“Who makes the best sandwich in Fresno” is one of those questions that feels like it deserves an answer, but also one that immediately begs follow-ups.
The breadth covered by “sandwich” is vast. It’s doubtful someone craving a Philly cheesesteak will be satisfied by a turkey sub, or vice versa. Does “sandwich” make you dream of a juicy Italian beef like on The Bear, or do you think of a French roll stuffed with smoked tri tip? Hot, cold, toasted, fluffy… tortas, banh mi, po’boys, Cubanos, lobster rolls – there’s enough material here for a whole verse of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
All those subcategories and options make the list-making process daunting, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t compelled to try. Obviously, anything definitive on the subject is a process, possibly enough to constitute a respectable life’s work.
In the meantime, there are plenty of sandwiches worth trying right now. Rather than saving all this material for a potential future coffee table book, we figured we’d take you on the journey with us, highlighting a few great sandwiches every few weeks as we build toward something approaching a road map.
This week: The OG at Garlishious Deli and the Lao Sandwich at Sandy’s Chili.
“The OG” at Garlishious Deli
Opening in 2023, Garlishious Deli’s owners, Karla and Jesse Lugo, have said that their modest sandwich shop began as a vehicle for their Garlish spread, a garlicky condiment that started as Jesse’s food science project while attending Arizona State in the nineties. The goal, per Garlishious lore, was to “to develop an American garlic spread that is a hybrid of all past traditional garlic spreads,” like eggless aioli, Lebanese toum, and Italian agliata. They started selling Garlish out of farmer’s markets in Sacramento and the Bay Area in 2015 before opening Garlishious Deli across from City Hall on Fresno Street downtown a few years ago.
I’d driven past the deli plenty of times on the way to and from the Fresnoland office downtown, and the name, spellcheck nightmare though it may be, was enough to make me curious.
When I finally visited, I found an array of options – including gluten-free and keto bread – though not so many as to make me anxious. I hate a busy menu; I just want to order a sandwich, not take a personality test (with all due respect to Ike’s Love and Sandwiches). It was a tough choice, but I eventually settled on #11, The OG, which advertised ham, guanciale, gouda, spinach, tomato, avocado, pickled onions, and red wine vinaigrette. It sounded busy, and I was iffy on some of the combinations (spinach? avocado?), but guanciale (Italian cured pork jowl) is both my favorite pasta ingredient and the way to my heart. I’d never seen it on a sandwich before and I was too intrigued to pass it up.
Popping in for what I’d envisioned as a quick bite between errands, the place felt a little disorganized when I visited. I didn’t realize until after I ordered that the handful of people in the small dining room hadn’t been served yet and one of the sandwich artists seemed to be training the other, who didn’t know where everything was yet.
I waited longer than expected, but when I watched the senior sandwich assembler carefully remove the darker parts of the avocado before adding it to my OG, I knew I was in good hands. Nothing makes my heart (and stomach) swell like someone taking obvious pride in the product.
The second I bit in I was in love. The guanciale – toasted, but not long enough to completely render out all the fat like American bacon – added a smoky, unctuous note to the basic ham. The spinach cut through the fat and added some bitter green heft, and the red onions and vinaigrette added those pickled notes that are pretty much a requirement for any good sandwich, in my opinion. The creamy avocado and trademark garlic spread (literally trademarked, in this case) kept it moist, with a fresh, not-too-thick baguette-style roll in just the right proportion. Yes, it was a very good sandwich, and worth the wait.
The Lao Sandwich (Kao jee pa te), at Sandy’s Chili
For this past week’s Showdown, we compared Lao gas station food establishments, which was delicious research all the way around. Yet there was one true revelation from the work that stood above the rest: the Lao sandwich from Sandy’s Chili.
I’ve had about a million banh mi. They’re always pretty good, but I still don’t quite have a “go-to,” an automatic order that I can just blurt out every time without thinking too hard. I know I like the pâté on it, but what else? Roast pork? Barbecued pork? Ham? My God, who knew there were so many pork?! There are always so many options, all of them slightly distinct.
It was for just such reasons that the Sandy’s Chili menu spoke to me right away, even before I tasted anything. It has just four sandwiches on it, and one of them is called “Lao Sandwich.” The world is already awash in dizzying options and difficult decisions, give me the menu item that screams “order me, you won’t be disappointed!”
We love a flagship sandwich, don’t we, folks? The Lao Sandwich comes with steamed pork loaf, roast pork loaf, shredded pork, head cheese, pâté, mayo, sweet-and-sour sauce, chili oil, cilantro, and pickled carrots and daikon. Is it possible that the solution to indecision is to just include everything?
I had to ask what was in it, by the way. If it had listed all the ingredients on there – head cheese? – I might’ve been daunted, tempted to ask for substitutions.
I’m glad I didn’t. All those ingredients turn out to be an ideal balance: a porky flavor bomb with a little earthy funk from the pâté, a solid amount of spice (I ordered medium), sweetness from the tamarind sauce, pickled crunch, herbaceous cilantro, and some extra moisture and lemony kick from the mayo. Despite all the ingredients, it’s not overstuffed and doesn’t feel like a heavy meal. In fact, the thinly-sliced meats with the airy French roll and fresh vegetable crunch make it feel almost healthy (almost). It all adds up to a thoroughly satisfying lunch that doesn’t make you feel like you need to take a nap afterwards. And it was only 15 cents shy of meeting our sub-$10 lunch list.
We’ve still got lots of sandwiches to taste, but after the first 10 or so, these two stood out enough to mention.
What sandwiches should food editor Vince Mancini try next? Send your feedback to vince@fresnoland.org.
