The pull 
of the apron strings at Red Apron Butchery was powerful last week. 
Porkstrami with Tracy on Friday.
Porchetta and Roast Beef with Doug on Monday. 
Meatball,
Beef and Cheddar, 
and Grilled Cheese with Niko, Teddy and Katrina on Saturday. 
Am I now free, strings cut with kitchen shears? Nope nope nope and nope.
Posted in DC, DC Sandwiches, Grilled cheese, Muffaletta, Sandwich Joints, Sandwiches
Tagged Red Apron Butchery, Union Market
It’s been a rich and varied year. Strong swells, waves of glory and gloom, sandwichy peaks without – glory be – any sandwichy ravines or valleys.
Photo by Heidi LeechAlong-for-the-Ride Heidi and I did a not-long-for-the-ride long weekend in sublime St Lou in June. While Twangfest inked the dates on our calendars, you know I had Missouri sandwiches on my mind as an also-seek, with the Crown Candy Kitchen pounding away in my pre-frontal cortex.
The beloved home-away-from-home-at-home Bottle Rockets message board blinked Crown Candy Kitchen into my beam years ago, but I had not been. I had not been!
Here is the view from the Crown Candy Kitchen with the magnificent arch in the distance.
St Louis is a broad riverside city that stretches itself out languidly as old western cities can do. As many times as I had visited, I had not made the drive to Old North St Louis. It seemed far. Of course, it was not. Clear skies above, clear pavement under our wheels.
We were told that the BLT would be on white bread spread with Miracle Whip. Crown Candy Kitchen made good on its rep. Miracle Whip is a name I cannot speak without awe, along with Off, Kleenex, Wonder, Southern Comfort, Fluff, Wrangler and other branded poetics from a time of happy forward thinking. The words bigger, more, faster and further all implied better.
Gloriously sensual, bathed in the creamy white of a vanilla malt, the Crown Candy Kitchen has a heaven of spinning fans, sailing us all into the nirvana of times long gone, although they are not. They are here, time traveled to us.
Loving a band gives a person a hub from which to extend out, spoke by spoke, to a big, broad world of more music, more food via, of course, the people passing you the lowdown on music and food. And other stuff. 
Photo by Heidi Leech
The music and the food is more than plenty though. Much more. So let’s revel and not be greedy.
Well..perhaps we can reconsider the seven deadly sins and how they have not killed us yet. Gluttony, for example, as in a banana split following a magnificent BLT. 
And a chocolate malt. Lust was no doubt in the air. I believe the Crown Candy Kitchen dispenses it via aerosol. 
Nice pour shot by Heidi Leech. She’s not just along for the ride. 
I found bits of bacon in the bottom of my purse the next morning. Good thing since I had all I could manage and then some on my plate. Notoriously loaded BLT. Was I overwhelmed? Nope.BLT + Me = ❤
White onions, sliced thin, in a stupendous heap should – according to my operating manual – accompany most cold sandwiches. They are the crown, the allium tiara, of an old and wise fashioned sandwich. A grandfather sort of thing. He knew, your grandfather, and mine, too. 
Alas, the olive nut sandwich has gone out of fashion. I will not say that I miss it because you might think me archaic. On the other hand…out on an olive limb here, yes I do miss the olive nut. It’s from a time when our choices in food were less vast and we were not buried to the crowns of our heads in excess. I do really miss those days.
I bet this fellow would enjoy an authentic olive nut sandwich.
Glorious days we had in St Louis in the sunny days of June. They will come around again, those June days, and I’ll be coming around too, basking a bit, I hope, and greedily gobbling up food and music, music and food.
Posted in Sandwich Joints, St Louis, The Bottle Rockets
Northern Virginia, kind of a non-place with no actual towns, just areas, is a dynamite place to eat. To eat anything. Except maybe soup dumplings. I have not seen them around here. Arepas, something delicious I have only found in NYC to date, are here, in Falls Church, just a skip of a drive from DC, and Falls Church is a town, sorta.
La Caraqueña is in a grievous little motel and I like that. Snugged in with white curlicue iron work. Inside, corn flour walls, ultramarine booths and a waiter with a head of hair so gorgeously black and sleek it could have been made of petroleum.
When was the last time you saw arepas on a menu? Right. Me neither.
Goes down nicely with beer. The beers here are not your typical beers.
Cristal (Peru)
Suprema (El Salvador)
Palma Louca (Brasil)
Xingu Black Beer (Brasil)
See?
Briskly sautéed sirloin slivers under a runny-yolked fried egg, tomato and caramelized onions.
Quick! Name three things that are not improved by a fried egg. Thought so, I can’t do it either.
Chicken salad with lots of avocado and a cloud of shredded cheese.
Keith chose fried not grilled. Ahhh Repahhhhh was it good. Slippery little devil too. Greased lightening. NOW I get it, why a person might dream of an arepa.
From MMSMINYJAF (My-Main-Sandwich-Man-in-NY, JAF) who has his fingers on the pulse of pastrami. At Katz’s Delicatessen the pulse is hoppin’! Bauer and Dean Publishers have gotten the sacred word from the whispering pickles.
The pictures in this tome are almost as nice as the ones I took when there with MMSMINY a few years ago.
Photographs by Baldomero Fernandez, text by Jake Dell, edited by Beth Daugherty
Posted in Books, NY, NYC, Pastrami, Pickles, Sandwich Joints, Sandwiches in the News
Tagged Baldermero Fernandez, Bauer and Dean, Jake Dell, Katz's
Stopping by the Lunch Encounter for a kibbitz…the Kitchensquater! We kept him out of the kitchen but did allow him to pivot on a stool and reminisce about his school days in Providence RI, home to Geoff’s Superlative Sandwiches.
Besides the iconic lobster roll of summer, the sandwich that sticks in my craw from all those years ago at RISD is “Tosh’s Twister” made by Geoff’s Superlative Sandwiches on Benefit Street in Providence.
It was/ is sort of a take on a Reuben, with smoked turkey standing in for the corned beef. If memory serves, it was the smoked turk, melted swiss, sauerkraut, Shed’s hot sauce and romaine on a thick rye cut heated up in the steam presses they still use today at the shop. An early type of panini press, only without the grill plates, just steam and heat.
Made my eyes tear (in a good way…) and I cut through all that fat, protein and flavor with a Dr. Pepper.
So many sandwiches in all our pasts. What do we remember and can we choose? I think yes. The cards you were dealt are played, for heaven sakes. Do you remember them as winners? Color me Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. Geez, yeah, every Reuben was the best Reuben ever!
In an effort to increase the odds of winning, pick a hand that includes the Four-Meat Grinder at Stachowski’s, the Chicken Shawarma at Shawafel, a Meatball Sub at Red Apron Butcher, Bayou Bakery‘s Muff-A-Lotta…
Eat slowly, let the memory imbed, rejoice in your good fortune, live in the past positive and the present perfect. All so perfectly imperfectly handfilling.
Renee Comet took the pictures of these sandwiches and I did the styling. All day long the studio door swung wide and in would swing sandwich upon sandwich upon fantabulous sandwich.
Yow, those wiches were good. Every one a winner. Trophies all around, people! Did I remember to thank my lucky stars for work, worthwhile and wonderful work? Yes. Sandwiches past, present and future, deal me in.
Posted in Sandwich Joints, Sandwiches, Shameless Self Promotion, Styling
Tagged Barmini, Bayou, Bayou Bakery, Black Jack, Black Salt, Bon Fresco, Bub and Pop's, Cornucopia, DGS Delicatessen, Eammon's, Earl's Sandwiches, Estadio, Leek American Bistro, Luke's Lobster, Mi Cuba Cafe, Pepe, Red Apron Bakery, Saint Michel Bakery, Shawafel, Stachowski's, The Washingtonian, Washington DC Sandwiches
The hoisting of the torta was surprisingly invigorating. Whew, it was heavy. Like, super heavy.
All that stuff was in there, but it did not stay in there. Bits and pieces shot out onto my shoes, lap, arms, face. I believe the carne asada was the most egregious offender, although I can’t be sure.
This half – a half bigger than most wholes – went home.
Taco Bamba Tacqueria is in a little strip mall that notes all the mini-mall touchstones – karate studio, rug store, closed dry-cleaner – just behind the Tyson’s Corner Whole Foods. It’s a snap to reach off 66.
My hope is that Victor Albisu will choose South Arlington (my home) for a location to be opened soon. We could lug a torta on our shoulders and have a ‘hood feast. Bring your saw.
Posted in DC, DC Sandwiches, Link to article, Sandwich Joints, Sandwiches, Virginia - Northern
Tagged Carne Asada, Mexican Torta, Tacos, Torta, Victor Albisu
I wasn’t aware that it had gone away...
The return of the Super-Colossal Economy-Size Sandwich
We humans love giganticness. My theory is, the bigger the sandwich the tinier we feel, the tinier we feel the freer we become. Colossally free.
Posted in NY, NYC, Sandwich Joints, Sandwiches, Uncategorized
Tagged Grub Street, Super Colossal
Meat in a Box is so suggestive I am cringing as I type.
Suits-Herself-Cindy said,
“We had food from Meat in a Box last night. I actually think they are worth a sandwich blog post. Kabobish meat, wrapped in pita with VERY good sauces. Sort of gyro-like but a step above. ”
And I said, “Seriously, there is a place called Meat in a Box?!” (And btw, I have just learned the name of the question mark/exclamation point combo – ?!interrobang!? – and I am very excited about that.) Suits-Herself-Cindy said, “Yes. MIAB is totally real. We went for the first time because we thought it was funny. But we keep going back because it is yummy.
Funny and yummy would describe the meat’s share of what is compelling in all things living. Oh to be funny and yummy. All tied up in a box. With a bow.
Posted in Falls Church, Sandwich Joints, Sandwiches, Virginia
Tagged Kabobs, Meat in a Box
“It’s purty gol dinged good fer these parts,” says Malcolm Riviera, my main sandwich man in them parts.
I would venture a guess it’s purty gol danged good fer anywheres. The 
menu 
is an arcade 
of current appetite 
flippers, pinballing 
around striking points 
and bumping trendy 
culinary hotspots 
worldwide.
You are here.
Posted in HIckory, North Carolina, Sandwich Joints
Tagged Colin Makin, Hatch, Hatch Sandwich Bar, Malcolm RIviera, Zach Harkins
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The Lunch Encounter 
