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
- 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.
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