(you can read our overview/prior entries here)
Thursday June 3: 40645 Village Dr, Big Bear Lake
Look! Big Bear! Last weekend we headed up to Big Bear, where I was dropped off for a semi-annual (meaning totally random) leadership conference. On the conference agenda: boating, axe throwing, bobsledding, and much more.
We only boated, to be honest…but also we ate sandwiches! We began at the extremely beloved The Old German Deli in the heart of Big Bear Lake (not the water, the city, but not Big Bear City which is a different city). We got the Schnickenwurst, a type of processed German meat that comes on a highly recommended sandwich along with a good white cheese (German Swiss?), smoked salami, and another German processed meat I can’t remember. The owners were pretty funny: direct, offended when I asked if Schnickenwurst were similar to mortadella—“That’s an Italian meat!”—and generally cheerful. The sandwich was meh—the schickenwurst itself was pretty good, but it was buried by the other ingredients, and everything just fell apart.
Leadership lesson learned: let the talent star!
- Overall Balance/Taste: 0 points
- Quality of Ingredients: +1
- Bread: -1
- Integrity: -1
- X-factor: So German!: +1
Overall: 0 points, or your standard PB&J
BJ’s Restaurant and Sandwich Shop
Friday June 4: 110 E Big Bear Blvd, Big Bear City
The next day we wandered further into the mountain scene by heading over to BJ’s in Big Bear City proper. Did BJ’s open at 11, as it says on the sign and on Google? No. Is mountain time a real thing? It very much is. Members of our group greatly enjoyed their turkey clubs. Those of us with the pastrami and cheese or the roast beef were less impressed. Was it bad? Not at all. Was it better than The Old German Deli? Maybe?
Leadership lesson learned: unless you know you know better, always order what the host orders.
- Overall Balance/Taste: 0 points
- Quality of Ingredients: 0
- Bread: 0
- Integrity: +1
- X-factor: lousy!: 0
Overall: 1 point, or your standard PB&J
Sunday June 6: 905 E. Arrow Hwy, Glendora
Sunday afternoon we were off the mountain … but still somehow in need of sandwiches, and excited to try out BOLO, a Holdaak-styled chicken sandwich place…but much, much closer to us, located a few miles down the road in the relatively new Glendora Public Market, a dining and drinking hall set in a former Hostess Wonder bread factory. The BOLO sandwich comes fried and either standard or spicy (careful, the latter has a slow-rising burn), topped with a sweet-ish aioli, slaw, and served on a bolo, a Cantonese-style pineapple bun that sounds a lot more promising than it is.
This thing is a mess. It was such a mess. The messiest mess. They even acknowledge this on their menu. But … they don’t fix it? (We preferred the balance of Holdaak, by far.)
Leadership lesson learned: embrace your weaknesses so you can correct them. Embrace others’ weaknesses so you can accept them. Unless the others are sandwiches. Then just correct them.
- Overall Balance/Taste: +1 point
- Quality of Ingredients: +1
- Bread: -1
- Integrity: +1
- X-factor: bolo: -1
Overall: 1 point, or your standard PB&J
Monday June 7: 160 W Foothill Blvd, Claremont
Finally.
First a memory. As an undergrad at the University of Arizona, I had a creative writing teacher trying to steer us students away from the popular if slowly fading minimalist prose style of the 1980’s.
His great line about minimalism? Less is less.
Well, in sandwich land, it’s starting to feel like the opposite maxim—less is more—might be more accurate, that it’s far better to be Raymond Carver (or is that Gordon Lish?) than David Foster Wallace. To that end, we have a tentative addition to our Unified Sandwich Theory©: a sandwich shouldn’t have more than 5-7 ingredients. Bread. Cheese. Spread. Protein. Vegetables (3 max).
We aren’t jesting, either. Wolfe’s is our first maker of great sandwiches here in this the Summer of Sandwich. They check all the boxes: the Triple T is perfectly simple: Peppermill turkey, havarti, tomato, avocado (we went sans mayo), and alfalfa sprouts, all served on both-sides toasted schiacciata bread. (Meat and cheese by Boar’s Head). Our second sandwich, the Veggie Delight, was a bit less successful: slightly overgrilled sourdough, sundried tomatoes, both jack and cheddar cheeses (pick one?), bean sprouts, and avocado. It was fine, just not great—the avocado got a little lost, and avocado should never get lost. (And: bean sprouts?!?! They brought crunch but also overwhelmed other aspects.)
Good bread, mostly thoughtful combinations, excellent ingredients: You know it, bub.
- Overall Balance/Taste: +1 point
- Quality of Ingredients: +2
- Bread: +1
- Integrity: +1
- X-factor: Boar’s Head: +1
Overall: 6 points, or Xoco’s Milanesa Torta