If the Brick Oven Bistro were to have a patron saint, the Earl of Sandwich would certainly be in the running for canonization. After all, when it comes to summer, it’s hard to beat sitting under an umbrella on our patio with a frosty brew and a hearty sandwich.
Over the years, we’ve taken the zest for adventure that informs our menu and tried to find new ways to deliver that experience between sliced loaves of fresh-baked sunflower wheat and savory Italian breads. To date, here’s a quick litany of some of our more innovative creations.
Let’s start with the San Francisco Beef Salad Sandwich. We begin with a familiar comfort food, strips of beef sirloin, then take it to the next level with a creamy oriental star anise dressing, and garnish with fresh tomato and lettuce and marinated English cucumbers (ah, those English and their cucumbers).
I left my heart in SF...but not my sandwich!
For more pedestrian appetites, there is our ever-popular Turkey Club Sandwich, the sandwich that launched our search for the perfect slab cut bacon – and eventually to a contract with a small meat packing company in Minnesota that resulted in what today has been popularized as Applewood Smoked Bacon…a culinary wonder that has since been picked up on by numerous other restaurants. Another of our favorite twists on the classic turkey sandwich is our turkey slawich – a meeting on bread of two perennial picnic favorites that screams “welcome to summer!”
You say you like chicken salad? How about our Cashew Chicken Salad Sandwich, or our more exotic Chicken Tarragon Salad sandwich? For the latter, we start with that delicatessen staple that we all know and love, then add tarragon to it and serve it with tomatoes and lettuce and marinated English cucumbers -- with the optional touch of red onions and a jalapeno pepper on the side, just for that extra kick.
Now you're talkin' turkey. The Turkey Slawich, that is.
If you have a yen for something hot and spicy, there’s our Tuscan Meatball Sandwich. You like beef? Howzabout our Beef Peppers & Onions Sandwich? We start with thin, hand-carved slices of roast beef, pile it on our Italian or Sunflower Wheat bread slathered with horseradish mayo, then add fresh lettuce, tomato, and cucumber, then top the glorious mess with sautéed onions and red peppers.
Hummus is one of those foods that in the years since we first opened our doors has gone from being esoteric to darn near a pub food standard. One our managers brought us the recipe that we use, and we put a bit of a Mediterranean twist on it by using kalamata olives and lots of garlic. The sliced cucumbers on the sandwich compliment these flavors quite nicely.
And of course, with any of our sandwiches, if you want to kick it old school (aka, picnic style), we add some coleslaw and Rum Pot Beans on the side. And we’d undoubtedly disappoint Bar Gernika owner Jeff May if we failed to at least mention our class Reuben Hamwich. Doesn’t it make you wish summer could last all year? Earl of Sandwich, we salute you!
The wonder of the Reuben Hamwich