It’s early morning, but Sal, Kris & Charlie’s Deli, a small shop in Astoria, Queens, which specializes in supersize sandwiches, is full of customers with lunch on their minds.

The deli, set between a laundry and a private house in the shadow of the Amtrak overpass near the Astoria- Ditmars Boulevard subway station, announces itself only with an awning the color of a bluebird’s wings.

It doesn’t need to advertise.

In 1987, Charlie Gordon became the shop’s third owner. He named the business after Sal (the legendary counterman who came with the shop), Kris (his wife) and himself. Around that time, customers called him “the Sandwich King of Astoria.” Mr. Gordon decided to use that as his slogan.