Red Stag: WI Grilled Cheese

I ran over to the Red Stag to check out what they have to offer for lunch. Get the full review here.

Check back often for more sandwich reviews...

More Hell's Kitchen

Check out my full review of the Ham and Pear Crisp from Hell's Kitchen here.

Hell's Kitchen Ultimate BLT

I've been trying to get to Hell's Kitchen for quite some time and figured Sunday brunch would be a chance for me to gorge on a few different menu options. The local food scene has been oozing with buzz about he place lately so I jumped right on that train and ordered their Ham and Pear Crisp in addition to some Sausage Bread (some one had a few too many the night before). Jess decided on the Ultimate BLT (sounded pretty good to me, too) and we settled in to share a nice little smorgasbord. I'm going to focus on the BLT for this post as I'll have a full Ham and Pear Crisp write-up posted on City Pages the morning of 3/18.

I thought Hell's BLT was actually quite good. When executed well, a BLT can be extremely satisfying, yet at the same time, a weak BLT can be easily identified and called out immediately. Thankfully this wasn't the case at Hell's Kitchen. It's essentially your classically crafted BLT with no extra frills. No chipotle Mayo, no fried eggs, and no peppered bacon, although you can pay a bit more for a cheese upgrade.

The sandwich is built on a solid foundation of expertly toasted sourdough that gets a good splash of mayonnaise on top. They layer in nice crispy bacon, with just a bit of chew and enough salt to slap your hangover around a bit. They serve it with delicate butter lettuce, and layers of rich, sweet and perfectly ripe tomatoes of a quality that I haven't enjoyed in quite some time.

Sandwich Rating: Tasty. I'll be back to Hell's Kitchen to sample some other goodies in the very near future, but will probably bounce around the menu a bit more. Like I said, a good BLT is satisfying, but I like to try and push the envelope a bit more when I sit down to the table.

Happy Eating,

-Teddy

Epic Sandwich: Blackbird Cafe

Check out my latest City Pages post on Blackbird Cafe here. I've also got some fresh content below. Enjoy!

The Sandwich Club

I go out to lunch surprisingly little for someone who contributes to three food blogs. I stay pretty busy at work and don't have a lot of time to run out and eat. I also like having control over my meals so that I don't eat junk all the time or spend too much money. I love to cook and pride myself on being a frugal but adventurous shopper.

The only problem with making your lunch every day is the ease of boredom. Eating leftovers from the previous night may be tasty and convenient, but it doesn't do much for variety. I'm also a huge fan of sandwiches in case you didn't notice, but that gets old after a while. You buy a loaf of bread, some lunch meat, cheese and accompaniments and by Wed. you are sick of the sandwich you'll be eating the rest of the week.

That is until now. I work in a pretty creative environment and have identified a few other sandwich enthusiasts, and last week these colleagues approached me with an offer I couldn't refuse. They too, get bored eating the same thing several days in a row so we came up with and idea. We would each buy enough sandwich provisions for one person for the week and then share those provisions with eachother: The sandwich club was officially formed. We'll do this one week/month to not only help alleviate the boredom, but to also pick up on some creations we normally wouldn't on our own. Each guy brought in somerthing today I'd never had before. One was a wasabi sauce that when paired with roast beef was really good. The other added some sort of a cranberry mustard sauce that was awesome with some fresh turkey and toasted bread. I brought smoked Gouda and Virginia ham to round things out. Now for the next four days I have the choice of three breads, 3 kinds of meat and three cheeses from which to construct my sandwich in addition to a whole list of sauces and toppings as well. Variety is back in my lunch diet and sharing a good sandwich with some friends while saving some coin is pretty enticing too. Give it a whirl at your office, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Happy Eating,

Teddy

Linden Hills Co-op Deli Heats It Up

I frequent the Linden Hills Co-op once or twice a week in search of fresh, organic produce and sustainably raised meats. I love walking into the place without a list in hand and purchase whatever looks good or inspiring. Their produce is incredibly fresh and amazingly flavorful. They have some really nice purveyors in their dairy case, and I love picking up Thousand Hills grass-fed ground beef for burgers and chili or grabbing a few steaks from time to time.

I typically stay away from the deli case to help ease the cost of buying locally and sustainably, but couldn't help but notice that they now offer hot sandwiches in the same area as their killer juice bar. Needless to say, I was intrigued and decided that I'd reward myslef and buy a little something to eat quickly since I would be making scratch soup all afternnon (I had to use up the rest of the heavenly smoked ham hock I grabbed at Clancey's).

The deli has a lot of tasty sounding sandwiches on the menu, but I was interested in creating a little ditty of my own. I was pleased to find that they'll make you a half sandwich (Co-op folks are the best) and I quickly decided on wheat bread with oven roasted chicken, mozzarella (I soon found it was not the fresh, but the grated kind - bummer), peppers, tomatoes, Dijon and arugula. Arugula is my favorite green, hands down, and it's too expensive to buy on it's own right now, so I was pleased to get it through another outlet. There's something about arugula and a spicy Dijon or fragrant aioli that really does it for me.

The sandwich was really quite large - probably bigger as a half then the sandwiches I typically make for my lunch at work. It was piled high razor thin, and incredibly tender chicken breast, snappy peppers and bold arugula. The mozz was a bit lost among the bolder flavors. The sandwich fillings were hearty and fresh despite the fact that the whole wheat sort of dried out in the toasting device - I'll go Challah or baguette next time. The Dijon alleviated the dryness a bit, but I longed for just a little dash of fresh ground pepper to round out its big flavor.

Sandwich Rating: Tasty. It will be the perfect meal or snack for me to kick off my many long wintry Saturday afternoons of cooking ,but won't replace any of my favorite local sandwich haunts. I'm ecstatic they put the hot sandwich bar together and will eat there again for sure. I'm eyeing "Brenda's Baguette" for next time - toasted baguette with Brie, tomato and arugula - simplicity at it's boldest.

Happy Eating,

-Teddy

Wilde Roast Cafe

Stopped by the Wilde Roast Cafe to see what they had going on. You can find the full review here.

I'm cutting back to one post a week at City Pages so I can keep some focus on my other blogs, so expect more to come!