burning betsy

pommard deli, middlefield & loma verde, palo alto

I learned something during my trip to the Bay Area- experimenting does not always pay off. Although I ate at some of my favorite sandwich shops, I made an effort to try new sandwiches that I wouldn't have normally ordered... and ended up not enjoying the new sandwiches as much as my favorites (surprise!). I mean, sure it's good to try something new once in a while, but it's also good to balance that out with some old favorites. By the time I got around to eating at Pommard, I was already feeling a little burned by the sandwich choices I'd been making. Still, this sandwich- the "Burning Betsy"- sounded great! Roast beef, pepper jack cheese, roasted red bell peppers and Pommard's honey mustard (the honey mustard, which I mused about on my last Pommard visit, turns out to be an in-house creation- bummer for me, because it's really good and I'd love to have a supply of some)! I was surprised, when I arrived home, to discover that the sandwich was so wet that the bottom slice of bread had become soggy. This, I soon realized, was because the roasted red bell pepper was the type that comes in a jar, and wasn't roasted at Pommard. The wetness was off-putting, and the peppers had a bit too strong of a flavor. It wasn't a huge deal, because there were a lot of other strong flavors in the sandwich, but in the end I felt like I could have done without the peppers altogether. Interestingly, when I arrived at Pommard on this visit, they had further remodeled, and continued to push the "pizza parlor" aspect of their business. I know that they were bought out by some kind of pizza-man in the last few years, but this continues to baffle me- Pommard does sandwiches so, so well, and I can't imagine ever going there to buy pizza. I hope that this schizophrenic business approach doesn't take away from their attention on their sandwiches.