Good Eats Between the Sheets (of Bread)

A sandwich is the quintessential food. Equal parts convenience and taste, a sandwich can move upscale (hello, truffle ricotta spread) or slide downhome (hey there, clubhouse). Eat one with a friend at a table or alone, standing over the sink. Eat one walking down the street or sitting in a restaurant, with assistance from a knife and fork to catch the fallout. All the best ones require cleanup. Here are five unranked sandwiches that you will love equally.

Va Caffé

Va means “go” in Italian, and the word captures the vibe of this clean little eatery. It’s open for breakfast and lunch, and its menu happily has pizza by the slice and panini, as well as salads and sweets, inspired by regions of Italy. If an espresso made with Ace coﬀee and a breakfast slice of Rossa Diavola (egg, house chili oil, pecorino and pangrattato) doesn’t set you up for success, I cannot help you.

Enough about pizza. Va is a place that holds the sandwich in equally high esteem. There are five different lunch sandwiches, all of them served on house-baked ciabatta that has the perfect ratio of pillowy softness to resistant, stretchy chew.

And if in Grade 2 you found a mortadella and French’s mustard sandwich on Wonder bread in your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lunch kit? Well, that sandwich owes a strong apology to Va Caffé’s Mortadella Panini. This is the panini to make you eschew all others. The creamy ricotta is made grown-up with the touch of truffle. It has a layer of arugula that is generous, bright and grassy — the perfect foil for the mountain of mortadella, salty and pink, but otherwise unlike that of your grade school lunchbox. Add a side of Tuscan Bean salad and glass of Peroni Alla Spina Italian lager and you’re lunching like a Roman. — Mifi Purvis

Va Caffé
Wîhkwêntôwin | 12024 Jasper Ave, Edmonton | va-yeg.ca

Pals

I remember seeing a post on Instagram from a couple of years back: a hand holding a plate and showing a sideview of a colourful sandwich, gooey cheese spilling out. The cheeky post read, “The Focaccia Chicken Club! The OG Pals chicken sandwich that nobody likes or ever orders 😜.”

It takes brand confidence to lean into that kind of irony, even with an emoji. Pals has earned that confidence. The Focaccia Chicken Club has become a hometown classic. It’s as delightful to behold, towering on fresh focaccia that’s been made in house, as it is to bite into. Like any club, it has bacon, poultry, cheddar, lettuce, onion and mayo. The difference is the lightly blackened Cajun chicken and smoked bacon, cured in house, and that pillowy, dimpled bread. Clubhouse not your scene? Fear not, there are other well thought out sandwich options: Beef Dip, Pals Hoagie, Italian Roast Pork, Cajun Shrimp Po Boy and more. — Mifi Purvis

Pals
Strathcona | 10335 83 Ave NW, Edmonton | palsyeg.com

Farrow

It is unsurprising that Farrow makes a great vegan sandwich capturing plant-based eaters’ taste buds. Jal’s Moving Castle, a bahn mi-inspired sandwich, will leave you eating the crumbs off your shirt.

The sweet and spicy vegan “chicken” is crispy and juicy, coated in a sauce that explodes tasty flavour. Then the heat kicks in. The candied jalapenos sneak up on me. They’re hiding behind the deliciously fluffy, crusty bread, soaking up the creamy sambal mayo. And punching through the sweet and spicy are the sour pickled carrots and daikon. Cilantro ties the rest together. Some freshness tops it all off with the best cut of cucumber to appear on a sandwich: julienned.

A special shoutout to my favourite cronut: I cannot leave Farrow without glancing nonchalantly at the glass display case to see if there’s a Plain Cinnamon Sugar Cronut left to take home. I’m in luck! Its soft croissant base is coated like a churro, a classic combination that I always fall for. After I’m done, I’ll lick the corners of my lips, hoping I find some flecks of sugar left. — Julietta Harvey

Lift Me Up

Located inside Tiramisu Bistro, Lift Me Up is known for its soft, chewy, freshly baked focaccia. And if its reputation precedes it, it will leave you speechless with only one bite. Which is what happened to Jeanie, Edify’s project manager, when she sunk her teeth into the Lift Me Up sandwich. That focaccia definitely played a role, but we cannot dismiss the effect the smoked beef, stracciatella cheese and torched gouda had on her. She mumbled praise, mouth full.

I had a different sandwich: La Crema. It is hard to not overindulge this sandwich with compliments. I am hard to please — in life but especially when it comes to sandwiches. It is bread stuffed with ingredients, how hard could it be to make a good one? Pretty hard, apparently. So when I say this milk bun delicacy opened my eyes to what a good sandwich should taste like, trust me. When Jeanie took a bite she said, “It is like biting into a salmon filled pastry, it is so fluffy.” Picture this: layers of brie and cream cheese, topped with smoked salmon and avocado, resting on a spongy bun. It is not only the bite that transports you, but this intimate, rustic nook will make you believe you are sitting in a European café, even if just for a few minutes. — Mariana Gutierrez Serna

Lift Me Up
Westmount | 10750 124 St NW, Edmonton | 780.452.3393 | liftmeupsandwichbar.ca

Tulip Sandwich Shoppe

A few blocks north of Little Italy, you will find Tulip Sandwich Shoppe (located in Otto, it’s a restaurant within a restaurant). If you’ve never been inside, it’s like walking into a pub that screams sitcom staple hangout spot. From the local art exhibit to the communal table, it just feels personal. But it’s the food people come for.

My recent find: the Cazadora (Spanish for huntress) — Tulip’s sausage on brioche creation. My hands molded to the tender French pastry-bread as I held the sandwich. The first bite lingered and the peppery undertones slowly hit me — the work of the hot mayo. But it was the texture that intrigued me; it had a generous amount of refried beans with walnuts sprinkled in. (Can you imagine what the creaminess with the crunch would do to your senses?) Chef Rosie Colangelo knew what she was doing with her creations, it only took one sandwich for me to be curious about the rest of her menu. The Babe is next on my list — I’m a sucker for a whipped ricotta and fresh basil combo.

I don’t know about you, but when I have a good sandwich I always crave a cold sip of beer, and if I had been in the mood to day drink on a Thursday afternoon I wouldn’t have been short of options from Tulip’s selection of Alberta craft beers. — Mariana Gutierrez Serna

Tulip Sandwich Shoppe
Alberta Avenue | 11405 95 St NW, Edmonton | 780.477.6244 | ottofoodanddrink.com/tulip