You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

  My mini midwest tour continued to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a place known more for breweries and deep fried cheese curds, but my timing was fortuitously aligned with the recent opening of Hen's Deli . Located in the neigbhorhood of Walker's Point, in a former hole in the wall soup shop, Hen's began at the local farmer's market under the name Clark Street Sausage Co. Establishing a fan base with unusual items (for Milwaukee) such as ramen and a pork pastrami sandwich, their brick and mortar location offered a small, but mighty menu of established favorites along with some new offerings on rotation.  I was on my way out of town as I learned about Hen's, which is unfortunate timing for me. Stopping in with some locals in the morning, we got several breakfast bagel sandwiches to go on the everything bagel with sausage. Without a doubt,  their house made sausage patties served as the foundation that held it all together. Tucked on top was a slippery little muffin tin egg (...

Both offerings are quite small.  On first bite, the Porter mini (right) is a clear winner. The Turkey brie features a thick pleasantly creamy piece of brie and absolutely decent shaved turkey, with a festive cranberry studded mini bread. Plus a side of chewy oatmeal cookies? No contest. BB Caprese features rubbery cartoon bread, insubstantial tomato and tasteless mozza. Confession: this is the kind of "research" sandwich purchased only because it epitomizes an excuse to gripe. It doesn’t disappoint in that regard! 

Whole pieces of freshly roasted turkey, made in house, thick and still sizzling crispy bacon that melts in your mouth like chocolate, mayo, crisp lettuce and real tomatoes. Yep, this is the real deal. I really appreciate when bacon goes into my sandwich hot. Other sandwiches on offer include a straight up BLT, Grilled Cheese, Steak Florentine and Pear and Gorgonzola, with loads of great desserts, beer and breakfast to boot. No one seemed shy about having a craft beer with lunch on a Saturday at noon. Felt a little chintzed by the tiny side bowls of chili, but I've had a very satisfying full bowl of that before, though it seems the recipe has changed since to include more rice or barley.  The Grove is across from SFMOMA and the Museum of the African Diaspora, making it the perfect museum lunch that's not actually in the museum. 

These guys are such nerds. Sandwich puns, earnest enthusiasm, hand-done signs, lots of thumbs up icons and evocations of good vibes. But, it's all true. The sandwiches themselves are pretty good. There's a certain ambiguously satisfying greatness in a simple toasty, and it seems difficult to say exactly why, but for the sake of accuracy let's start by saying these sandwiches are warm . Maybe that's it. Both the Potbelly Mediterranean and their Turkey had a fair creaminess to them, due to hummus, melty feta and mustard, mayo respectively, which also lent flavour integration to each bite. The bread enclosed the ingredients without bracketing them or being a wrap per se, and the ingredients like cucumbers and tomatoes were sliced thinly enough that their crunch didn't dominate, meaning that no one bite involved too much bread, or individual tastes that popped out above others.

When my friend said we were going to a sandwich place inspired by Wilco, I didn't quite expect this. A very homey down to earth shop, they were playing Wilco (of course), and a long list of sandwiches named after Wilco songs were available plain or grilled. My companion had been craving the One Wing sandwich, which is basically turkey, cranberry, and stuffing between cranberry bread. I had a bite, and the stuffing was pretty damn good. I went for the How To Fight Loneliness sandwich, which was mostly just bacon and apple, with a custom replacement of turkey instead of chicken. It also had a hint of dijon, which was not entirely necessary, but it's kitschy gourmet stylings was a nice touch. The most surprising part was how simple it all was. Get your sandwich grilled, otherwise the bread may be disappointing. Definitely nothing special going on here, but the concept seems to be working for them. It wasn't busy when we stopped by, and the guy behind the counter was more tha...