Classic Italian from Quiznos

So hey, remember in that very last post how I made a big shpeel about how when you're out of town you should go somewhere cool and local instead of going to some chain that you could visit anytime you wanted to at home? Yeah....well, I have a confession to make. After taking a totally amazing cruise to Alaska in May of this year, we had some time to spend in Seattle before driving back home. And where did we go to get a sandwich? Quiznos. Yeah. THAT Quiznos. The same one that's in the strip mall like 2 minutes from my house. I know - I can hear your collective groan from here and I agree - big time LAME on our part. Not that it matters, but here's my (weak) defense - we were on a very tight schedule, we were on foot, and worst of all, I just hadn't done any research ahead of time to know where a really good place to go was. Hungry and in a hurry, we saw the familiar Quiznos sign, knew what to expect and succumbed to the temptation of a quick and easy fix to our hunger dilemma. Now look, I'm not trying to throw Quiznos under the bus here - I like the place. I do. But in a huge, exciting city like Seattle? Come on, there's dozens of really awesome sandwiches that could have been had which simply don't exist back here at home. So, with that confession out of the way I'm asking you right now to help me to ensure that this doesn't happen again. All you have to do is tell me where I need to go to eat a sandwich. Anywhere. Any city - I don't care. Just start filling up the comments section in any one of these posts with things like "Yeah, that looks decent, but you should really go here." or "Dear dumb-crap, you obviously don't know anything because you haven't been here yet." You get the idea.

So back to Quiznos. The history of Quiznos begins in Denver, CO in 1978 with the opening of a sandwich shop called "Sandwich World". A couple years later, Sandwich World was bought out by new owners who changed the name to "Quizno's" and began franchising and pitching the idea of toasted subs, which is the chain's claim to fame. In the 30 years since, Quiznos has gone on to become the second largest submarine sandwich chain in the world behind Subway. There are well over 4,000 locations world-wide.

Despite being in existence since roughly 1980 and starting up in (relatively) nearby Denver, I only became aware of the existence of Quiznos in the late '90's. When I was dating my wife, there was a Quiznos near the building she worked in, so we went there quite often for lunch. In the years since, Quiznos has obviously kept expanding and now they are nearly inescapable.

So anyway, there we were - walking back from The Space Needle on our way to the Mariners/Padres inter-league game and in a rush. We'd already passed the Quiznos once thinking we'd find someplace with better sandwich offerings, but having not found quite such a place, we ducked in and went to work. I went with the Classic Italian, which features the following:

• Type of Bread: I went with Rosemary Parmesan, but Italian White, 9 Grain Artisan Wheat and Italian Herb were also options.
• Condiments/Dressing(s): Red Wine Vinaigrette
• Toppings: Ham, Salami, Pepperoni, Capicola, Mozzarella,Black Olives, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Onions

This sandwich features the types of things you would expect in an italian - cured meats, mozzarella cheese, olives and a vinaigrette dressing. As is customary at Quiznos, I got my sandwich toasted (which involves a quick burn through the conveyor-belted toaster oven, if you've never seen it done before) and we were all set. As is the case when you order any sandwich, your overall experience is at the mercy of whoever is preparing it for you. And today, unfortunately, we got a dud. Sufficeth to say, dude's sandwich making game was weak. And that will show a little bit in the scores:

• Quantity/Value: 4/5 - Quiznos sandwiches are available in three sizes - small, regular and large. As usual, I went with the large which, in this case, set me back $6.99. Under 7 bucks for a solid foot-long sandwich is pretty decent value. However, it's not quite enough sandwich quantity wise (I had no trouble finishing the whole thing in one sitting) or value wise (especially considering the recent rash of $5 foot-long deals) to earn a 5 in this category.
• Originality: 4/5 - Putting cured italian meats and mozzarella on a sandwich has certainly been done before, so this is not getting a 5. However, the combination of meats is a good one and the red wine vinaigrette is a nice touch as well. Also adding to the originality is the toasting factor. It really improved this sandwich and Quiznos, as stated earlier, was the first place to really take the toasting idea and run with it.
• Appearance: 7/10 - Here is where homeboy making my sandwich really started to do his damage on this thing's score. Having made sandwiches for a living myself, it really irks me when someone obviously doesn't take care when doing this. This guy was probably about done with his shift (at least I hope so) and it showed. He slapped that thing together so that the placement of everything was uneven, lop-sided and sad. The only thing not sad is the guy they buy their lettuce from because that guy is making a killing. Hey sandwich-maker - the idea is to put enough lettuce on to cover my sandwich. Not enough that I can take it home and stuff a pillow with it. Thanks. That said, everything on the sandwich looks nice and the toasted bread looks great.
  
• Quality/Freshness: 7/10 - Here is where the chain restaurant/assembly line aspect of Quiznos comes into play and hurts. I have no idea how long any of the stuff that went on my sandwich had been sitting there, but I know for a fact none of it was made to order. That said, the quality was there. The meats didn't look slimy, the lettuce wasn't wilted and the fact that the sandwich was in fact toasted in front of me helps as well.
• Taste: 16/20 - Sandwich guy strikes again as he dumps that dressing on my sandwich as if it were water and he was trying to put out a fire. I'm not really sure what this sandwich is supposed to taste like since it was completely overpowered by the deluge of dressing. Aside from masking the taste of everything else (which was a shame because the other stuff was good - I pulled some of the meats free and tasted them on their own. They had unique flavors - the spicy capicola was especially tasty), the dressing quickly made this sandwich a big time sog-fest which does not help the taste at all. Anyway, the taste probably rated lower than a 16, but I corrected a little bit towards what I believe the sandwich would taste like if it weren't prepared by a distracted, ham-fisted zero.

If we add all those numbers together, we come up with a score of 38/50 for the Quiznos Classic Italian. Oddly enough, that ties the score of the one other major chain sub I've reviewed so far. And, that score is waaay more than the score I would get on choosing a great place in Seattle to get a sandwich at. Epic fail there. Again, not that Quiznos is awful, it's just that I could've and should've found a sweet local joint instead of a place I can go to anytime I want. So yeah, help me avoid making this mistake again by recommending cool sandwich places all over the place and hopefully I can get there.

Westside Signature Sub From Westside Drive In

One of the best parts about being on a life-long quest to find the best sandwiches anywhere is that every time you go on a trip and pay a visit to different town, no matter how big or small that town may be, chances are there will be a place there where you can get a sandwich to try. Such was the case last summer when we took our regular trip up to Cannon Beach, OR. With a four-year old in tow, it's a bit much to make the entire thirteen hour trip in one day, so we decided to make a pit-stop in Boise, ID and spend a night there. Before leaving, I did some research which included watching episodes of both Man v. Food and Diners, Drive Ins and Dives where they had stopped in Boise. After doing that and figuring out where we were staying, the place that was the best combination of good-looking food and convenient location from our stay for the night was the Westside Drive In. Here's the video of Guy from Triple D visiting the place:



Fortunately, this place was as advertised. First of all, you need to look past the nauseating pink and blue decor (I know you're probably going for a cool vintage vibe there, but seriously, it looks like a Miami flamingo yanked all up in that place). Anyway, what this is, is a drive in that offered things like prime rib and pasta that you wouldn't ordinarily expect to find next to drive in staples like burgers, fries and milkshakes. As I perused the menu, one item quickly jumped out at me - the Westside Signature Sub. It was still tough to decide as there were several things on the menu that looked awesome. But in the end, I remembered that, as a general rule, if something on the menu is given its own special section and is labeled as "signature", that will probably be a pretty good choice. Thankfully, that was the case here. Unfortunately, that good choice was countered by the poor choice we made of ordering spaghetti for our little boy. In a crucial lapse in judgment, I forgot how inconceivably messy a four-year old can get when tackling some spaghetti. Being on the road as we were with no laundry real handy, that was a bad move. But anyway, here's what the Westside Signature Sub looks like (figuratively):

• Type of Bread: Hoagie Roll
• Condiments/Dressing(s): Sour Cream, Dijon Mustard
• Toppings: Ribeye Steak Strips, Peppers, Onions, Mushrooms, Bacon Strips, Provolone, Lettuce, Tomato
  

And, here is what it looks like literally (in the upper left, you can also see the spaghetti that my son would soon be wearing:


Unfortunately, my trusty Han Solo action figure didn't make this trip with us, but I think you can still get a pretty good idea of how big this sandwich was (and keep in mind, this was only half of one). Normally, I would get a full sized version, but I knew chances were good I wouldn't be able to finish it, and with no real refrigeration available, I didn't want to waste what was left over, so I just went with a half. Let's get to the scoring:

• Quantity/Value: 4/5 - The half sized version of this sandwich cost me $6.49, but you can upgrade to a full for $9.29. Getting a massive steak sandwich for under ten bucks is a pretty good deal, if you ask me. Especially with all the other goodies that come on this thing. As it was, I barely finished the half of it. This is a really good sized sandwich.
• Originality: 5/5 - A steak sandwich is not in and of itself original, but this version of a steak sandwich definitely is. The first thing I couldn't help but notice was the addition of bacon strips. It makes so much sense - I mean you wrap steaks in bacon all the time when you cook it, so why not put it on the sandwich? The peppers, onions and 'shrooms are typical additions to a steak sandwich, but the addition of sour cream and dijon mustard was another interesting twist that makes this sandwich completely original. Well done.
• Appearance: 9/10 - If there is anything more beautiful than some melted cheese draped over bacon and beef, I don't know what it is. I mean seriously, months later and just looking at that picture gets my salivary glands going. The colors of the vegetables, the perfectly toasted roll, and even some parsley on the side as a garnish (garnishes at a drive in??! I know, right?). This sandwich looked great.
• Quality/Freshness: 9/10 - When you've got a legitimate, trained chef with 30+ years of experience running the place, it's really no surprise that the quality and freshness of the ingredients is top notch. I don't know that there's much else that needs to be said about it.
• Taste: 18/20 - I've already talked about how original I think this sandwich is, how good it looks, how fresh the ingredients are, so the only question left is how did it taste? Perhaps not surprisingly, it tasted really great. I mean, I don't know how badly you can mess up a marriage of steak, bacon and cheese, but the trick is balancing flavors with all the other ingredients and not letting one completely overwhelm the others. The Westside Signature Sub does a great job of this. I think a mild cheese like provolone is a good choice with this in mind. The creaminess provided by the sour cream and cheese, the bite from the peppers and dijon mustard and the tender steak were all delicious. My only minor complaint would be that I couldn't really taste the bacon as much as I was hoping. But whatever, you could probably wrap this whole thing in bacon and I still would want more. That's just me. Well, me and Jim Gaffigan.
  

So, if we add it all up, the Westside Signature Sub from the Westside Drive In in lovely Boise, ID receives a seriously impressive score of 45/50. Visiting this cool little place was a great part of a great trip and I will definitely look forward to returning some time in the future. There's definitely something fulfilling about discovering a new great place to eat in a city you're visiting. So next time you're on a trip, be sure to get out there and try somewhere new. I mean, Subway's good and all, but you can get that at 5 different places 5 minutes from your house anytime you want. Come on, you're better than that. Oh, and be sure and tell me about the cool places you go, okay? Deal.