Linda Falkenstein
It’s hard to go wrong with the housemade roast beef and pickles, even when you go rogue and create your own sandwich.
Dainty cucumber sandwiches at a ladies’ tea. Bologna on white in a brown bag for school. Sandwiches have been a staple of the American diet for over a century, but these days, despite the piling on of ingredients — arugula, specialty mustards, artisanal chutneys — they don’t have much allure. Some blame it on carbs. All that bread seems like a moral failing, in the weird way Americans relate to their diet. Poke bowls are apparently more alluring, even though that rice base also provides plenty of carbs.
But the biggest reason sandwiches have become ho-hum is the raft of ho-hum sandwiches out there. Everyone’s sick of the bland grilled chicken breast with “aioli” and a wan leaf of romaine on an overbearing kaiser roll, or the weird vegetarian mashup that just tastes like over-garlicky hummus. That’s no way to treat a sandwich.
I’ve written about Madison’s best tuna sandwiches before. This time I cast a wider net, to unearth some of the best sandwiches in town, love-at-first-bite ingredient marriages — tuna excepted, of course.
A funny thing happened on the way to the roundup — all the best sandwiches I had were at Casetta Kitchen & Counter. It really is hard to go wrong at this friendly, laid-back, but urbane deli, where every sandwich is thoughtfully composed. A sandwich may feature a trendy ingredient, but it’s always there for a good reason.
My current second-favorite pick from Casetta is the porchetta, a Thursday-only special. The Italian boneless pork roast is rich and fennel-inflected, the meat shredded, like an Italian carnitas, and set off by tart chopped banana peppers.
The hero bun, from Monona Bakery, is wonderful, baguette-flavorful with the crumb of a sub bun. There is maybe “too much” aioli, objectively speaking, but because it is luscious and housemade, there is really no such thing as too much of it. An additional layer of finely chopped, slightly bitter broccoli rabe is Italian-traditional, even if it feels a little penitential next to that sinful porchetta.
My number one pick from Casetta is the Hoboken. Despite the unlikely name (although is Hoboken the new Brooklyn?), this is one of the best sandwiches ever. The house-roasted roast beef comes thinly sliced, perfectly medium rare, with no toughness or gristle. I capitulate to the food cliche “it melts in the mouth” on this one. It just does. The Hoboken comes on fresh focaccia (also made in-house) with garlic aioli, vinegar peppers and a hot pepper relish — slightly spicy, made from diced bell peppers and Calabrian chiles, flash-pickled and slightly sweet. A slab of tender fresh mozzarella, pulled in-house, is as buttery as burrata. It’s a bit lost in the overall and not needed per se, but not hurting anything, either. I’d take the mozzarella out of the bun, salt it and eat it as an hors d’oeuvre.
The only misstep I’ve encountered here is with the Sullivan: prosciutto is paired with provolone, arugula, balsamic and the pepper relish, and somebody needs to pump the brakes on the balsamic.
I was so inspired by Casetta’s roast beef that I tried to recreate one of my long-lost favorites, the incredible roast beef sandwich from the late great Elsie’s Deli in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That one came with onion slices, German mustard, pickle relish and Russian dressing on a bulkie roll. It can’t quite be repeated at Casetta, though if you skip the mustard and order the red pepper relish and mayo, they merge to become something like Russian dressing. My build-my-own adventure underlined how good Casetta’s kitchen is at balancing the ingredients in their sandwiches. Go rogue and you are on your own. By the way, most of these sandwiches come in half and whole sizes; the half size is generous enough for the average appetite.
We also have some runners-up on the sandwich board.
Marigold Kitchen is a longstanding maker of inventive sandwiches. For fans of the grilled ham and cheese, a diner staple, Marigold’s ham and whipped brie with dijon mustard and apricot preserves on cranberry walnut bread hits all the right notes, with the whipped brie lacking the sometimes bitter flavor of sliced brie. And the apricot lends a welcome note of sweetness to a salty, savory sandwich. The Thai Beet and Apple, with shredded raw beets, slices of apple, garbanzo beans, carrots, red onion, red curry peanut dressing and arugula on ciabatta is better than it looks — it looks like it is going to tragically fall apart, which it does. But it is an unexpectedly refreshing sandwich, a veggie-rich take on a PB&J, thanks to all that Thai peanut sauce. And it actually goes with the Marigold side of salty purple cabbage slaw.
Other honorees include Crema Cafe’s terrific Artimelt, with artichokes, red onions, spinach, provolone and mayo on a baguette; Stalzy’s Roast Beast, which piles on the namesake beef with turkey, muenster, sweet and sour slaw, creamy slaw and horseradish mayo (wear a bib); the Cajun-blackened tofu sandwich at The Green Owl; and the walleye sandwich at The Old Fashioned.
Deal-seekers: You could do worse than the lunch special menu at HopCat. A half of several of HopCat’s sandwiches can be paired with a side for $8, and the half is so overstuffed it feels like a whole. Deli turkey is falling out of the California reuben, and it’s your choice of coleslaw or sauerkraut. A perfect side here is the apple-tomato soup topped with blue cheese crumbles, though of course the crack fries are always an option.
