schmidt's sausage pretzel roll

 

shotwell's, 20th & shotwell, san francisco

 

Shotwell's has long been one of my favorite local bars, since the days when it was known as the Inner Mission.  It's a cozy little spot with two pool tables, two great pinball machines, and a lot of fantastic beer.  Recently, Shotwell's has started doing a little cross-promotion with another neighborhood favorite of mine (located at the other end of the block from Shotwell's), Schmidt's.  Schmidt's is the newish German restaurant that moved into the spot once occupied by the El Farito convenience store, and it's a welcome addition to the hood (despite what certain neighbors of theirs would have you believe).  Schmidt's has a great happy hour special where you can get a sausage (served with sauerkraut, potato salad and mustard) and a small beer for $10.  Not bad!  Not a sandwich, either.  But when I saw a notice in Shotwell's that you could order a sausage on pretzel bread to go from Schmidt's for only $5, I was stoked.  It seemed too good to be true!  And a little confusing.  It was a deal Shotwell's had with Schmidt's, but you had to call Schmidt's yourself and place the order... and then go to Schmidt's to pick it up.... and then go back to Shotwell's, I guess?  Or not?  It seems like Shotwell's really doesn't factor in except they are the ones advertising this sandwich.  At any rate, Els and I had been looking forward to trying this out for weeks and last night we finally hit Shotwell's with our stomachs rumbling.  We ordered some beers, settled in, and called Schmidt's to place our order.  I called from inside the bar cuz it sort of seemed like you were meant to, but it probably would have been easier if I had stepped outside.  There were three different sausages available, and three different sauces; we decided on chicken apple with hot mustard, and bratwust with sweet mustard.  Fifteen minutes later, I hopped over to Schmidt's, forked over a mere $10, and returned to Shotwell's with our dinner.  Upon opening our to-go boxes however, it turned out that the too-good-to-be-true deal was just that.  The pretzel rolls were tiny, fitting only half a sausage on each.  Taste-wise, these sandwiches were fantastic- the sweetness of the chicken apple paired nicely with the hot mustard, although the hot mustard was MUCH hotter than we were expecting (not that I'm complaining!).  And the bratwurst tasted great with the sweet mustard (which was much sweeter than we were expecting).  Schmidt's excellent sauerkraut was piled high on both sandwiches, and the sourness added a fantastic bite.  But then, that's pretty much what these sandwiches were- just a fantastic bite.  And then, hunger pangs.  If you want some tasty bar snacks in Shotwell's and don't mind having to travel down the block to pick it up, then these are a great option.  But if you want something substantial, don't make the mistake we made- you're better off getting the happy hour meal at Schmidt's before going to Shotwell's.  Even if it isn't a sandwich.

breakfast sausage sandwich at Rosamunde

Rosamunde, 24th and Mission, San Francisco

Mission mission recently echoed this sex pigeon post about Rosamunde's breakfast options, which reminded me a) that I still hadn't eaten at the Mission location, and b) that I'd seen their sign offering FREE FOUR BARREL COFFEE with a breakfast sandwich and wanted to get in on that- because I love sandwiches, I love Four Barrel coffee, and I really love things that are FREE.  The missionmission post also reminded me that all of the lame-ass haters I avoid in the real world love to populate the comment sections of websites, but that's neither here nor there.  What IS here, is this breakfast sandwich.  Funny enough, just yesterday I was thinking to myself "Breakfast sandwiches are lame.  You don't need to eat a sandwich for breakfast.  Restaurants should not make breakfast sandwiches, they shouldn't get distracted from making REAL and TRUE sandwiches".  And yet here I was today ordering up a breakfast sandwich.  I can't deny the lure of a sandwich, breakfast or no.  Eating this made me wonder what exactly I had been thinking yesterday with my anti-breakfast-sandwich idea (seriously, not sure where that train of thought came from).  Why, you ask?  First off, I loooooove melted cheddar on a sourdough roll.  I can't get enough of it, and so this sandwich immediately won points for that alone.  But that was just the beginning!  The egg was light and fluffy, the sausage was salty and greasy and peppery like a good breakfast sausage should be, and the roasted red pepper and garlic aioli was delicious.  The lady that made this sandwich warned me it was a bit messy as she handed it to me, and it sure was, dripping sauce and grease and egg all over.  It was piping hot, too.  There's even arugula on it, so you can pretend its healthy!  For under six bucks, with (did I mention) FREE FOUR BARREL COFFEE this is basically the best breakfast deal around IMO.  As sex pigeon noted, it was pretty empty inside when my pal Dan and I showed up around 10:30, just us and a handful of folks, so plenty of elbow room for all.  Get on it!

hungarian sausage at rosamunde (the OG location)

rosamunde, haight & fillmore, san francisco

Recently my turnaround time from "sandwich consumed -> sandwich reviewed" has been pretty slow.  There are sandwiches I wanna write about that I ate months ago!!  But, for reasons I will elaborate on later, I gotta tell you about this lil' dog I picked up at Rosamunde in Lower Haight last night.  First off, to the transient woman who wandered in (reeking of piss) and scared away the yuppie couple, thereby freeing up their seats for my friends and I- thanks!  Good looking out.  Given that this is the original Rosamunde locale (and not the new fancy-pants Mission joint (review forthcoming)), elbow room was scarce.  This was doubly true last night, since BEER WEEK is in full effect and big things were going down next door at Toronado, the sister bar to Rosamunde.  In fact, that event was what brought my companions and I out to Rosamunde in the first place.  I decided to go with the Hungarian sausage, a smoked pork sausage I hadn't tried before.  I figured I wanted something kinda straight-forward, so I could get a taste for Rosamunde's toppings and condiments.  See, then NEXT TIME I get a (crazy-ass) sausage, I can be prepared.  Gotta plan ahead.  I wasn't disappointed with my selection; the Hungarian was indeed well spiced and smokey, nothing too wild, just a plain tasty sausage.  It's not quite as dense and salty as the Beer sausage, which, come to think of it, would have been a much more appropriate choice.  Ah well.  I picked sauerkraut and spicy peppers as my toppings, the two of which teamed up for an excellent vinegary bite.  Then, too, spicy brown mustard and ketchup.  Like I said, nothing fancy.  But!  This was nevertheless a great sausage.  I scarfed this down quickly and immediately wished I had ordered two sausages instead of one (the lamb did sound pretty tasty...).  However (and this brings us to the purpose of my timely entry), I was glad I left room in my stomach, because next door at Toronado the brewery of the night was Russian River and hot-DANG was it a good time.  I got to try all sorts of mind-blowing beers with crazy wild yeasts and bacterias and flavors like WHOA.  So yeah- this isn't a beer blog- but by all means, if you enjoy a tasty adult beverage, consider going to the beer week website and catching one of the events this week.  You might even get lucky and find a tasty sandwich nearby.  And oh yeah, if you dig beer, I highly recommend checking out Beer and Nosh, probably my favorite SF food blog.

lao sausage from pal's takeaway

 

pal's takeaway, 24th and hampshire, san francisco

"Fuck Leno...me and the staff ain't goin nowhere without our Pal's sandwiches!"

-Conan O'Brien, on today's Pal's menu

After multiple failed attempts to get a sandwich from these gourmet-liquor-store-sandwich innovators, today was the day I finally managed to stop by during Pal's limited hours of operation (M-F, 11-2:30 PM).  The Friday menu consisted of a thai chili-marinated chicken sandwich, a Lao sausage sandwich, and the veggie sandwich of the day (more on this one tomorrow!).  Since I came for two sandwiches, and had already decided that one was going to be the veggie, it was either the chicken or the sausage.  But what was the Lao sausage?  Chicken?  Pork?  I asked the dude behind the counter, and he explained all about how his Laotian neighbors made this homemade pork sausages with rendered fat and.... and.... I was spacing out.  But now that he had gone through the effort of telling me all about the sausage, it would be rude to then not order it, so sausage sandwich it was!  Fortunately, this turned out to be a great decision.  The sausage itself was black-peppery, greasy and crumbly; reminiscent of breakfast sausage, but not dry and crappy like Jimmy Dean or whatever.  It was salty and very, very spicy.  Balancing out the sandwich was a kimchi mayo (which I think was also spicy, as well as very creamy) and a cucumber-cilantro relish which cut the saltiness and spiciness somewhat (but not too much!) and added a little crispness.  The bread was a delicious crusty sour roll, and given the greasy sausage and creamy mayo, I'm frankly amazed at how well the sandwich held together!  I also picked up some of the "Full Belly Farm yellow creamer potato salad", because I'm a sucker for potato salad and can't say no to trying a new type.  This also turned out to be a great decision- the potatoes were cut in generous chunks, mixed with hard-boiled egg, edemame and celery in a Dijon-mustard vinaigrette.  It was an excellent take on the old deli standby.  Even Els liked it, and she claims to not like potato salad (yeah right)!  I can't believe I didn't try Pal's sooner, and if this sandwich was any indication of their typical quality, I'll be back soon.