#7 Tat's Grinder

This one I've had before, and I'm sure as fuck happy to have had it again.  Tat's on a Friday.  I love this place.  Some of the stuff I've been eating lately is out of the realm of what I'd choose if left to my own devices.  The Grinder however, deserves its place directly below the Tat'strami at the top of the Hot Subs list.

"Capicolla, Pepperham, & Genoa Salami, w/ Provolone, hot & sweet peppers, pickles, LTOM"

In classic Tat's fashion it's a lot of unnecessary capitalization, but they're just really excited about the sandwiches.  This sandwich is basically pork three ways: capicolla is cured shoulder, pepperham is cured pork leg, and genoa salami may have anything in it (including beef) but is generally made from pork trimmings and/or shoulder.  Between the three meats, grilled and served hot on an italian roll with all the peppers, cheese, and the copious lettuce, tomato, onions, and mayo, this verges on being a kitchen sink sandwich.  There's a whole lot going on, and there's something wrong with you if you can eat it slowly enough to decipher the details.

The veggies are hiding a monstrous pile of sloppy, warm, cheesy meat.  I'm going to need to exercise and diet for a day or two after to make up for this, but there's not a doubt in my mind it will have been worth it.

#6 Cajun Turkey

What the fuck can you say about 52 sandwiches that is worth saying?  That isn't the point of this, but it is nagging at me anyways.

I'm really feeling the Hoagies portion of the menu.  Continued on with the next one on the list.  I've been thinking that I just can not fucking wait for the roast beef coming up next, but I really want to save that for a sunny day.  It's getting cold and wet fast and I can already tell that hot sandwiches are going to be calling to me.

When it's raining in Seattle you can tell the tourists by their umbrellas. Natives wear hoods and hats and mainly they just suck it up.  Walked through the rain to Tat's and nearly got an eye poked out by an idiot girl with a giant UW umbrella texting while she walked down her left side of sidewalk around a corner.  Admissions standards for the University of Washington are clearly fucked.

The cajun turkey description reads "Our In-House Smoked Turkey all spiced up and served with Pepper Jack, roasted reds & hot pepper spread."  Wouldn't have known there was hot pepper spread if I hadn't read it, the mayo was out in force today.  The Italian roll was on its game as usual.  Turkey was the same as last time, a little dry to be honest and this time the smoke character wasn't very appealing.  The "cajun" part of this sandwich is nothing other than a cajun dry spice mixture sprinkled on the sliced turkey. That is weird, and the first bite was as disconcerting as I expected.  Wasn't feeling it.  Second bite and I thought I was going to throw it away.  Got some of the peppers on the third bite and then it made sense.  Get a straight whiff of the spice and it's not good - paprika, cayenne, probably garlic powder, etc. Given how much "Philly Cheesesteaks" have been bastardized outside of Philadelphia and you'd think Philadelphians would be a bit more conscientious about the blatant misrepresentation of another American regional food culture, but apparently not.

 That's a lot of sandwich.

After a bit I got into it and the whole thing kind of made sense.  Kind of.  You'd be hard pressed to put these peppers on this bun and put meat and cheese on it and have it not be damned good, but this one doesn't reach its potential.  I knew with a menu this huge there had to be some filler, and for me this is definitely it.

Didn't stop me from housing the whole thing in a few minutes, though.

#5 In-House Smoked Turkey

Tat's gets busy at lunch.  It's understandable, it's hands-down the best place in Pioneer Square to get enough food in your belly to get through the rest of a work day.  The difference between Tat's and Salumi is that at Tat's the line moves.  The regular to tourist ratio is HIGH and the folks who work at Tat's know what's up.  You want a sandwich.  They make it happen.

It was almost 1pm and I hadn't eaten, so I checked the Tat's Line Cam on a whim.  There was no line in sight.  I walked over and decided to move down the list of Hoagies.  I was still thinking about the Italian I had a few weeks ago.

Next up, the "In-House Smoked Turkey."  I wasn't excited. I thought about skipping it.  If I'm being honest with myself I'll say that if I wasn't doing EVERYTHING at Tat's I would never in my life order this sandwich.  Turkey is fine, sure, but a Turkey sandwich at a restaurant inevitably means turkey breast, which is a close second to chicken breast on list of meats I don't ever want to eat.  Bred to the point where all fat (ie: flavor) has been removed from an already lean cut of meat, turkey/chicken breasts don't have much going for them.

The menu description says "In-House Smoked Turkey Breast w/ Swiss.. The Best! Make it a club and add thick-cut bacon."  I tooked their suggestion and got everything and the bacon.

It's a hefty sandwich.  The smoke on the turkey is there for sure, but in the context of the sandwich it's very subtle.  The Swiss is almost imperceptible, but it holds everything together.  The bacon is a good call, it fits well into the sandwich.  The balance of ingredients/meat/bread in this is perfect.  I am way more excited about this sandwich than I'd ever have imagined I could be.  Like the Italian it's clean and filling, perfect for when you aren't in the mood for a gut-bomb.

There's a few details about it that could be improved - diced yellow onions are a weird touch here, where thin sliced red onions would have been amazing.  The yellows were just bitter and came in a large dice.  That's about it, though.  Tat's nails it yet again.

#4 Hot Pastrami

And... I'm back.  I was out of state for over a week and hence unable to eat any Tat's.  My buddy Lauren and I rectified that problem today.  She suggested I go for the Hot Pastrami sandwich and I was more than happy about that choice.

I spent the last week in a small town in the midwest.  It was pretty intense culture shock.  I lived out in the middle of nowhere during high school, and I've been on tour and seen a lot of this country.  But staying in a place you're not from for that long can give you a lot of perspective.  I won't shop at Wal*Mart, I have no desire to eat at Arby's. I vote with my paycheck, by supporting local businesses and giving my money to my neighbors and to people who work hard and make our community a more enjoyable place to live.  This was a tremendously difficult ideology to uphold where I was. You'd never find a place like Tat's out there, and that's sad.

But I'm back now and a minute after I placed my order I had this in front of my face.

It's so good to be home.

The Hot Pastrami is "In-House smoked Pastrami & Swiss w/ spicy mustard on Rye bread" and it comes optionally with slaw.  I asked the nice lady at the counter if she thought I should get slaw and she offered it on the side, so I took it.  Glad I did.  Slaw on a sandwich is always good and next time I'll do it that way.  I was a bit worried it would make this sandwich into more of a Tat'strami clone, and without it the mustard and the awesome rye bread did really shine.  Tat's pastrami is always great, it's got a nice brine flavor and very mild smoke.  Wonderfully fatty and juicy, it's possibly the pinnacle of beef.  Cured in brine, covered in crushed black pepper and coriander and smoked, sliced thin and warmed on a grill until bits and pieces get crispy... damn.  Do you think if Mitt Romney ate one of these he'd stop being an ingorant piece of shit?  Probably not