Italian Sandwich Wars

The question of the best Italian sandwich has been an ongoing discussion between me and Jon. I maintain that Bay Cities on Lincoln in Santa Monica has THE BEST sandwiches. Their bread is unrivaled in crunch, bite, and freshness! I remember going there every Wednesday morning to get sandwiches and buying a fresh small loaf of their famous bread—it was like 35 cents or something, and came out still steaming. The sandwich lady knew us and all we had to do was ask for our regular. It’s possible I am biased, but that is not the point.

We ate at the Italian Store for lunch today with Donald to see whether it’s better than the Bay Cities sandwiches of my childhood (an impossible task, really). When you order, you’re supposed to chose between a hard or soft roll. When I asked Donald what the difference was, he replied sensibly: “I don’t know how to describe them without using those words.” Right on. Every sandwich comes with sweet/hot peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, oregano, and their “special dressing.”

I got the “hard” roll and everything on it. It was wrapped in white paper, reminiscent of my Wednesday lunches in the 6th grade. Nice crunch when I bit into the sandwich, but I think my sweet-to-hot-pepper ratio was skewed on the sweet side, sadly. I dissected the sandwich and removed half the sweet peppers with care. The taste improved tremendously in the second half of my sandwich.

Jon noticed when they made the sandwich that they left the meat hanging out half way on the open side of the sandwich. Then they filled it with the veggies, and rolled the meat back over. This way, when you bit into the sandwich your fillings don’t squeeze out all over the place! Major points in the technique category for the Italian Store.

I left here with full confidence that Bay Cities has THE best sandwiches. Don’t believe me? Ask Ronda Rousey. Oh wait, someone’s already done that.