Sandwich Sundays Presents: Cappy Ciabatta

Cappy Ciabatta

homemade

B+

If you can only have one meat for your sandwich, you could do a lot worse than Boar's Head Hot Cappy, fatty, salty, melt-in-your-mouth Italian ham laced with red pepper heat. For our holiday edition of Sandwich Sunday, we kicked off a multi-sandwich feast with this soft mini-ciabatta slathered with deli mustard and stacked with cappy and pickled banana peppers. Simple and delicious, and certainly full of festive flavor.

Coney Island Hot Dog

Coney Island Hot Dog at American Coney Island

TheD.com

C-

What do you do once you've decided to buy a downtown Vegas casino and re-brand it with a Detroit theme? Bring in a Detroit hot dog joint, of course. IT'S CALLED LOCAL FLAVOR GET IT. Whatever.

This is the standard dog from American Coney Island in The D. It's a Dearborn Sausage brand dog (from Michigan) in a natural casing, complete with that strange-but-pleasant snap with each bite, and as you can see, it's a bit overcooked, into a wrinkly little puppy. It's supposed to be served in a warm steamed bun with chili sauce, mustard and chopped sweet onions. Unfortunately, the bun was cold, and really, this is maybe the most important thing with hot dogs. Spectacular bread can always cover for subpar sandwich fillings, and a moist, warm bun would have made this a winner. But it was cold. And dry. The chili sauce was fine, well-spiced and guilt-inducing, but the onions were not sweet. Try bitter. Fremont Street is in need of great walk-by-and-bite options, but American Coney, sadly, fails to fill that seemingly simple niche.

The Prosciutto

The Prosciutto at Baguette Cafe

Baguette Cafe on Yelp

B+

Located in a southwest valley office park, Baguette Cafe is one of the great secret sandwich spots of Las Vegas. Walk in and luxuriate in the smell of baking croissants and baguettes, instantly driving your hunger into overdrive. There are no bad choices when it comes to fresh-baked bread, but this is a particularly creative sandwich. Meaty, oily salami proves the perfect counterpoint to the delicate, buttery prosciutto, and both are layered liberally. It's veg'd up with some green leaf lettuce and tomato, then the chef masterfully uses softened blue cheese in place of mayo or other spread and adds walnut crumbles for an intriguing crunch. Of course, the perfect baguette could make any ingredients sing, and this is one perfect baguette.

Grilled Barely Buzzed Cheddar Cheese

Grilled Barely Buzzed Cheddar Cheese at Honey Salt

honeysalt.com

A+

Holy Cheezus. Before Honey Salt opened, chef Kim Canteenwalla offered us a taste of Barely Buzzed cheddar, a rich, sharp, slightly sweet treasure with a bit of coffee rub around the outside, made by Beehive Cheese Company in Utah. That chunk of cheese was pretty great, but it's even better in this grilled sourdough sandwich, all truffled up and transformed into decadent fonduey goodness. This sandwich comes with a cup of Tuscan bean soup, but guess what: nobody cares. Thick, buttery slabs of crunchy toast, just the right amount of greasiness, plus oozing, gooey goodness equals a peerless grilled cheese. Big winner.

Hot Pastrami Deli-Style

Hot Pastrami Deli-Style at the Peppermill

peppermilllasvegas.com

A-

So obviously I haven't been to all the delis in the world, or even all the big famous delis, or even all the delis in Vegas. But I've never been to a deli that puts an extra slice of bread in a hot pastrami sandwich. The Peppermill does it. I didn't think it was a good idea, but it worked. It took away from the meat-mountain affect that often occurs in piled-high deli sandwich construction, providing a nice crispy texture in every bite. The downside: the meat in this sandwich was stuffed into the middle, of course, making for an overabundance of bread in your face when you're eating around the outsides. Not a big problem, though, considering this toasty rye was grilled with lots of butter for guilty-pleasure, greasy goodness. The pastrami was sliced thin, lean, and tasty, and there was melty Swiss cheese and a few dabs of mustard-mayo sauce adding moisture and flavor. The Peppermill is fantastic place to eat a sandwich in Las Vegas; you should go and eat this one.

Spicy Asiago Ranch Chicken Club

Spicy Asiago Ranch Chicken Club at Wendy's

wendys.com

C+

Did you ever notice that fast food joints have long-ass names for their food, whereas nice little neighborhood hole-in-the-wall restaurants and cafes have short names for their food like "chicken sandwich?" Just thinking. Of course, I added one word to this title by ordering this promotional birdwich with Wendy's spicy chicken filet, which is pretty good. Not sure if the red peppery seasoning on the chicken goes well with the asiago cheese and creamy ranch sauce, but the bacon is a nice complement. Of course, there's lettuce and tomatoes on here, too. Overall, pretty good for fast food, no matter what they're calling it.

Vegas Club

Vegas Club at Simpo Sandwich

simposandwich.com

B-

Mayonnaise! (That's supposed to be in your best Louis Gossett Jr. voice.) Yeah, that's a lot of mayo on there, and you know we're not big fans. But check it: that's a lot of turkey on there, too ... thick sliced, smoky turkey, making for a very respectable take on the traditional club. Also, there's crispy bacon, American cheese slices, plenty of crisp lettuce and tomatoes on whole wheat bread. Pretty straight-ahead stuff, and we'll take it. Simpo is a pretty straight-ahead sandwich shop, and you need to have one of those in your neighborhood. Hopefully downtown Vegas will patronize this joint enough to keep it around.

The Full Montagu

The Full Montagu at Earl of Sandwich

earlofsandwichusa.com

F

Rarely does a sandwich elicit anger, but ... fuck this place. Seriously. My first Earl of Sandwich experience was so miserable, I swore I'd never return. But they opened another one here in Vegas at the Palms, and I happened to be in the food court, and how bad could it be? Terribly, disgustingly bad. I encourage you to go to the Earl's website and look at their pic of this sandwich, and then compare it to the real thing above. I know, I know, this is never a fair comparison, but then again, when you spend your hard-earned bucks on a sandwich you don't expect the meat to be slimy. The Full Montagu—this name makes me even more angry since it bears the name of the man credited with inventing the sandwich—is supposed to be a tasty pile of roast beef, turkey, Swiss and cheddar cheeses, "the Earl's mustard sauce" plus lettuce and tomato. Somebody behind the counter clearly thought "the Earl's mustard sauce" was so good, they should drench both sides of this dry, dense, thick and crumbly roll with it. Well, it's not good. It's not good at all. It's abhorrent. And this sandwich is a mushy abomination. Fuck.

Bacon Cheeseburger

Bacon Cheeseburger at Five Guys

fiveguys.com

A

There's something beautiful about Five Guys. It makes sense that this burger chain has been compared to In-N-Out, because of this menu simplicity and a focus on creating the straight-up tasty, but Five Guys is like the evolution of In-N-Out: all the crazy toppings you can't get there, you can get here. And then some. So for my first Five Guys burger, I focused on the one thing just about everybody wants but can't get on a burger from In-N-Out—bacon. To the standard bacon cheeseburger—which has a double patty, mind you—I added sauteed mushrooms and onions, skipping the fresh crisp veggie stuff. Five Guys brings the all-American burger taste, slightly greasy, loosely packed beef smothered in melted American cheese. The bacon was crisp and my other toppings were flavorful, and the spongy bun also reminded me of In-N-Out without the shiny, buttery top. In my 'hood, we've got this new Five Guys, In-N-Out a couple blocks down, and Smashburger across the street. That's a pretty strong burger battle.

Banh Mi Thit Cha

Banh Mi Thit Cha at Pho Thanh Huong

Pho Thanh Huong at Yelp

A

This may not be the best banh mi sandwich I've ever eaten, but in Las Vegas, I don't think there's a better place to eat banh mi, a more consistent French-Vietnamese sandwich factory in this town, than Pho Thanh Huong. It's just off the Strip, within a few steps of UNLV, which is incredibly good news for the broke-ass college students of Las Vegas. Because not only are they baking their own crackly-fresh baguettes, not only are they stuffing in larger portions of meat and pickled veggies, but the real clincher is: these babies are about four bucks each. Makes you wanna go back to school, almost. Along with the traditional crisp vegetable and herb fillings, this one has roasted pork roll, pate, and lightly cured Vietnamese ham. Yep, it's a porkathon. Go get a couple.

Cheeseburger Bite

Cheeseburger Bite at 7-11

7-eleven.com

F-

I'm really sorry, you guys. Sometimes things get so bad, you don't know where the bottom is. Well, this it. If you're going to eat something that literally looks like a piece of shit, you get what you deserve.

Tortas Sampler

Tortas Sampler at T&T

tacosandtequilalv.com

B+

Available only on the lunch menu at Luxor's Mexican joint Tacos & Tequila, these tasty friends are just too good to limit yourself to just one flavor. I would usually never review three sandwiches at once, but these tortas are equally delicious, mostly because of the soft, spongy, sweet, perfectly absorbent bolillo rolls. This light, lovely cloud of a bread is the quintessential component in these sandwiches, which are surprisingly authentic considering this is the Vegas Strip. They have been made a bit more friendly by this outgoing kitchen, but the flavors are staying in the spirit of tradition. From the left, you've got carne asada (tender and juicy with a bit of sour funk), carnitas (succulence personified) and shredded chicken (moist and slightly spicy), plus each also has lettuce and tomato, fresh pico de gallo, and a thin layer of soft, long-simmered bean puree for extra texture. If you happen to find yourself in the Luxor at lunchtime, allow me to introduce option numero uno.

BLTA Mini Scraper

The BLTA Mini Scraper

homemade

B-

This is a random-ass, whatever we've got in the kitchen kinda piece. A chunk of Albertsons starchy-yet-delicious French bread, slabbed out. Smashed avocado smothered across the bottom. Five pieces of bacon that turned out a little too crispy, a couple nice crisp iceberg lettuce leaves, and thick slices of yellow heirloom tomato. Mustard, of course. All done. It's too tall to bite due to the bread density, and it barely stands up by itself long enough to snap a pic. But if you can get your mouth around it, satisfying.  Even though it looks weird.

Chili Cheese Fritos Coney

Chili Cheese Fritos Coney at Sonic

sonicdrivein.com

C+

Not sure why I was compelled to order this when I really just wanted a root beer float, but once I clarified that this was, in fact, not a foot-long, I was game. Because look, Fritos with chili and cheese is a good combination. On a mediocre-at-best Sonic hot dog, still pretty good. There are diced onions and mustard on this baby, but the magic that makes it special is recognizing these are chili cheese-flavored Fritos. So, yeah. It's meaty and crunchy and salty and chili-y, so it's enjoyable on a very primal level.

Torta Ahogada

Torta Ahogada at El Birotazo

elbirotazo.com

A+

A tiny eastside taco shop in Las Vegas. You would never find this place, in a million years, and if you drove past it, you wouldn't consider stopping in for a torta. This is the kind of sandwich in the kind of restaurant someone has to tell you about, and that's what happened. And now I'm telling (writing) you about it, and you're going to go try it. For simplification, let's call this the Guadalajaran version of the French dip, only with pork, and WAY BETTER. The roll is dense and crusty. The meat, piled on top of a thin layer of refried, mashed beans, is carnita-syle pork, roasted to succulent perfection. And there's quite a bit of it. That glossy orange sauce it's swimming in? Drenched in? Totally saturated in, so that the sponge-like roll is absorbing every drop of that sweet-and-earthy spiced tomato salsa? It's fantastic. What you can't see is in that silver bowl in the back: spicy chile de arbol, another smooth salsa rich and thick and hot as hell, with raw white onion shards hanging out. For fun. You need to pile that stuff on each bite of porky wonder to get the full effect. That's what this sandwich should be called: The Full Effect.