Category: Sandwich

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenItalianNew MexicoSandwich

Deli Mart West – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:45 AM

The human capacity for developing attachments can be a bit of a conundrum. Although my very being is eternally rooted in New Mexico, returning to America in 1987 after three years in England made me feel as if I had left my home behind. Similarly after two years in Massachusetts, I returned in 1979 to my beloved New Mexico with a huge hole in my heart, pining for so many things about my first home as an adult. One of the things I missed most about the Bay State was the tremendously creative things that could be generously crammed inside a sub (make that “grinder”) roll. The polished art of crafting a sensational stuffed sandwich had not made its way…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenHot Dogs

Hot Diggity – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno2:59 AM

Oh, hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom what you do to me How my future will shine Hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom what you do to me From the moment you’re mine HOT DOG!! In an age of auditory bombardment, we all occasionally experience a phenomenon known as an “earworm.” Earworm is a literal translation of a German term for a song (particularly an annoying one) stuck in someone’s head. For some it’s the Gilligan’s Island theme song. For others, it might be “It’s a Small World” or the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.” You can guess what earworm infested me the first time I drove by Hot Diggity, a 60s style diner in Albuquerque’s industrial north valley. I hadn’t thought of Hot…

Closed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenNevadaSandwichUnited States

Windy City Pizza & Subs – Las Vegas, Nevada (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:22 PM

Ask any Chicago transplant to list the five things they miss most about the Windy City and it’s a good bet the list will include Italian beef sandwiches, a staple in Chicago. Chicagoans grow up worshipping at the tables of Italian beef sandwich shops and are almost as passionate about this sloppy sandwich as they are Da Bears. After my several first two experiences with Italian beef, my reaction was “okay, so what’s so great about these” then we visited Johnnie’s Italian Beef and I had an epiphany. Now my nights are (Italian) spiced with dreams of gravy running down my arms and the sounds of giardinaire crunching in my mouth. Italian beef sandwiches are an absolute “must have” during…

Closed in 2020Gone But Not ForgottenNevadaSandwichUnited States

Carnegie Deli (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno7:40 PM

Father Mark Schultz, the charismatic priest at the San Antonio De Padua church in Penasco, jokes that the reason Catholics are required to abstain from eating meat on Fridays is not because there’s a shortage of cows. That’s certainly true. There is more beef on the hoof in America than there are tax-paying citizens. That’s why it’s always puzzled me that sandwich restaurants in New Mexico are so chintzy with their meat portions. You’d think there really was a beef shortage (and an excess of bread and lettuce) considering the the typical Albuquerque restaurant sandwich is comprised of thin shards of beef buried under half a head of lettuce and enough bread to choke a mule. In the American megalopolises…

Closed in 2011Gone But Not ForgottenIllinoisRating: ExcellentSandwichUnited States

Siegelman’s Restaurant Deli – Arlington Heights, Illinois (CLOSED: 2011)

Gil Garduno4:27 AM

Who would have thought that a nondescript restaurant in a nondescript shopping center would feature food beyond description–food for which you run out of adjectives and synonyms for delicious (let’s see: savory, scrumptious, yummy, tasty, mouth-watering, appetizing, delectable, luscious)? In Siegelman’s, the quintessential Jewish deli, we found some of the very best pastrami (and it’s no surprise that it carries the Vienna Beef label) in America–perfectly marbled to bring out its dramatically captivating (not nearly sufficient to describe it) flavor and in such huge proportions that your mouth is agape (and watering) at first sight. There’s a Yiddish word that perfectly describes Siegelman’s sandwiches–“farshtopt,” a word which means “stuffed” as in crammed full of meat. An even better word might…

ArizonaRating: N/R (Not Rated)SandwichUnited StatesVietnamese

Lee’s Sandwiches – Chandler, Arizona

Gil Garduno1:15 AM

For years, the American viewing public was subjected to the bombardment of the airwaves with the exploits of Jared. Once a corpulent fellow who weighed 425 pounds, Jared metamorphosed into a 190-pound shadow of his former self largely through a calorie reduction effort comprised principally of submarine sandwiches proffered by America’s most prolific sandwich chain. Many of us caloric overachievers regard those commercials with skepticism–not that Jared could lose so much much weight, but that any sane person could eat such a mediocre sandwich twice a day for an entire year. I could understand it if Jared’s sandwich diet was comprised instead of banh mi, the unrivaled Vietnamese sandwich that surpasses any chain produced submarine sandwich in America. Banh mi…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2017Gone But Not ForgottenNational ChainSandwich

Quizno’s – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:30 AM

Just as owning a BMW might diminish your appreciation of any other car you’ll ever have (unless it’s another BMW), eating sub sandwiches in New England will devalue your estimation of any sub sandwich you’ll ever have anywhere else. From Maine to Delaware, sub sandwiches in all their sobriquets (grinders, torpedoes, heroes, etc.) are so far superior to sandwiches served anywhere else in the country that you’ll invariably find yourself making unfair comparisons. Nothing else quite fills the bill. After moving to Denver, New York native James Lambatos wanted Mile High City residents to experience an Italian sub similar to what he experienced growing up in the Big Apple. He founded Quizno’s in 1981 as an upscale version of Subway…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008Gone But Not ForgottenSandwich

Pastrami & Things – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:57 AM

During a 1997 episode of Seinfeld, the “show about nothing,” George Costanza and his girlfriend du jour discussed introducing food into their lovemaking. George listed as potential candidates: strawberries, chocolate sauce, pastrami on rye with mustard and honey. His girlfriend, unfortunately, failed to appreciate the erotic qualities of pastrami. Ultimately George met up with a woman who declared pastrami to be “the most sensual of all the salted cured meats.” Their lustful appetites took over and they succumbed to the pastrami inspired throes of passion. I don’t know about pastrami being the most sensual of all salted cured meats, but do know there are few sandwiches quite as wonderful as a pastrami sandwich. Alas, not all pastrami is created equal.…

Hot DogsIllinoisRating: N/R (Not Rated)SandwichUnited States

Superdawg Drive-In – Chicago, Illinois

Gil Garduno3:56 AM

Some of today’s Marvel comic book heroes such as Captain America and the Submariner had their genesis in the 1940s where they crusaded against oppressive regimes fighting to subjugate America’s freedoms. Maurie Berman (himself a recently returned G.I. from World War II) and his wife Flaurie looked no further than the superhero genre when naming their unique roadside hot dog stand, on the roof of which stand statues of well defined male and female anthropomorphic hot dogs attired in leopard skin togas. Today, while serving as both beacons to the restaurant as well as vigilant guardians protecting its south vantage, those hot dog icons beckon passers-by with their winking and blinking eyes. Superdawg has become America’s premier hot dog restaurant–a…