Super SF Sandwiches

Maybe you heard? The Super Bowl is this weekend, and it's happening in San Francisco (well, Santa Clara, but who's counting?)

Maybe you didn’t know, but a good chunk of the Club:Sandwich founding team spent our formative years eating our way around San Francisco ... and found it to be somehow lacking in the sandwich department.

That's right -- San Francisco used to be a mid sandwich town.

Yes, there were some classic Italian delis in North Beach, and outstanding Bahn Mi in the Tenderloin. But typically when I saw a sandwich on a menu, I was looking at a sad stack of turkey and sprouts on Dutch Crunch

It was strange because SF had so much other great food to offer, and I gained roughly 20 pounds eating burritos, pho, falafel, sushi, pupusas, chicken wings, noodles, oh and did I mention burritos?

Things have changed.

In addition to the gray hair and high blood pressure that the last 20 years have brought me personally, they also transformed SF into arguably the greatest place to get a sandwich in the world, if not the U.S.

Case in point: Deli Board. SF's premier, influencer-touted sandwich palace. This place regularly (always?) has a line 30-deep out the door. And from the A, it's worth the wait.

Then you’ve got Newkirk’s a shrine to the breakfast sandwich. They serve lunch too but the BEC is the thing to get. I mean look at this bad boy.

Beyond these heroes of the SF sandwich scene, there are dozens more — classics like Molinari’s on Columbus, Submarine Center in West Portal, Guerra Meats on Taraval, and Rhea’s in the Mission. And newcomers like Sandy’s, which has the audacity to serve muffulettas a la New Orleans.

But I’ll never forget the day some 20 years ago sitting in the sun in Dolores Park, watching the fog whip down over Twin Peaks, when a friend rolled up with a sub the likes of which I had never seen in SF before. It had some ridiculous name, and I’m pretty sure it had onion rings on it, which felt like more of a Pittsburgh move, than a Bay Area one. It came from Ike’s.

Look — Ike’s never made my favorite sandwich, and when I’m going out today to grab a bite, it’s not the first or even third place I’d pick.

But they definitely changed things in San Francisco. Now with dozens of locations around California and as far away as New Orleans, there’s no question they paved the way for the sandwich city San Francisco has become. Thanks, Ike’s!

That Sweet Merch

You probably don’t recall, but late last year, we asked you for your input on some T-shirt and hat designs.

As awesome as those were, and despite all the positive feedback, we went with something completely new and different: These sweet grilled cheese hats.

We only made a handful of these, so if you want one, we want to see some activity in the app. Go out and eat some sandwiches, photograph them, and share them in Club:Sandwich.

At the end of the month, we’ll send hats out to our top contributors.

Until next time, eat your sandwiches.

Club:Sandwich is the world's first ever members-only club for sandwich lovers (as far as you know). Together we discover, order, make, eat, and discuss sandwiches while building the largest, most comprehensive database of sandwiches ever. Grab a sandwich and then share it with us by adding it to Club:Sandwich. Uploading and reviewing sandwiches will earn you points that have no value and cannot be used in any way, but may get you a sweet grilled cheese hat.