I just remembered a critical omission from my list, which I covered the last time I got overly sentimental about sandwiches on here, more than three years ago: the breakfast wrap my wife and I would order our last year in New York. This one merited a full newsletter on its own:
I thought I was pushing it already with the burger. I also briefly considered throwing a hot dog onto the list just to rile everyone up, but I’m trying to stay on the right side of the Writing/Posting line.
- Lions Club BBQ sandwich: served at Clifton Day (hometown annual celebration). It's the store-bought bulk pulled pork BBQ that you get from a grocery store in a tub, but it's a time and place thing. It's childhood.
- Hokie Club, West End - I ate a lot of these at Virginia Tech in that dining hall, sometimes taking it to go. It was cheap for its size and quality. Other, arguably better club sandwiches don't taste right to me because of this sandwich
- Five Guys Burger, Springfield, VA: 2002, senior year of high-school. This was when there 5 locations in total. This was when you had to have the cool fry cook do your order so that they'd put the cup in your bag, then fill the cup with fries after, so that the whole bag was filled with fries (it wasnt always a given, and not the pre-defined scoop they do now). The particular burger was after just finishing IB tests and the school not really caring if we stayed or not, so we drove 40 minutes to Five Guys to celebrate. We were all goody goody nerds, so it felt rebellious. Everyone there was going to college and going their separate ways. It was the end of one chapter and the start of another, both for us and Five Guys (they started franchising in 2003).
I’ve been craving the sweet and spicy egg sandwich from Highland Morning (a local breakfast spot here in Louisville) for several weeks now. Gonna have to make a stop in for brunch one day soon.
Here is the menu description of the sandwich: “A fried egg sandwich on wheat toast with fried ham, jalapeno grape jelly, siracha mayonnaise, red onion and pepper jack.”
I don’t know about everyone else but for me it’s the ideal breakfast sandwich.
-A döner kebap from Mustafa's Gemüse-Kebap in Berlin. Perfect late-night drunk food when I lived there, and whenever I've gone back, it's one of my first stops after getting off the plane.
-A choripan at the Mercado San Telmo in Buenos Aires. I think I ate one every day when I was there this May.
-A Thanksgiving leftover sandwich with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and mayo on a portuguese roll, preferably on the Friday after Thanksgiving when you can also pick on the turkey carcass while making it.
-A sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich on a hard roll, with spk.
-The chicken salad sandwich from the now-closed pizza place in Farragut West. Made with really good focaccia and monumentally dense.
-Strangely enough, the chicken sandwich I made for lunch on Saturday: leftover rotisserie chicken, tomato, salt, pepper, and mayo on toasted sourdough. Sometimes (oftentimes) there is elegance in simplicity.
My 6 year-old asks every restaurant that we go to if they have Duke's for her burger. I don't know what sport or activity she will end up doing, but I have to think an NIL deal is in her future.
RE: Thanksgiving Sandwich: sprinkle some leftover fried onions from the can used to make the green bean casserole (or just buy a new can for this purpose). Texture and flavor enhancer.
The Flying Dutchman from Dan's Super Subs in Woodland Hills, CA - A good friend introduced me to this place, and while you can now get orders delivered through some apps, stepping into the establishment is important. It's a time machine, right down to the people making the food. One time I introduced a friend to the place only for one of the employees to hang up their phone conversation and exclaim to no coworker in particular "Ha, how many tomatoes are on it, lady I don't know, how many tomatoes do you want?" The sandwich itself is perfect. Just spicy enough to wake you up but mild enough that you never consider slowing down while eating it. And they must do something to the bread. I first went there when I lived about 30 miles away, but it would become a staple after moving into the area 5 years later.
The Freddy from Gateway Market in Flagstaff, AZ - It was my first time living away from home and my college had a little sandwich market. The Freddy had a spicy sauce and mayo so I was immediately suspicious as a lifelong picky eater. As part of expanding my horizons in college, I gave it a shot and loved it. The market closed and reopened in a different on-campus location the next year, but the sandwich was gone and everything was replaced by inferior wraps (wraps aren't inherently inferior, but these ones were). Almost every order was taken and handed to me by a delightful woman whose nametag read "Mama's Rose." An essential sandwich, that I believe was ultimately just a BLT with spicy sauce.
The "Whatever is in the Fridge" Panini from Wherever I Currently Live, State - I've almost always disliked cold sandwiches. Cold subs are fine, but cold cuts on sandwich bread frustrate me. The ingredients slide out and the flavors don't blend as much as I'd like. The bread is often dry, especially if it's cheap supermarket white bread. To compensate for that, my dad would bust out the sandwich press. It was a game changer. Ever since I've been old enough to use a stove, I've imitated the process with whatever I had in the fridge. Feta, banana peppers, ham and gouda, sure, doesn't matter. I've used presses, grill pans and a cast iron with another cast iron on top of the sandwich to imitate a press. As long as it's buttered on the outside (and sometimes covered in parmesan cheese if I'm feeling indulgent) I'm a happy camper. These will give me a heart attack one day but I don't care.
My current favorite is the one at the Edinburgh Diner in Edinburgh, IN, but I'm open to hearing about better.
Also, I'm open to dropping everything so I can travel from town to town trying every pork tenderloin sandwich in Indiana for a book titled "Tender Is The Night: My Year of Eating Pork Sandwiches In Indiana"
Pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, bbq sauce and pickles on jalapeño cornbread. Very over the top but it’s delicious.
The Dagwood (Dagwood’s, Springfield Mo closed) Classic deli sandwich with a pile of shaved roast beef with lettuce, tomato, red onion and a horseradish spread. Staple for me in college.
My list could begin and end in New Orleans (though it won't). The debris po' boy at Mother's is one of the most incredible things I've ever eaten. Cochon Butcher serves a great muffuletta. And Turkey and the Wolf had sandwiches that blew us away and I can't even remember now what we had.
The Burger Madness from Wisemiller's Deli in Georgetown (DC): two burger patties chopped up and grilled with onions, peppers, served on a roll with cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickles (I think). It's basically a chopped cheese on a roll. I'm sure it was responsible for some of my college weight.
Clark's Corner Store in Johnstown, PA has delicious deli sandwiches on a crusty roll. I think I had a ham & turkey with everything on it at least once a month until I graduated from high school.
Here's a more personal sandwich: my mom used to make "Rancho Dagwood" sandwiches from some regional western PA family cookbook: spread Cheez Whiz on a roll, then add browned ground beef, mushrooms, green onions, tomato sauce and "salad oil" (I'm still not sure what that is). It's delicious hot, but it's even better if you have it cold for lunch or a picnic. I used to make them myself but I used real cheese and ground turkey and the flavor's not the same. It really needs to be Cheez Whiz.
also, I was waiting at the deli counter at Kroger the other day (my daughter has discovered she only likes cold cuts from the counter, not from the cooler) and while they were slicing my order, I noticed "salad oil" on a display. (I think it's just oil, vinegar and herbs)
Sandwiches fall into two categories for me: Nostalgic and Tasty (there's overlap, but still)
For nostalgic, Taste Tickler in Portland has a special place in my heart. We had open campus lunch in high school so we'd pile into my friend's Previa and bomb over to the restaurant, order a 14 inch sandwich, scarf it down and run back to class in 48 minutes. Of course when I mentioned it to my dad one day, I found out that *he* used to sneak out of his high school and walk over to get Tickler back in the mid 70s, so it's fair to say it's a family culinary institution.
The Godmother at Bay Cities Deli in Santa Monica made law school at least survivable, and remains the best Italian deli sandwich I've ever had.
-Korean Philly Cheese Steak from Fred’s Meat and Bread (Krog Street Market, Atlanta). I had one for lunch, and immediately bought another to stash in the fridge for 4th meal after a music festival.
-Kimchi Koagie (Korean hoagie), Koagie Hots food truck, eaten while sitting on the ground in a parking lot at 1am (Houston)
-Fried fish sandwich at a chippy ran by a lovely old couple (wife took the orders and handled the cash, husband worked the kitchen). (Fort Augustus, Scotland)
-A BLT I made one time. I used reserved bacon drippings in the pan when toasting the bread. There were no immediate repercussions, but I have to admit it led to some soul-searching.
-Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich. My wife and I make these every year, and it’s a choose your own adventure situation. I usually have cranberry sauce on mine, but this year I used a cranberry jalapeño dip from Costco. 100% will use again.
-Italian sub from The Post (Louisville). The bread is excellent and giardiniera is what takes this version to the next level. Get a side of marinara for dipping.
-Italian beef, sweet, hot and dipped from the Al’s Beef on Ontario. They’ve moved since I was last there, and I’ve been told the guy that was there every time I was (we called him “Little Derek Jeter”) has moved on.
Old World Sandwich, Sunrise Bakery (Lexington, KY) - Sunrise only opened three days a week so it was always hard to find time to stop by, but this little Italian sandwich was so simple and perfect with your meat of choice (usually prosciutto for me), cheese of choice, olive oil, and some flaky salt on foccaccia bread. They also have the best chocolate chip cookie and best cheese danish I have ever had.
Monte Cristo (somewhere in Florida) - When I was a kid on family vacation, I tried a monte cristo that is still probably the sandwich I think about most. It's basically savory stuffed french toast dipped in jam?? Count me in.
Any sandwich at Dad's Favorites Deli (Lexington, KY) - Now everyone knows about Dad's, but when it first opened in an unassuming shopping center in Lexington, it felt like my friends from church and I were the only ones that knew about the hidden gem. I spent many lunch breaks in between classes with a Dad's pepper jack club or whatever special they had that day with my college and law school best friends.
Grilled cheese, Main Eatery (Louisville, KY) - They only have it on Fridays when it's the blue plate special along with a cup of tomato bisque. Many Fridays over six years were spent with this grilled cheese and my coworkers. It was the one hour in between court dockets that we could vent about our days and the injustices we saw. And it's the best grilled cheese I have ever had.
This one is easy, as there are two based on the two universities I attended:
For Northwestern, it's Al's Deli (a tiny French deli owned by classical music loving Francophiles who close on Wednesdays so they can attend Chicago Symphony Orchestra matinees) and the Roast Beef on Croissant with lettuce, tomato, Swiss cheese and bearnaise sauce. The roast beer is sliced thin and rare, the croissant is flaky/buttery/and an absolute mess, and the bernaise sauce oozes out on to your fingers as you eat. Top this off with a black-and-white cookie, and it's basically the perfect lunch in Evanston.
For UVA, it's the Birdwood sandwich at Bellair Market in Charlottesville (an Exxon station near UVA's campus, but closer still to Birdwood Golf Course, where I played countless rounds of golf my 2nd and 3rd years of law school): Cracked pepper turkey, pepper jack cheese, avocado, banana peppers, lettuce, onion, herb mayonnaise on French bread.
I dream about that sandwich. It's the first thing I eat whenever I'm in Charlottesville, and I've definitely gotten one to take to the airport on the way out.
Really any of their sandwiches are good, though -- it's just that Birdwood is my dream sandwich:
BELMONT: peppered ham, salami, bologna, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion, oregano, vinaigrette and hot pepper relish on French bread.
JEFFERSON: maple turkey, cheddar, lettuce, cranberry relish, herb mayonnaise on French bread
FARMINGTON: smoked turkey, bacon, Havarti, cole slaw, lettuce, tomato, herb mayonnaise on French bread
I should also add in here that turkey club sandwiches on white toast cut into quarters with the toothpick holding each quarter together will forever be associated by me with playing golf with my grandpa and grabbing lunch after our round. Just the best.
1) Sloppy Dave from Dave’s Cosmic Subs, a regional NE Ohio chain. A large Sloppy with a massive Diet Coke was my go-to fall Sunday hangover cure. One of those at noon followed by a nap during the Browns game readied me for the Sunday evening homework rush. I still have to stop at Dave’s to get a Sloppy and some bottled sauce any time I’m in Cleveland or Columbus.
2) Hot breakfast burrito from Santiago’s, a regional northern CO chain. Eggs, potatoes, “chef’s choice” meat, cheese, and a spicy hollandaise-like sauce. Two of those with a large coffee were perfect for starting the day before trekking to Estes Park or a weekend in Steamboat. Or recovering from an Odell’s or Verboten-induced hangover.
3) An Italian sub from the long closed Pizza House West in Bellevue, OH. I worked there over college breaks and this sub was by far the best thing on the menu. Order of ingredient layering was critical to getting the right taste. Shout out to Barb for nailing that recipe.
That’s a great one too! I’ve never had a “bad” one from there. Cleveland is definitely the best sandwich city I’ve lived in.
I’ve tried to re-create them at home, but they’re always missing a little something. I think it’s the bread. Still haven’t found the right facsimilie to crust up and still hold up to everything yet.
I'm not fancy. Every time I go home (Cleveland) I must get a Romanburger. Search the archives, Scott has taught us how to mimic it, but there's something special about that fried on a flat-top, smothered with assembly line of toppings sammich that you expend almost no effort to enjoy.
Locally (TLH), the Vertigo Burger is the titular burger at the establishment, and while they offer varied selections that are all tantalizing in their own right, I can't help but order "Vertigo runny, all the way" every single time. Oh, and get a side of half fry, half rings.
A burger from Kayrouz Cafe in St. Matthews. I lived on Breckenridge for a few years after college and passed this place I don't know how many times. Finally randomly decided to get some food from there and had one of the best burgers I think I've had in Louisville. And then we moved away not too much longer afterwards. I'm still mad at myself for not going there sooner when we lived there.
The other one, and now hear me out, much like your homemade grilled cheese, is a peanut butter and bacon sandwich. I don't know where this came from (I think my dad's family), but I've maybe met one other person who's had them (and loved them) before. Most other people curl their noses at it. It was a staple growing up in our house, though, and it takes me back to being a kid every time I make one now.
I just remembered a critical omission from my list, which I covered the last time I got overly sentimental about sandwiches on here, more than three years ago: the breakfast wrap my wife and I would order our last year in New York. This one merited a full newsletter on its own:
https://actioncookbook.substack.com/p/do-you-know-what-it-means-to-miss
Lookit Scott dropping bombs like "a wrap is a sandwich" in the comments.
I thought I was pushing it already with the burger. I also briefly considered throwing a hot dog onto the list just to rile everyone up, but I’m trying to stay on the right side of the Writing/Posting line.
Isn’t a hot dog a wrap since it is enclosed in one thing?
a hot dog is a taco
Some spring to mind:
- Lions Club BBQ sandwich: served at Clifton Day (hometown annual celebration). It's the store-bought bulk pulled pork BBQ that you get from a grocery store in a tub, but it's a time and place thing. It's childhood.
- Hokie Club, West End - I ate a lot of these at Virginia Tech in that dining hall, sometimes taking it to go. It was cheap for its size and quality. Other, arguably better club sandwiches don't taste right to me because of this sandwich
- Five Guys Burger, Springfield, VA: 2002, senior year of high-school. This was when there 5 locations in total. This was when you had to have the cool fry cook do your order so that they'd put the cup in your bag, then fill the cup with fries after, so that the whole bag was filled with fries (it wasnt always a given, and not the pre-defined scoop they do now). The particular burger was after just finishing IB tests and the school not really caring if we stayed or not, so we drove 40 minutes to Five Guys to celebrate. We were all goody goody nerds, so it felt rebellious. Everyone there was going to college and going their separate ways. It was the end of one chapter and the start of another, both for us and Five Guys (they started franchising in 2003).
I’ve been craving the sweet and spicy egg sandwich from Highland Morning (a local breakfast spot here in Louisville) for several weeks now. Gonna have to make a stop in for brunch one day soon.
Here is the menu description of the sandwich: “A fried egg sandwich on wheat toast with fried ham, jalapeno grape jelly, siracha mayonnaise, red onion and pepper jack.”
I don’t know about everyone else but for me it’s the ideal breakfast sandwich.
Oooh I’m going to have to try this. I haven’t been to Highland Morning in a while.
In no particular order:
-A döner kebap from Mustafa's Gemüse-Kebap in Berlin. Perfect late-night drunk food when I lived there, and whenever I've gone back, it's one of my first stops after getting off the plane.
-A choripan at the Mercado San Telmo in Buenos Aires. I think I ate one every day when I was there this May.
-A Thanksgiving leftover sandwich with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and mayo on a portuguese roll, preferably on the Friday after Thanksgiving when you can also pick on the turkey carcass while making it.
-A sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich on a hard roll, with spk.
-The chicken salad sandwich from the now-closed pizza place in Farragut West. Made with really good focaccia and monumentally dense.
-Strangely enough, the chicken sandwich I made for lunch on Saturday: leftover rotisserie chicken, tomato, salt, pepper, and mayo on toasted sourdough. Sometimes (oftentimes) there is elegance in simplicity.
(of course, it goes without saying that the mayo ought to be Duke's.)
My 6 year-old asks every restaurant that we go to if they have Duke's for her burger. I don't know what sport or activity she will end up doing, but I have to think an NIL deal is in her future.
oh man, that black friday special. Funny how after an entire weekend of eating leftover turkey day food, that thrill just isn't there any more.
RE: Thanksgiving Sandwich: sprinkle some leftover fried onions from the can used to make the green bean casserole (or just buy a new can for this purpose). Texture and flavor enhancer.
The Flying Dutchman from Dan's Super Subs in Woodland Hills, CA - A good friend introduced me to this place, and while you can now get orders delivered through some apps, stepping into the establishment is important. It's a time machine, right down to the people making the food. One time I introduced a friend to the place only for one of the employees to hang up their phone conversation and exclaim to no coworker in particular "Ha, how many tomatoes are on it, lady I don't know, how many tomatoes do you want?" The sandwich itself is perfect. Just spicy enough to wake you up but mild enough that you never consider slowing down while eating it. And they must do something to the bread. I first went there when I lived about 30 miles away, but it would become a staple after moving into the area 5 years later.
The Freddy from Gateway Market in Flagstaff, AZ - It was my first time living away from home and my college had a little sandwich market. The Freddy had a spicy sauce and mayo so I was immediately suspicious as a lifelong picky eater. As part of expanding my horizons in college, I gave it a shot and loved it. The market closed and reopened in a different on-campus location the next year, but the sandwich was gone and everything was replaced by inferior wraps (wraps aren't inherently inferior, but these ones were). Almost every order was taken and handed to me by a delightful woman whose nametag read "Mama's Rose." An essential sandwich, that I believe was ultimately just a BLT with spicy sauce.
The "Whatever is in the Fridge" Panini from Wherever I Currently Live, State - I've almost always disliked cold sandwiches. Cold subs are fine, but cold cuts on sandwich bread frustrate me. The ingredients slide out and the flavors don't blend as much as I'd like. The bread is often dry, especially if it's cheap supermarket white bread. To compensate for that, my dad would bust out the sandwich press. It was a game changer. Ever since I've been old enough to use a stove, I've imitated the process with whatever I had in the fridge. Feta, banana peppers, ham and gouda, sure, doesn't matter. I've used presses, grill pans and a cast iron with another cast iron on top of the sandwich to imitate a press. As long as it's buttered on the outside (and sometimes covered in parmesan cheese if I'm feeling indulgent) I'm a happy camper. These will give me a heart attack one day but I don't care.
“Here’s the definitive ranking of the 50 best sandwiches in the world and why you should go f*** yourself if you haven’t eaten every one of them!!!”
I literally just spit out my coffee laughing so hard 🤣🤣🤣
*extremely Hoosier voice* one does not simply allude to the best pork tenderloin that you’ve ever had without divulging where it was from...
My current favorite is the one at the Edinburgh Diner in Edinburgh, IN, but I'm open to hearing about better.
Also, I'm open to dropping everything so I can travel from town to town trying every pork tenderloin sandwich in Indiana for a book titled "Tender Is The Night: My Year of Eating Pork Sandwiches In Indiana"
Also if we are talking current favorite tenderloins (close to me), I’d put in a plug for TC’s in Battle Ground, IN
Would preorder this
The Macaroni Pony (The Mule, OKC)
Pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, bbq sauce and pickles on jalapeño cornbread. Very over the top but it’s delicious.
The Dagwood (Dagwood’s, Springfield Mo closed) Classic deli sandwich with a pile of shaved roast beef with lettuce, tomato, red onion and a horseradish spread. Staple for me in college.
The first time the Macaroni Pony hits is what I assume heroin is like.
My list could begin and end in New Orleans (though it won't). The debris po' boy at Mother's is one of the most incredible things I've ever eaten. Cochon Butcher serves a great muffuletta. And Turkey and the Wolf had sandwiches that blew us away and I can't even remember now what we had.
The Burger Madness from Wisemiller's Deli in Georgetown (DC): two burger patties chopped up and grilled with onions, peppers, served on a roll with cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickles (I think). It's basically a chopped cheese on a roll. I'm sure it was responsible for some of my college weight.
Clark's Corner Store in Johnstown, PA has delicious deli sandwiches on a crusty roll. I think I had a ham & turkey with everything on it at least once a month until I graduated from high school.
Here's a more personal sandwich: my mom used to make "Rancho Dagwood" sandwiches from some regional western PA family cookbook: spread Cheez Whiz on a roll, then add browned ground beef, mushrooms, green onions, tomato sauce and "salad oil" (I'm still not sure what that is). It's delicious hot, but it's even better if you have it cold for lunch or a picnic. I used to make them myself but I used real cheese and ground turkey and the flavor's not the same. It really needs to be Cheez Whiz.
one of these days I'm going to hit Clark's Corner Store when I'm in PA
also, I was waiting at the deli counter at Kroger the other day (my daughter has discovered she only likes cold cuts from the counter, not from the cooler) and while they were slicing my order, I noticed "salad oil" on a display. (I think it's just oil, vinegar and herbs)
Salad oil is one of the secrets to a great Publix sub, which is its own category of great sandwiches.
Sandwiches fall into two categories for me: Nostalgic and Tasty (there's overlap, but still)
For nostalgic, Taste Tickler in Portland has a special place in my heart. We had open campus lunch in high school so we'd pile into my friend's Previa and bomb over to the restaurant, order a 14 inch sandwich, scarf it down and run back to class in 48 minutes. Of course when I mentioned it to my dad one day, I found out that *he* used to sneak out of his high school and walk over to get Tickler back in the mid 70s, so it's fair to say it's a family culinary institution.
The Godmother at Bay Cities Deli in Santa Monica made law school at least survivable, and remains the best Italian deli sandwich I've ever had.
In no particular order:
-Korean Philly Cheese Steak from Fred’s Meat and Bread (Krog Street Market, Atlanta). I had one for lunch, and immediately bought another to stash in the fridge for 4th meal after a music festival.
-Kimchi Koagie (Korean hoagie), Koagie Hots food truck, eaten while sitting on the ground in a parking lot at 1am (Houston)
-Fried fish sandwich at a chippy ran by a lovely old couple (wife took the orders and handled the cash, husband worked the kitchen). (Fort Augustus, Scotland)
-A BLT I made one time. I used reserved bacon drippings in the pan when toasting the bread. There were no immediate repercussions, but I have to admit it led to some soul-searching.
-Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich. My wife and I make these every year, and it’s a choose your own adventure situation. I usually have cranberry sauce on mine, but this year I used a cranberry jalapeño dip from Costco. 100% will use again.
-Italian sub from The Post (Louisville). The bread is excellent and giardiniera is what takes this version to the next level. Get a side of marinara for dipping.
-Italian beef, sweet, hot and dipped from the Al’s Beef on Ontario. They’ve moved since I was last there, and I’ve been told the guy that was there every time I was (we called him “Little Derek Jeter”) has moved on.
Al’s is in Chicago, of course.
Old World Sandwich, Sunrise Bakery (Lexington, KY) - Sunrise only opened three days a week so it was always hard to find time to stop by, but this little Italian sandwich was so simple and perfect with your meat of choice (usually prosciutto for me), cheese of choice, olive oil, and some flaky salt on foccaccia bread. They also have the best chocolate chip cookie and best cheese danish I have ever had.
Monte Cristo (somewhere in Florida) - When I was a kid on family vacation, I tried a monte cristo that is still probably the sandwich I think about most. It's basically savory stuffed french toast dipped in jam?? Count me in.
Any sandwich at Dad's Favorites Deli (Lexington, KY) - Now everyone knows about Dad's, but when it first opened in an unassuming shopping center in Lexington, it felt like my friends from church and I were the only ones that knew about the hidden gem. I spent many lunch breaks in between classes with a Dad's pepper jack club or whatever special they had that day with my college and law school best friends.
Grilled cheese, Main Eatery (Louisville, KY) - They only have it on Fridays when it's the blue plate special along with a cup of tomato bisque. Many Fridays over six years were spent with this grilled cheese and my coworkers. It was the one hour in between court dockets that we could vent about our days and the injustices we saw. And it's the best grilled cheese I have ever had.
I keep hearing raves about Main Eatery and I've still never gone there. I'll have to remedy that soon.
I second the grilled cheese at Main Eatery. I used to sub chili for the tomato soup but you can’t go wrong either way.
This one is easy, as there are two based on the two universities I attended:
For Northwestern, it's Al's Deli (a tiny French deli owned by classical music loving Francophiles who close on Wednesdays so they can attend Chicago Symphony Orchestra matinees) and the Roast Beef on Croissant with lettuce, tomato, Swiss cheese and bearnaise sauce. The roast beer is sliced thin and rare, the croissant is flaky/buttery/and an absolute mess, and the bernaise sauce oozes out on to your fingers as you eat. Top this off with a black-and-white cookie, and it's basically the perfect lunch in Evanston.
For UVA, it's the Birdwood sandwich at Bellair Market in Charlottesville (an Exxon station near UVA's campus, but closer still to Birdwood Golf Course, where I played countless rounds of golf my 2nd and 3rd years of law school): Cracked pepper turkey, pepper jack cheese, avocado, banana peppers, lettuce, onion, herb mayonnaise on French bread.
I dream about that sandwich. It's the first thing I eat whenever I'm in Charlottesville, and I've definitely gotten one to take to the airport on the way out.
Really any of their sandwiches are good, though -- it's just that Birdwood is my dream sandwich:
BELMONT: peppered ham, salami, bologna, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion, oregano, vinaigrette and hot pepper relish on French bread.
JEFFERSON: maple turkey, cheddar, lettuce, cranberry relish, herb mayonnaise on French bread
FARMINGTON: smoked turkey, bacon, Havarti, cole slaw, lettuce, tomato, herb mayonnaise on French bread
"a deli that is closed on wednesdays so they can attend the symphony" is such a delightful detail.
I should also add in here that turkey club sandwiches on white toast cut into quarters with the toothpick holding each quarter together will forever be associated by me with playing golf with my grandpa and grabbing lunch after our round. Just the best.
Oooo I have a couple:
1) Sloppy Dave from Dave’s Cosmic Subs, a regional NE Ohio chain. A large Sloppy with a massive Diet Coke was my go-to fall Sunday hangover cure. One of those at noon followed by a nap during the Browns game readied me for the Sunday evening homework rush. I still have to stop at Dave’s to get a Sloppy and some bottled sauce any time I’m in Cleveland or Columbus.
2) Hot breakfast burrito from Santiago’s, a regional northern CO chain. Eggs, potatoes, “chef’s choice” meat, cheese, and a spicy hollandaise-like sauce. Two of those with a large coffee were perfect for starting the day before trekking to Estes Park or a weekend in Steamboat. Or recovering from an Odell’s or Verboten-induced hangover.
3) An Italian sub from the long closed Pizza House West in Bellevue, OH. I worked there over college breaks and this sub was by far the best thing on the menu. Order of ingredient layering was critical to getting the right taste. Shout out to Barb for nailing that recipe.
Dave's Cosmic Subs is so good. The Crazy Dave is my go-to.
That’s a great one too! I’ve never had a “bad” one from there. Cleveland is definitely the best sandwich city I’ve lived in.
I’ve tried to re-create them at home, but they’re always missing a little something. I think it’s the bread. Still haven’t found the right facsimilie to crust up and still hold up to everything yet.
I'm not fancy. Every time I go home (Cleveland) I must get a Romanburger. Search the archives, Scott has taught us how to mimic it, but there's something special about that fried on a flat-top, smothered with assembly line of toppings sammich that you expend almost no effort to enjoy.
Locally (TLH), the Vertigo Burger is the titular burger at the establishment, and while they offer varied selections that are all tantalizing in their own right, I can't help but order "Vertigo runny, all the way" every single time. Oh, and get a side of half fry, half rings.
Damnit, now I have to get a Romanburger for lunch, don't I?
Yes, you do.
Tallahassee TLH? I lived there a couple of years and remember Vertigo. That is a good burger.
ayuh. Fresh meat, egg, bacon, , cheddar, roasted jalapeño, and spicy sauce.
A burger from Kayrouz Cafe in St. Matthews. I lived on Breckenridge for a few years after college and passed this place I don't know how many times. Finally randomly decided to get some food from there and had one of the best burgers I think I've had in Louisville. And then we moved away not too much longer afterwards. I'm still mad at myself for not going there sooner when we lived there.
The other one, and now hear me out, much like your homemade grilled cheese, is a peanut butter and bacon sandwich. I don't know where this came from (I think my dad's family), but I've maybe met one other person who's had them (and loved them) before. Most other people curl their noses at it. It was a staple growing up in our house, though, and it takes me back to being a kid every time I make one now.