Out in Arlington, Virginia, a friend brought us to a restaurant called Lost Dog Cafe. Knowing quite literally nothing about the place beforehand, I was happy to see that it not only had a huge selection of beers, but also a vast selection of sandwiches and pizzas. And I do mean huge. The sandwich list had 53 options, and that doesn’t include the “Create Your Own Sandwich” section. Not only that, these were some pretty creative sandwiches and not just your simple pastrami and turkey. After a long deliberation and just a quick peak at the pizza menu, I settled upon a sandwich that I hoped would be worthy of an unvegan like myself.
It was simply named The Bird, and was a toasted sub roll loaded with garlic chicken, tomato sauce, then topped with melted parmesan and mozzarella cheese. I also got myself a side of their Italian fries (oven-baked waffle fries with some seasoning). That’s right, I have a weakness for waffle fries and will almost always order them any time they are available.
Pretty quickly, my bird flew out to greet me and looked beautiful. It actually looked like a lasagna inside bread more than a sub sandwich, but fortunately I could still pick it up and eat it. Well sort of. The juices had already seeped through the back end of the weak sub bread, cutting the sandwich in two, but I would not let this force me into a knife and fork. I dug in with hands only and came face-to-face with a beautiful mix of chicken, sauce and cheese. The chicken breast had been cut into small pieces and was juicy and easy to take down.
The oven-baked waffle fries were quite different from the usual waffle fry, but still damn delicious. The seasoning wasn’t very strong at all and these guys needed some ketchup, but that was just fine by me.
Having destroyed The Bird and fries, I was a full man, and happy. Lost Dog Cafe served me well and I could go back another 52 times without getting the same sandwich twice. But if I could offer any sort of advice, it would be to upgrade that sub bread. While it tasted good, it was just not up to snuff as far as containing the juicy delights within.
