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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Down on the....Sandwich Farm?



Recently on a Costco run to Huntsville, my friend, Hope, and I stopped for lunch at clever little establishment on Cleveland Avenue called Sandwich Farm. I've told you about Luanne's food quirks, namely her "no condiment" rule. Well, Luanne is Andrew Zimmerman compared to Hope! Hope's food groups are chocolate, sugar, cookies and, did I mention, chocolate? So you see, choosing a place to eat with Hope in tow can be a bit challenging.

I talked Hope into Sandwich Farm for a couple of reasons. First, my friend, Dawn, keeps sending me pictures of Sandwich Farm and her food from Sandwich Farm, but she has yet to ask me to go to Sandwich Farm with her! And, secondly, it looked like the kind of place picky Hope could pick and choose and leave off ingredients that offend her. 


Located in an old lumberyard, Sandwich Farm is pretty unassuming and even finding it is a bit of a trick. Right where Cleveland Avenue crosses over the railroad tracks, there is a large gravel parking lot for the patrons of Sandwich Farm and other businesses located in Park Place Plaza, kind of a fancy name for an old lumberyard.  Sandwich Farm is sandwiched between two other businesses, The Lone Goose Saloon and The Soundcell Recording Studios. I absolutely love the way Huntsville is bringing new life to old buildings. Lately, it seems that every old cotton mill, factory or warehouse in town is being converted to house a new restaurant, entertainment venue or arts district. I find that very exciting and such a great way to incorporate history and commerce. 


Hope and I peeled into the gravel parking lot, made our way across the street and dove right into the Sandwich Farm. The first thing we noticed was a huge chalkboard with illustrated menu choices. The creative illustrations are very helpful to folks like me who are visual diners. I like to see what I am ordering.  We were right at the height of the lunch rush and had to wait a bit, so we had time to study the chalkboard menu. The sandwiches were broken down by protein, so there was bacon, smoked turkey, hamburger, smoked fish and pot roast. There were also some vegetarian options, falafel, avocado, and veggie.  

As soon as we were seated, we were given menus and our drink orders were taken. Our drinks were served in blue mason jars and the tea was really good and freshly brewed. We checked out the menus and also had time to look around the room. There were more sandwich art boards posted near the ceiling. These boards had different sandwich combinations, such as duck comfit, lamb, ham, apple, mushroom, barbecue and crab cake. We were a bit confused because the sandwiches on the signs above the windows were not on the menu, so we asked our server. She explained the signs were sandwiches that had been on the menu at one time or another, but were not currently on the menu. We then noticed that some of the same type of signs were on the chalkboard, so we assumed those signs get rotated depending on what fresh produce and meats are available. Since the philosophy of Sandwich Farm is one of using farm to table ingredients and local whenever possible, this made sense. One other thing we noticed, Sandwich Farm not only serves lunch, breakfast items were on the menu. That made me look up the hours of operation. Sandwich Farm is open from 8:00-3:00 Tuesday-Friday, Saturday 8:00-8:00, Sunday 8:00-3:00 and Monday 7:00-3:00. With breakfast items like pancakes, Eggs Benedict and biscuits on the menu, Sunday brunch might warrant another visit to Sandwich Farm very soon.

Anyway, I digress! Back to the problem at hand, making our lunch choices. You might think it would be easier for me to choose because I am a more adventurous eater, but you would be wrong. Everything sounded good to me! Hope sort of narrowed her options down to either the hamburger or turkey sandwich. She settled on the turkey, but made sure all weird ingredients, like avocado or sprouts, were left off her sandwich. Bravely, she did not eliminate the garlicky mayo, but she still worried about whether she should have omitted it. For a side, she chose pasta salad after confirming that it didn't contain anything objectionable. Dear heavens!


I wavered between the smoked fish, the peach bbq chicken or the falafel. The smoked fish with red pepper cream cheese, avocado and tomato sounded wonderful, as did the  peach bbq chicken served on a brioche bun with onion straws, pickled jalapenos, and potato salad. I love brioche, so this was tough, but I finally decided on the falafel with feta, tomatoes, red onions and tzatziki sauce. Falafels are one of my favorite things, especially when homemade tzatziki sauce is involved and falafels are hard to come by around here, so that helped seal the deal. I chose potato salad as my side and it was very good, more vinegary than mayonnaisy. I noticed another diner with the sweet potato fries and decided next time I would get those. They looked so good.


So, what was our verdict? We both loved our sandwiches. Hope really liked the garlicky mayo (thank goodness!) and she said the turkey was delicious. She wasn't as wild about the pasta salad because she was used to a creamier pasta salad and Sandwich Farm's pasta salad is thicker and cheesier. I tasted it and thought it was very good. 

My falafel was so fresh and so tasty. The falafels themselves were chunky with lots of texture, not smooth and pureed like some I have had. You could see all the fresh ingredients. Also, the tzatziki sauce was flavorful and cool. Falafel success! We will be back!

If Sandwich Farm can please a picky eater like Hope, it definitely deserves
3 Yums UP!


Sandwich Farm on Urbanspoon
Three Friends and a Fork
Three Friends and a Fork

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