mr. pickle's, lombard & buchanon, san francisco
Mr. Pickle's! I just can't get enough of you and your goofy pickle mascot. I've eaten your sandwiches countless times, and probably
written about Mr. Pickle's on this site more than other sandwich shop. And yet until now, all of my Mr. Pickle's experiences have been at the 20st & South Van Ness location- just one shop in a franchise that allows a surprising amount of variation between stores. Over the past few weeks, I've noticed that a new SF location has opened up on Lombard Street, as you head out of SF towards the Golden Gate Bridge. On a whim, I decided to stop and grab a sandwich on my way to work this week and see what this Mr. Pickle's had to offer. Good call! I'd been getting a little tired of the same old Mr. Pickle's menu over and over, and now there is a whole new menu of awesomeness to choose from! I didn't have much time to contemplate the menu, so I got the sandwich that was most like my favorite sandwich (the
Tony Soprano) at my local Mr. Pickle's. The Lombard Mr. Pickle's italian sub was called the Italian Stallion, and there were some slight differences from the Tony Soprano. For one, unlike the South Van Ness Mr. Pickle's which garnishes all sandwiches with pesto, the Lombard Mr. Pickle's uses garlic sauce. The other main difference was that the Italian Stallion lacked mortadella, but substituted pastrami. Honestly it is hard for me to say if that is an improvement or not, because mortadella and pastrami are both completely delicious and a welcome addition on any sandwich. So basically this was similar but different to the Tony Soprano, but in my opinion just as good- which is to say, it was GREAT. The older man behind the counter at this Mr. Pickle's claimed to have helped opened the OG Mr. Pickle's locations in San Bruno and Millbrae, and he shared some pretty funny light smack talk about some of the other Mr. Pickle's franchises. He definitely seemed to take pride in the quality of the ingredients used at this location, and that their menu is the original menu (with some names changed). The other guy behind the counter who made my sandwich actually held it up to show me it when he was done putting it together because he thought it looked so good! If that ain't pride in your work, I don't know what is. I'm looking forward to trying more of the new and different sandwiches from this Mr. Pickle's on Lombard!
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: After I had written a draft of this review, Els and I walked past the South Van Ness Mr. Pickle's and noticed through the window that they had added about a dozen new menu items!!! Holy crap!! I can only assume that the wise and all-knowing Señor Pepino who stands watch outside the store sensed that I had become tired of their menu options, and wanted to stop me from leaving them for another Mr. Pickle's. Well it worked, cuz I'm going to the South Van Ness store to try the new sandwiches today!!! It's a Mr. Pickle's miracle!
