the gaucho and the station 7

The Gaucho

Station 7
mr. pickle's sandwiches, 20th & south van ness, san francisco

Mr. Pickle's is one of the main reasons I wanted to start this blog. Although my enthusiasm for the shop has waned somewhat over the years that I have been eating there, I still enjoy one of their immense sandwiches every other week or so. Today JoJoJoJo and I had a rooftop picnic consisting of two of my favorite Mr. Pickle's sandwiches, the Gaucho and the Station 7. Mr. Pickle's has a strange menu; most of their sandwiches are actually pretty boring or unappetizing (The "Porky Pig": Ham, bacon, American cheese). But then at the very end of the menu are these two totally insane sandwiches. The Gaucho, served on sourdough roll, is chicken in Frank's buffalo wing sauce and ranch dressing. This, I should note, is in addition to the pesto that all of the sandwiches come with. The resulting flavor is mind-bending, spicy and creamy, with the vinegary flavor of the wing sauce being augmented by the pickles and pepperoncinis on the sandwich. The vibrant orange color of the wing sauce popped next to the neon green pesto, and the resulting drippings of sauce were an unholy swirl of colors. We followed the Gaucho with the Station 7, although we realized that the order should have been reversed, as the Station 7 is a little more subtle in flavor (although still pretty out there, as far as sandwiches go). The Station 7, named after the local fire station, is chicken "marinated" (slathered) in honey mustard, served with avocado and pepper jack on a dutch crunch roll. The sandwich was an appealing spectrum of greens, from the pale green chunks of chicken to the bright pepperoncinis. Despite the fact that the sandwiches today were smaller than what Mr. Pickles normally serves, we were quite satisfyied and unable to finish the two sandwiches between us.