.