The Unvegan

It isn’t too often that my buddy, Joel, repeatedly requests that I go to a restaurant with him, so when he does I try to listen. After asking me to go to Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop in Beverly Hills with him a couple times, I gave in and went. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I walked in, but the place kind of had the air of an upscale Subway. But aside from that and the general shape of the sandwiches they served, to compare this place to Subway would be a severe disservice.

For starters, they have some really inspiring sandwiches, none of which more inspiring than their Bobbie. So what’s the Bobby? Well, the name hardly describes the sandwich that is essentially Thanksgiving on bread. Filled with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce, this carb on carb on meat on fruit sandwich was just begging for some unvegan eating. Plus, vegetables were only available by request. Swank!

I walked up to the counter and ordered myself a large, but I was quickly set straight by one of the workers who told me the large was 20 inches. They told me I probably wanted the 12 inch medium and they were 100% right. Maybe I could eat a large someday, but I was not prepared for it on this day.

When my sandwich was ready, it was truly a thing of beauty. All-too-often sandwiches just don’t look as good on your table as they do on the menu, but the Bobby was different. It was so picturesque that I was almost scared to eat it. But when some of the stuffing started falling out, I just had to start eating. What I tasted was as delicious as it had sounded on the menu. It tasted a whole lot like Thanksgiving, but without the Scrabble. Yes my family plays Scrabble at Thanksgiving. Yes we are that awesome. Okay, back to the sandwich. The turkey was much tastier than the overly-salted cold cut sort and the stuffing tasted homemade. The cranberry sauce was just how you would expect it to taste, which was great. And the bread was so different from the stuffing that I didn’t feel like I was biting through redundancy. The best part was definitely the delicious stuffing. I was ready to box some of it up, which I may actually need to do when Thanksgiving comes around.

After devouring my delicious sandwich, I was struck by the tryptophan and needed a nap. I still think I could tackle the 20 incher some day, as long as the combination of complex sugars and tryptophan don’t knock me unconscious first.