A Sweet Taste of Lemonade

Greetings, Readers!

It's amazing to think that January is almost over, and before we'll notice it, it'll be time for summer sandwiches.

But while it's still cold outside, why don't we take a look at a fresh sandwich to warm your insides during the cold months to come?

In the LA area, there is a fantastic chain of cafeteria-style eateries called Lemonade. I've been to the one in Beverly Hills a long time ago, but even then I hadn't tried one of their sandwiches. Recently though, a location opened up close to where I live in Toluca Lake, making it all the easier to stop on by for a quick lunch to try some of their amazing offerings.

Your first time inside of Lemonade may be a bit overwhelming. Sure the decor is simple, stylized and welcoming with its bright colors, what's going to throw you for a loop is the number of amazing selections waiting for you when you jump into the lunch line.

At the start of the line you will see a long line of various salads to add to your lunch. I picked the Thai quinoa salad one that is combined with cucumbers, red pepper, mango, peanuts and carrots. There's a bit of bite to this and a mild bright flavor that would make this a great combination with a number of offerings at Lemonade.

After the burden of deciding on which delicious side salad to have, the real challenge of the afternoon began: which of the numerous sandwiches should I choose.

All look delicious, and all are on display along the lunch line. If the words weren't enough to help you pick one from many, then looking at all of them won't make your decision any easier. After much debate, I settled on the El Tijuana: turkey, jalapeno aioli, jicama slaw, and queso fresco.

While the sandwich could be toasted to order, I left that part alone and the bread stayed with me until the end. A little bit of cheese crusted onto the side with a whole-grain flavor made this an excellent bookend to the delight inside.

The turkey was fresh, with a mild flavor and thinly sliced. The jicama slaw added some bite and fresh flavor while the jalapeno aioli brought the spice kick this sandwich needed to propel it further. The queso fresco, for those who have not heard of it before, is a mild white cheese and in this case it's shredded and put on top of the turkey. It's a nice, mild addition to the flavor that brings the fresh and spicy flavors of the slaw and aioli more into line with the turkey.

A delicious lunch, and that doesn't even count the amazing lemonade options (all sound fantastic though I went with Blood Orange) and the desserts. Frankly, you may lose half of a paycheck here in an afternoon.

Whether sitting outside on the gorgeous patio overlooking Toluca Lake, or the inside with its modernized cafeteria look, you really can't go wrong stopping in at Lemonade. It's a place where the delicious options will have you coming back for more in the future until you try nearly every of the innumerable options in front of you.

Until next week, Readers...


El Tijuana
***** Stars
Lemonade
4400 W. Riverside Drive
Burbank, CA 91505

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving tomorrow with your family and friends. 

Eat, drink, and be thankful.

And on the following day, enjoy all of those delicious leftover sandwiches!

Post-Thanksgiving Recovery

Greetings, Readers!

Hopefully you had a great Thanksgiving with family and/or friends and ate plenty of delicious food. I think one of my favorite aspects about the food on this holiday is the absolute variety and styles that come together, especially when friends and family members bring their own contributions to the table.

Oh, and the pies. Definitely the pies.

After the night is over though, I look forward to the days of leftover turkey and reheated mashed potatoes and stuffing. Here on a sandwich blog though, wouldn't it be good to craft a delicious sandwich to enjoy?

So here we go. Here's what I enjoy as a sandwich in the days after this holiday of eating and thanks.

I like to take a thick cut bread, something with a bit of heft to it. Sourdough is a good one to contrast a lot of the savory flavors in the sandwich, as long as you can slice it yourself so that it's thick enough to stand up to what we're about to put on it. Lightly butter what will be the outside of the sandwich and place both slices on a baking tray. Preheat to 400 degrees.

I take some mashed potatoes and spread it on one slice of one of the pieces of bread. Then I will pile on slices of dark meat turkey (add whichever type you'd like though) and stuffing. If you'd like top top that off with some thicker gravy, that would be a great addition too. I would suggest for the first few minutes in the oven that you keep the top slice of bread off so that the interior ingredients can cook faster. After a few minutes, put the top slice on and press down.

Ovens may vary, so just keep an eye on the sandwich but definitely less than ten minutes. You want nice warm ingredients and toasty bread. If the ingredients aren't as warm as you like, you might want to try to warm them a bit before crafting the sandwich.

Cranberry sauce can be added, but I suggest doing it after the sandwich has been cooked, either as a side or a cool contrast to the sandwich on top. Sweet potatoes can also be used if you'd like a slightly sweet contrast on the sandwich as compared to the savory main course ingredients.

Grab a crisp winter-style beer for the side too. Something like my new favorite Jubelale by Deschutes Brewery or Anchor Brewing's Christmas Ale.

So readers, that's my idea of a delicious leftover Thanksgiving sandwich. What's yours?

Until next week...

Straight Outta' Steel City

Greetings, Readers!

It seems that lately I've had some luck finding restaurants or food trucks that I have been trying to get to for awhile.

It turns out that one of these sought after food trucks, Steel City Sandwich, happens to hang out in my neighborhood every Thursday night, and somehow I've never known this until the other week.

Well obviously I remedied that problem quickly, and on a Thursday night headed out to finally try their famous Yinzer sandwich.

Named after a slang term for a Pittsburgh resident, the Yinzer is stacked high with your choice of meat, Italian slaw, tomato, fried egg, provolone cheese and french fries.

Now, the size of this sandwich surprised me. It's an absolute monster and isn't exactly easy to take a bite out of because of all of the ingredients stacked as high as they are.

But it is a very tasty sandwich nonetheless.

The bread was thickly cut and rightfully so as a tough base was needed to hold this sandwich together until the end. The Italian slaw added a nice crunch to the sandwich in contrast to how thick and soft the bread was. The tomatoes were fresh and not mealy at all, and the french fries added a great seasoned flavor with a different textural contribution than the other ingredients.

At first I felt like the fried egg was an odd choice to add to this sandwich, but upon eating it  I was greatly surprised by the flavor contribution and how well it blended with the rest of the ingredients.

My main complaint about this sandwich would be with the meat. Don't get me wrong, the turkey that I had on the sandwich was good, but I had showed up a little later in the evening only to find out that my intended choice of pastrami had sold out.

One of the driving factors to visit this truck was seeing Primanti Bros. featured on an episode of Man vs. Food in which a pastrami sandwich topped with french fries was the main course.

I guess my problem this week is that Steel City Sandwich has become pretty popular. So applause is still handed out to these sandwich purveyors, and next time I'll make sure I'm first in line to get a pastrami Yinzer.

So Readers, in the coming weeks I will be heading back out into Burbank along with writer Bryan Mahoney to find some of the best burgers the neighborhood has to offer. You may remember from last year we worked together to find some of the top delis in Burbank (Deli 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). While those places were great, we are now focusing strictly on burgers as that seems to be the the unofficial sandwich of the city.

So for a little preview on our massive burger outing, Bryan has written an excellent intro here. Check it out and make sure to come back next week to see the beginning of a double digit burger tour.

Until next week, Readers...


The Yinzer
**** Stars
Steel City Sandwich truck
http://www.steelcitysandwich.com

The Great Burbank Deli Hunt - Part 3

 Welcome back, Dear Readers, for our third week of trekking through the city of Burbank, CA.

For this stop, Bryan (@818newguy) and I headed over to Moore's Delicatessen in downtown Burbank. This deli is a hot spot during lunch hour for people who work at Cartoon Network, which is just around the corner.

If you get to stop in here one time, definitely make sure you take a peek at the back dining room, as cartoonists from CN mark up the wall with sketches from the shows that they work on.

Talking to Ollie at the counter of Moore's we inquired about what their best sandwich was. It didn't take her long to suggest the City Hall, a customer favorite.

The City Hall is essentially a Reuben, although in this case, you have your option on which meat you would like to include. Your choices range from the typical corned beef to pastrami, turkey, ham, or roast beef. For this time around we went with straight up pastrami.

It had been a little while since my last pastrami sandwich, and I have to admit that I was itching to get some.

Generously added to the sandwich with cole slaw, Russian dressing, Swiss cheese and grilled rye bread (make sure you ask for it to be grilled), the City Hall is a real winner in Burbank.

This pastrami had some excellent flavor. All of the usual spices were in play, but without being overpowering. Pastrami really does have a fine line between perfect and sadly over/under flavored.

The other positive about the meat was its tenderness. Even some of the best pastrami tends to have a problem when its cools down (if you've cooked it) in that the fat re-congeals or becomes tough, making the meat somewhat inedible. This was not a problem here. If anything, the meat may have been a little dry, but overall was very well prepared for this sandwich.

The Swiss cheese and Russian dressing blended together in a creamy melange of smooth, smoky flavor which matched the pastrami well. The cole slaw added a sweet crispy crunch to the sandwich that contrasted well with its savory interiors.

And the grilled rye? Well that held together until the end with excellent rye flavor, brought out by the light toasting.

Let's face it, I have a true bias when it comes to pastrami, and in that sense I tend to judge those types of sandwiches on a tougher scale. Despite that, I have to highly recommend this sandwich. While the pastrami could be a little less dry, overall it is a can't miss sandwich in downtown Burbank.

I have to say that before this sandwich journey with Bryan even began, I knew of some great sandwich shops in Burbank, but I have to admit that I never thought there would be so many! So far, we've either hit all of the best places in town, or every sandwich shop should be on par with a five star restaurant.

It seems like the city of Burbank does not disappoint.

Until next week, dear Readers!


City Hall Sandwich
**** Stars
Moore's Delicatessen
271 East Orange Grove Ave.
Burbank, CA
http://www.mooresdeli.com/

What's That Aroma?

Greetings Dear Readers!

Welcome back again for another dose of delicious DANGER right on your desktop.

This week I decided to spend my day off in a quiet cafe in Studio City, except this time, Aroma Cafe wasn't very quiet.

One of my favorite places to grab coffee and read a bit, Aroma Cafe is tucked away on a street in Studio City. The back patio is full of lush greenery making it seem as if the cafe is hidden and secluded from the rest of the working LA world.

Except Sundays. I avoid this place like the plague on the weekends because it's usually packed, and that was the same story this past Monday when I visited.

Besides my usual coffee, I grabbed the Turkey Pesto Panini to quench my hunger. This sandwich is packed with roasted turkey, Swiss cheese, diced tomato, and fresh pesto pressed between two warm focaccia bread.

The roasted turkey breast was piled high and very flavorful making it the standout item in this sandwich.

The Swiss cheese added a smoky and savory flavor that worked together to create a tasty addition to the turkey. The pesto was delicious and complemented the turkey but also stood out on its own with a delicious garlic and basil flavoring.

The tomatoes though, I have to discuss with this sandwich. As you all may know, I'm not normally a fan of tomatoes on sandwiches as usually they tend to be too tough and mealy. Or, if they're in cooked sandwiches like this one, they tend to bee too watery and tasteless. This sandwich though managed to not make the tomatoes an annoyance. they added a slight tomato taste to the sandwich without being too watery.

Lastly, and certainly not least...ly, the focaccia bread. Golden, slightly crisped on the outside and fluffy warm on the inside, this bread was exceptional, and made me wish that more sandwiches used this delicious Italian bread.

Overall, it was a tasty experience and one that I will keep in mind the next time I am at Aroma and craving a sandwich.

**** Stars

Turkey Pest Panini

Aroma Cafe

4360 Tujunga Avenue

Studio City, CA 91604

http://www.aromacoffeeandtea.com/

You Say Panini, I Say...Panini.

Greetings Dear Readers!

There is much to talk about before I even delve into this week's delicious sandwich.

First of all, I am now on Twitter, so if you haven't already started following me, you definitely should, as I'll be updating quite often. You can add me here.

Secondly, I will soon have t-shirts available for sale, as well as giveaways as prizes for helping to promote the website. So keep your eyes peeled for those to start showing up.

And thirdly, this blog is quickly approaching its 1 year anniversary, and to celebrate that, I will be updating the look of the blog, so don't be surprised if you sign on one week to see everything's changed up a bit. Don't worry, it'll still be the same ol' delicious blog.

Now, onto this week's sandwich...

I had always passed Crave Cafe at the corner of Ventura and Van Nuys, as I usually pass there on my way home, or if I'm heading to this excellent record shop in Sherman Oaks. Despite this, I never stopped in to try it.

I decided this week would be different. Stepping into this dimly lit valley cafe, I took my time examining the menu until I found something that really caught my eye. The Pastrami panini sounded amazing, but I went for the Turkey Panini instead.

I ordered the Turkey Panini and it was absolutely delicious. Packed between golden toasted ciabatta bread, the turkey panini is packed full of sliced turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, olive, and for my cheese, I chose mozzarella.

There was a wide selection of cheese to be had, but mozzarella seemed to be the best sounding choice for this sandwich. Although, now looking back on it, provolone could have worked as well. Regardless, there was just the right amount on this sandwich, adding to the sandwich without being too gooey or overflowing with melted cheese.

The sprouts gave this sandwich an excellent interior crunch. They were very fresh and gave the sandwich a delicious earthy flavor to this savory sandwich.

The turkey was packed high in the sandwich and it was absolutely delicious. A little thicker cut than I am used to in a panini, this smoked turkey was a standout flavor amongst all the competing deliciousness throughout.

The bread was also a clear winner here. the ciabatta was grilled to perfection, leaving dark brown grill marks with golden baked bread on the side. The sandwich perfectly sealed, and stayed together all the way until the last bite. I really couldn't ask for anything more from bread.

Overall readers, this was a delicious investigation gone right. I highly suggest a stop at Crave Cafe if you're in the Sherman Oaks area. It's also open 24 hours every day except for Sunday, so there's no excuse to miss out on this sandwich.

Until next week...

**** Stars

Turkey Panini

Crave Cafe

14504 Ventura Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 91403

www.crave-cafe.com

Back In The Saddle, Again

Greetings, Readers!

I have bounced back from the sickness of last week, and was able to get out and get sandwiched properly this week.

You know, even with all of the options you've all given me over this past year, some nights it's just too hard to decide where to sample my next entry. Do I want a burger or a cold sandwich, do I want ham or turkey, etc.

Fact is, Los Angeles has way too many options.

But, wanting to keep it low key the other night, I stopped by a little place called Alcove Cafe in Los Feliz.

For those of you that may know Aroma Cafe in Studio City, this is the sister cafe. The menus are similar and so is the atmosphere: quaint outdoor cafe in which you feel like you're dining in someone's backyard. I love it.

Perusing the menu, the turkey hummus melt was the first to catch my eye: smoked turkey, hummus, aged cheddar cheese, and basil all cooked between two slices of sourdough bread.

You get your own choice of bread, but let's be real here. There's only one choice.

The sourdough bread was perfectly grilled. It had a great crispy bite to it, still kept all of its delicious sour flavor, and even maintained that slight buttery flavor from grilling. And all without burning the bread.

The turkey was slightly smoked and thickly sliced. There's a generous portion on this sandwich, and it was much appreciated.

The melted cheddar was gooey and loaded on to match the healthy portion of turkey. Even with the cheddar being aged, this cheese wasn't as sharp as you would expect. It added that slight taste of cheddar to accent the other flavors appearing in this sandwich.

If there is one problem with the sandwich it's the hummus. Now don't get me wrong, it's delicious. has wonderful flavor and really worked for this sandwich. The problem is that it overpowers everything else between the bread.

At times, you almost can't taste the other ingredients.

Regardless, I would still recommend this sandwich at Alcove, because it's by no means 'bad' at all, but it could be a lot better without so much hummus. So next time I think I might ask to scale back on that a bit.

Until next week, readers!

Turkey Hummus Melt

*** 1/2 Stars

Alcove Cafe and Bakery

1929 Hillhurst Avenue

Los Angeles, CA

Who you callin' jive, turkey?

Welcome Back Dear Readers!

I hope your sandwiching this week has been most excellent.

I recently noticed that I am quickly approaching one year of sandwiching and blogging (i tried to combine these words, but every possibility seemed hopelessly clunky). Despite this, I have such a long list of suggestions of places to try, not only in Los Angeles but numerous other cities as well, and I thank you all for helping me on this road to discovering sandwich greatness with your suggestions.

This week I tried a local shop in Hollywood that is beloved by its closest followers and is quickly spreading its name among LA foodies.

While searching the internet for a new sandwich to try, I stumbled upon reviews of The Oaks Gourmet, an excellent eatery in Hollywood. Not only does it have an inspired selection of food, coffee, and drinks, but it's close enough to a few fun after dinner entertainment spots such as Upright Citizen's Brigade and my favorite coffee spot, The Bourgeois Pig.

I was drawn to The Oaks Gourmet because so many people praised the Pulled Short Rib French Onion Dip sandwich. Two of my favorite sandwiches so far, Short Rib Sandwiches and French Dip, the combination of the two had to be spectacular.

But instead of trying this out, I decided to switch it up a bit. Besides last week's Chicken Cubano, I had been eating a lot of red meat sandwiches lately, and thought that maybe I should stay away from the red meat for another week.

My doctor agreed.

So after a bout of indecisiveness, I chose the Oven Roasted Turkey & Camembert Cheese sandwich. Combining freshly cut turkey, red onions, creamy camembert cheese, baby arugula, a sherried fig and shallot aioli all combined on toasted dark honey wheat bread, this truly was an upstart young sandwich looking to make a name for itself.

The turkey was delicious. Fresh and thinly sliced, this delicious deli meat was a generous portion stacked high on the sandwich.

Something that was completely unexpected with this sandwich was the sweet taste that was so prominent. With oven roasted turkey, creamy camembert and earthy arugula, i did not expect so much sweetness to be present, but it was an excellent surprise. The sherried fig and subtly sweet honey wheat bread combine to evenly match the savory turkey and camembert.

My only problem with this sandwich was the bread. The dark honey wheat definitely added to the sweetness of the sandwich, and tasted great, but the level of toasting was sub par. It was so lightly toasted, it didn't seem toasted at all, more like the bread had been a little stale on the outside. With a slightly higher toasting level, I think this problem would be easily remedied.

This sandwich is definitely worth your time though.

Until next week, dearest readers!

Do the DANGER!


Oven Roasted Turkey and Camembert
**** Stars
The Oaks Gourmet
1915 N. Bronson Ave (Corner of Bronson and Franklin)
Los Angeles, CA 90068
theoaksgourmet.com

Fun Times in San Diego (Pt. 1)

Salutations DANGERfans!

Last weekend I made my way down to San Diego to celebrate the marriage of two friends of mine (congrats Eric and Wendy), and like any true Sandwichologist, i used this excursion to seek our new delicious sandwiches far from my base of operations.

Scouring the internet for the word on the street, I happened to find stellar reviews on a place called the Brown Bag Deli.

The Brown Bag Deli is truly a local hot spot.

Because you seriously need to be a local to even know where this place is.

After driving back and forth a few times, it was finally spotted, tucked into a corner of a strip mall on an major street in Ocean Beach. The inside of the deli lacked windows and any flair. Obviously it needed no pizazz to attract locals.

A promising sign, indeed.

I ordered the Turkey Bacon Avocado Sandwich with the works on Foccacia bread. This sandwich was piled high with the fixings and was quite a challenge to even take the first bite.

Seems to be a pretty great sandwich already, right?

Well, let's discuss what went wrong.

The bread is really the main culprit here.

Focaccia should be a golden colored bread. Maybe even a slight crisp on the outside with a nice soft interior. It should be able to support a decent sandwich without being too tough.

The focaccia at Brown bad was still doughy. It's as if someone took it out of the oven ten minutes early. No golden color, no flavor, and practically raw. Disappointing at best.

The turkey was bland, a bit too moist, and too thickly cut for being deli meat.

The "works" were the only bright spot in this sandwich. Lettuce, onion, banana peppers, avocado, jalapenos, mustard, and mayo worked for this sandwich and really gave it the only life that the sandwich had.

If the turkey and bread had been better, this may have been a delicious sandwich, but sadly, it was not meant to be.

Next week though, I tackle another sandwich from my time in San Diego, so be sure to return for more DANGER!

Until next time...Dia De Los DANGER!

* 1/2 Stars
Brown Bag Deli
1912 Rosecrans Street
Point Loma
San Diego, CA 92106

An Oasis in the City

Welcome back dear readers! Was your weekend as DANGERous as mine?

While combing through the Mummies exhibit with an oncoming sickness this weekend, I found a new oasis of Sandwichery on the USC Campus.

Following the directions to Sandwich Island, I must admit, I was lost for some time.

I stood outside of the address listed for Sandwich Island, but could only see an Asian Food stand. After pacing back and forth, and becoming increasingly worried that this highly recommended shop was no longer here, I looked inside and realized that Sandwich Island was truly an island: A small stand inside of a large cafeteria.

I am not one to make snap judgments, but I have to admit that at first I was a bit skeptical as to how DANGERous a sandwich in a campus cafeteria could be.

But how soon I was proven wrong.

My first sign that this was truly an amazing find? The Sandwichologist who worked here was incredible.

Without even thinking when asked which sandwich I should try, she sold me on the Turkey Avocado Sandwich, and watching her make it was quite fun. You could tell that not only had she been making sandwiches for awhile, but she enjoyed it and took pride in her creations.

Before she had even put the top half of the roll onto the sandwich, the contents stacked about 4 inches high, and were then beautifully pressed together into a nicely compact sandwich.

The sandwich is really dependent on what you want inside of it, since the only basics are turkey and avocado. I decided to go all out though and had pickles, onions, lettuce, and sprouts with spicy mustard.

I don't normally like tomatoes on my sandwich. I'm not sure how you feel dear readers, but I find that a lot of sandwich places tend to offer very mealy tomatoes of low quality. So I tend to pass on these.

The turkey was very fresh and full of flavor that is still very noticeable even with all of the extras on the sandwich.

The salad on top of the meat was also very fresh, especially the sprouts. I am a fan of earthy tasting raw vegetables in general, but specifically like them very much in a sandwich where they can add a nice contrast. If you've never had sprouts on a sandwich, you should consider adding them.

The avocado was also very fresh, creamy, and buttery. It actually might be one of the best avocados I've ever had, and there was plenty of it in the sandwich. The problem with an avocado is that with even the slightest period of exposure to air, it begins to oxidize and turn brown, making even the freshest avocado lose some of its subtle flavor in a short period of time. Not the case here though.

Before I could fully stand up from the table, my Sandwichologist asked me numerous questions about the taste of the sandwich, told me what she made daily, and what sides she handmade (the potato salad is made daily and is delicious). Truly a respectable lover of the Sandwich.

In conclusion, if you can make it down to the USC campus and find this hidden gem, you absolutely should. Reader beware though! During normal school hours, Sandwich Island, is packed more than a Sandwich Continent.

**** Stars
Sandwich Island
3333 S Hoover St # B,
Los Angeles, CA

Thanksgiving Comes Early

Back for more oh seekers of DANGER?

This week's find comes from simply walking down the street and letting my DANGER radar sniff out a place for me.

While walking down Ventura Blvd, awaiting a DANGEROUS oil change, I stumbled upon a small cafe in Sherman Oaks called Pane Dolce.

A quaint local shop, Pane Dolce is very warm and welcoming, almost as if you've shown up in your own living room and decided to pay for overpriced coffee on your couch.

But the coffee is not what you've come for, it is the sandwich.

Pane Dolce has a wide variety of paninis available, but the one that struck my eye the most was the Turkey, Pesto, and Cranberry Panini.

Now like most people, I am a huge fan of Thanksgiving.

A nationally recognized day to gorge ourselves in remembrance of....something...

So, naturally, when someone combines the two best parts of Thanksgiving dinner into a sandwich, I'm game.

The bread was a crisply baked golden wonder. Just like any good panini, it was cooked just the right amount of time to give it grill lines, and a crisp exterior while still staying warm and soft inside.

The cranberries inside were incredible.

I am a huge fan of cranberries. Though I usually prefer them more on the tart side, the way these sweet cranberries paired so well with the slightly tangy and creamy pesto, it was something that i was able to overlook. I will now have to try to find more savory sandwiches to add sweet cranberries to.

Lastly, and probably the least standout part of this sandwich would be the turkey.

Roasted, and thick cut, the turkey was good, but that's about it. Not great, but not bad at all. A middle of the road addition, and easily overshadowed by the cranberries and pesto. This sandwich may not even have made it onto my radar had it not been for those two delicious friends.

Well this marks another week in my search for DANGER.

Next week, I take on another sandwich in LA Magazine's Top 17 Sandwiches of Los Angeles.

Until then...may DANGER be with you.

*** 1/2 Stars

Pane Dolce

13608 Venutra Blvd

Sherman Oaks, CA 91423