A couple of weeks ago, I penned a long tribute to the sandwich–specifically, locally owned sandwich shops that combine a high degree of cooking skill with a zeal for great ingredients from local farmers and producers.
To me, these shops represent a nexus that joins skilled cooks, the surrounding farm community, and a broad swath of the local citizenry. They make terrific local food accessible, and keep food dollars circulating within their surrounding communities. And they also make a mean sandwich–no small thing in a world awash in horrible food.
In my piece, I highlighted Chapel Hill’s path-breaking Sandwhich, Brooklyn’s glorious Bierkraft, and New Orleans’ sublime Cochon Butcher. Now that I’ve revealed to you, food-loving reader, my sandwich obsessions, I want to hear about yours.
The Grist food section is plotting a slideshow of our nation’s great new-wave sandwich shops–and we want you to send in photos and a short description of your favorite ones.
What we’re looking for is joints that are a) locally owned–no chains; b) creative; c) zealous about sourcing local ingredients; and d) capable of knocking out consistently and mind-blowingly good sandwiches.
Here’s what to do. Identify a sandwich shop that meets those criteria. Take a snapshot of your favorite offering from there, and a few more of scenes from the place–you know, a sandwich artisan working her trade; a menu board full of temptations; what have you. Write a short–<300 word–case for why the place rocks. Send it all to me: tphilpott[at]grist[dot]org. (Feel free to use Flickr for the photos.) Deadline: May 7.
People whose nominations we highlight in the slideshow will get the glory of being published on Grist (believe me, there is no glory on Earth like it); and one of those plastic shopping-bag thingies, the ones that crumple down to a fist-sized ball. Oh yeah, and they say “Grist” on them!
Don’t just sit there staring slack-jawed. Go find great sandwiches. Hit the bricks!
