Food: Where Are The Simple Sandwiches?

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Where Are The Simple Sandwiches?
Saturday, August 06, 2005

If you work away from home, then you know that deciding what to have for lunch can be something of a challenge these days. Even those if you pack your own lunch and bring it to work, there inevitably comes a day when you have to go out for one reason or another. Maybe you woke up late and didn't have time to fix lunch before leaving. Or maybe it's a co-worker's birthday and you want to go out to celebrate a bit. Just a short time ago, we were pretty much limited to the whole burger, fries, and soft drink routine when going out to lunch. Now, there are many more choices available to us, including sandwich-only style restaurants.

If you wanted to grab sandwich for lunch 10 years ago, you either had to go to Subway or to a local deli. Taking a look at the lunchtime landscape now, however, it's clear that times have changed. Subway doesn't dominate the sandwich market like it once did. There are several other regional and national chains vying for your lunch dollars. Here in Chicago, we've got restaurants like Roly Poly Sandwiches, Panera Bread, Schlotzsky's Deli, and Quizno's in addition to Subway. All of these places specialize in sandwiches, which means one thing for customers: more and more elaborate sandwiches on the menus as each restaurant tries to outdo the others and distinguish itself.

At Roly Poly, all the sandwiches are served rolled in either pita bread or a tortilla. You can get sandwiches featuring everything from salmon with cream cheese, capers, and cucumbers to baked ham with brie and Swiss cheese and a relish made of peaches and pepper. Almost all of their sandwiches come with at least two different kinds of cheeses, and there are so many different sauces and dressing that it almost makes my head spin just thinking about it! Over at Panera Bread, you can get a steak sandwich on Ciabatta bread (bonus points if you even know what that is) with gorgonzola. Even Subway has had to alter its menu in order to keep pace with these exotic offerings from other companies. In addition to their "regular" sandwiches, Subway now has special sandwich lines, such as the Hot & Fresh Toasted line and the Wraps line.

I personally miss the days of simple, old-fashioned sandwiches. Remember when your bread choices were white, wheat, or rye? Now you've got pitas, tortillas, and Ciabatta! Where you used to just choose between American, cheddar, or Swiss cheese for your sandwich, you've now got Monterey Jack, Colby, provolone, brie, and a whole bunch more. I know that some people love this new trend in sandwich shops because they can eat at the same place over and over again and not have the same lunch twice in one month. But when it comes to sandwiches, I prefer simplicity. In fact, the next time I go out to lunch for a sandwich, I think I'll just go to Panera Bread and order the peanut butter and jelly!

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