Stuffed
Stuffed
By Denise Henry
Photos by Micah Beree
Five local restaurants share the secrets behind their satisfying sandwiches.
Whether you prefer subs, grinders, wraps or hoagies, sandwiches make great fodder for culinary creativity. Consider the Dagwood sandwich.
Introduced in the 1930s and named after the “Blondie” comic strip character Dagwood Bumstead, this ridiculously high tower of hodgepodge was the cure for Bumstead’s late-night hunger pangs. Piled with salami and Swiss, fried egg and fish, pasta and pepperoni and other random refrigerator finds, this quirky concoction has secured its place in sandwich history.
With signature status in mind, akronlife set out to find some of the area’s most distinctive sandwiches. We didn’t want the “usual suspects”; we wanted ones with a curious combination of fillings, extraordinary ingredients and other delightfully unexpected twists.
We polled chefs and culinary students, vegetarians and meat eaters, and food lovers for their local recommendations. After narrowing down a list of favorites and putting them to our own taste test, we’re proud to present five of Greater Akron’s most spirited culinary creations built on bread. We hope you’ll enjoy them as well.
Oh My Nosh!
At the chic, little Nosh Eatery in Hudson, a Big Brisket sandwich plays to patrons’ palates. Cured in a secret-recipe brine for 20 days, a tender and delicately sweet-and-tangy mound of slow-roasted beef brisket rests between slices of thick sourdough bread and is dressed with authentic aioli and laced with roasted garlic and vinegar-infused horseradish.
Layers of velvety Havarti cheese, caramelized onions and pickled carrot slaw accented with a hint of cinnamon present an intermingling of textures and flavors: creamy, crunchy, zesty and sweet. Two free-range eggs cooked over easy-medium and fresh-cut fries made of hybrid Yukon Gold-Idaho potatoes top off the lightly toasted, panini-pressed sandwich.
Nosh Eatery executive chef and owner Rick Carson says the Big Brisket has been a popularmainstay since the trendy six-table café opened 1-1/2 years ago.
“We’re focused on trying to be genuine with our recipes and introducing flavors people don’t think about,” says Carson, who studied at The Pennsylvania Institute of Culinary Arts. “Everything we do is from scratch, and it makes a big difference. It’s all about freshness, making things right and being different.”
Veg Out
A veggie pita isn’t usually considered comfort food, unless you find it at 3 Palms Pizzeria and Bakery in Hudson.
In the restaurant’s Fire-Roasted 7-Vegetable Sandwich, a medley of zucchini, asparagus, eggplant, onion, roasted red pepper, tomato and Portobello mushrooms are combined, seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper and fire-roasted in a Naples-built wood-fired pizza oven, which gives them a smoky undertone.
Fresh in-house smoked mozzarella melts into the mixture and imparts a creamy and savory accent. Next, the sandwich is garnished with pistachio pesto made of pine nuts, pistachios, basil, garlic, parmesan and Tuscan olive oil, and then it’s all stuffed into a thin and delicately-crisped pizza bread pocket. The savory filling, along with its rustic bread blanket, seem to whisper, “Neapolitan.”
“Italian cooking is very simple and basic. It’s about bringing out the flavors of single ingredients,” says sous chef Andrew Sternberg. “It’s all about the balance of flavor and letting the vegetables stand out and shine.”
Not-So-Basic BLT
Crave restaurant owner and executive chef Aaron Hervey remembers a time in Toronto, when he feasted on rich, butter-poached lobster that was so divine, it inspired him to create a twist on the classic BLT for his own restaurant.
This sandwich begins with thick Texas toast brushed with clarified butter and crisped on a flattop grill. Inside, sharp white cheddar melts mildly and creates a supple base for sweet, buttery chunks of Australian cold-water lobster, and then the creation is topped with slices of golden tomato, applewood-smoked bacon and crunchy Napa cabbage. The sandwich is drizzled with avocado aioli.
Although the BLT is a mainstay at Crave, Hervey changes the sandwich’s tomato varieties — from fried green to beefsteak — as the restaurant’s seasonal menus change. When it comes to greens on this summer’s BLT, he has his sights focused on arugula or, perhaps, mixed greens.
This avant-garde sandwich befits the restaurant’s Historic District location where urban workers, suburbanites and college students gather in what Hervey calls a “really cool, unpretentious, warm and inviting atmosphere.”
“I just knew I wanted Akron to be for Crave,” Hervey says. “We’re very proud of our Akron roots.”
Sensational Salmon
From 200 miles off the shore of the Shetland Islands, Black Pearl organic salmon makes a splash in Mustard Seed Market & Café’s Salmon Wrap.
Second-generation owner Abraham Nabors’ dedication to finding a sustainable, healthy and high-quality salmon led him to this fish which is high in Omega-3 fatty acids. It’s also rich in naturally-produced Astaxanthin, which gives the fish its reddish hue and provides anti-inflammatory benefits to its devotees.
“I give it my five-star stamp of approval,” says Nabors, an environmental geography graduate of Ohio University who is committed to Mustard Seed’s standards for its ingredients, which include no artificial colors, flavorings and chemical preservatives, among others.
Grilled with garlic, shallots, salt, pepper and oil, this mild-flavored salmon nestles among slices of fresh avocado that accentuate the fish’s creamy nature. Jicama matchsticks extend the length of the wrap and add crunch, while baby spinach and tomato give a fresh pop to the sandwich, which is dressed with agave lime aioli. Enveloped by a whole-wheat wrap that’s rich in bran and wheat germ, the Salmon Wrap, Nabors says, underscores Mustard Seed’s creed to deliver healthful food that comes from nature and, all the while, provides a treat for the taste buds.
“It’s one of our most popular sandwiches,” Nabors says. “It’s one of my favorites because you get amazing nutrition and incredible flavor all in one package.”
Give Me Some of Your Tots
Inspired by characters in the cult-classic film “Napoleon Dynamite,” The Uncle Rico Sandwich at Mr. Zub’s Deli At The Matinee treats Highland Square’s nightclub-closers to a belly-filling, meat-and-potatoes fix.
This densely thick sandwich is a concoction of thin-sliced, medium-rare grilled roast beef topped with tater tots and slathered with chive-and-onion cream cheese, stuffed inside a toasted wheat bagel. It’s late-night grub, indeed, but Mr. Zub’s owners, Tiffany and Mario Nemr, say The Uncle Rico has fans, both old and young, at lunch and dinnertime too.
The couple’s choice of homemade chive-and-onion cream cheese and wheat bagel was influenced by their travels — to Chicago, New York, Miami and Austin, as well as college towns, like Athens, Ohio — in search of sandwich favorites with tasty fillings. All of the sandwiches on Mr. Zub’s menu are named after movie characters, which makes perusing the menu fun as well as informative.
One Zub’s patron embellishes her Uncle Rico with egg, bacon and capicola, and at least half of the restaurants’ other customers design their own sandwich mélange.
“People know they can be crazy here,” Tiffany says.
“And we’re not going to look at them funny,” Mario adds.
All Dressed Up
The scoop behind these five fabulous finishes.
Sometimes, what makes or breaks a sandwich is the condiment that adds the finishing touch. Too little condiment leaves the sandwich dry or flavorless, while too much can make it soggy or overwhelm the sandwich’s other flavors. But the right amount working seamlessly with the right flavor profile can be a thing of beauty.
Nosh Eatery’s horseradish aioli
Authenticity punctuates Nosh’s horseradish aioli, which is created with an egg yolk-and-oil emulsion combined with roasted garlic and fresh-grated horseradish that’s packed in vinegar for five days. “The horseradish really brings out the flavor,” says Nosh owner and executive chef Rick Carson.
Mr. Zub’s chive-and-onion cream cheese
Cream cheese blended with the right mix of dehydrated onions and chives, plus a hint of garlic, “turned out to be amazing,” says Mr. Zub’s owner Mario Nemr. “It was an instant hit.”
3 Palms’ pistachio pesto
At 3 Palms, they create their smooth green pesto using ground pistachios and pine nuts, handpicked basil, freshly grated Grana Padano parmesan and garlic. It’s a scrumptious combination that speaks for itself.
Crave’s avocado aioli
Diced fresh avocados, garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper are infused into mayonnaise to produce a creamy aioli that’s handcrafted especially for Crave’s unconventional BLT.
Mustard Seed’s agave lime aioli
Sweet agave syrup is juxtaposed with fresh lime juice and blended into Vegenaise to create a plant-based, soy-free vegan aioli that’s simply “wonderful,” says Mustard Seed second-generation owner Abraham Nabors.