You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

Young Elvis says: careful with this one folks, you know the taller the sandwich the worse the crust burn.

Sandwiches at BUNK are announced by a long, hand-scrawled chalkboard menu, and an even longer lineup outside the door. During lunch-hour, it stretches down the block. The place is loud, crowded, air almost thick with the grease of frying meat, and the sandwiches are messy. Good thing they come on trays lined with butcher paper to catch all the fillings dripping, falling and squishing out the sides of the overstuffed snacks. 621 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR At BUNK I give the thumbs up while Mack MacFarland of PNCA tries to get out of the shot, the Italian cured meats sandwich, the roast poblano chile and pinto bean sandwich and mini Mexico flag with a side of apple coleslaw that did me in at BUNK. -Young Elvis

The best sandwich shops in Portland seem to be under the loving and enthusiastic jurisdiction of the city’s old punk rockers. Of the three sandwich holes I visited, the ethic of each was DIY, unpretentious, and like all Portland food destinations, adored and raved about by all. They each serve up our favourite snack in a different way, with an intensity and a specificity that inspires Portlanders to trek across town for. Meat Cheese Bread offers the most up-turkey sandwiches of all the spots we surveyed, with special additions to the menu like a fine selection of sodas and microbrews, handcrafted chocolates and desert! For lunch! The bright, sunny windows are filled with kids, hipsters and sandwich-seekers of all sorts. 1406 SE Stark St, Portland, OR - - Meat Cheese Bread enthusiasts Namita Wiggers, Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, and daughter Leila, BLB (bacon, lettuce n' beet), Leila and Calder biting the roasted turkey, havarti and bacon. -Young Elvis

You know you’re close to laying hands on a “waffle sandwich AKA Dutch taco” when you see a wooden hut in gravel parking lot fenced off with barbed wire and chain link at the corner of Mississippi and NE Freemont. In a more pretentious culinary scene, this trash palace of sorts certainly isn’t a spot that would be venerated in local food guides. But FLAVORSPOT is emblematic of things that are great about many Portland eateries: food is excellent, cheap, and served up without a side of snobbery. Locals seem to embrace delicious eccentricity instead. Amen!  My sweet cream and jam number was delish, my friend's MB9 had so much bacon spanning both sides of the 49th parallel that we offered a slice to a passing dog. Is it a sandwich? A taco? Who cares, it is pure brilliance or something.