Sensational Sandwiches at Sessions

Sessions Sandwiches

2823 Newport Blvd. 

Newport Beach, CA 92663

I hate when people say that there are no good sandwich spots in Southern California. Sure we are not as well known for our sandwiches as other parts of the country, but we do have some great sandwich spots. You just have to look a little harder to find them. Unlike New York City, where there's a great deli on almost every corner, our good ones are a little more spread out, but they are becoming more numerous. I'm going to go out on a limb, and say that Sessions will become a favorite new sandwich destination for a lot of you.

We were recently invited to try out Sessions Sandwiches, and after looking at their menu, I was very excited to come here. I have a real love affair with sandwiches. I love them all. I love paninis, subs, hoagies, grinders, cheesesteaks, and just about anything that is put between two slices of bread. I guess even burgers can be described as sandwiches, but that's a whole different matter.

Sessions is located on the peninsula in Newport, right next to Laventina's Pizza, between 28th and 29th street on the northbound side of Newport Boulevard. If memory serves me correctly, this used to be a bike shop awhile back. I spent quite a few crazy nights down in this area for about a decade, but those stories need to stay in the vault.

Back to the present day though. Sessions comes to us from the mind of Matt Meddock, who along with his friends, Max Schlutz and Beckham Thomas, have come up with this west coast deli concept for Sessions. Their goal is to bring the typical sandwich up several notches, using freshly baked bread, locally grown produce, and top-notch meats, while incorporating skate and surf culture.

Sessions has been open for just about a month now. Their initial menu offers eight sandwiches, hot dogs, salads, and some side items. There are limited tables here, but there's a long bar, which encourages people to eat, then get out there and enjoy the surf and sun. Adding to the surf vibe, the large projection screen in the middle of the space was showing surf highlights. The restaurant is dominated by wood, with one wall covered in fake shrubbery, which brought to mind the wall behind the hostess stand at True Food Kitchen. Ordering is done at the counter, and then the food is brought out to you. Let's see if all of my excitement for these sandwiches is warranted.

Before we get to the sandwiches here, Matt brought us out this German Potato Salad ($2.50). I love potato salad, and this was a very good one. Matt informed us that he's not a big mayonnaise guy, so this potato salad uses mustard as a base. When I heard this I thought the mustard would be too overpowering, but it was more subtle than I would have thought. Really good flavor, the potatoes had a good texture to them, and I liked the inclusion of the red onion. Not a heavy potato salad, but still full of flavor. Trying this really got me amped up for the sandwiches.

The first sandwich we tried on this afternoon was the Sloppy Barney ($9). This can best be described as a sloppy joe crossbred with a pulled pork sandwich. It starts with a very well made ciabatta roll, (from Dean Kim's, OC Baking Company nonetheless), and is made up of pulled pork, sweet and sour barbecue sauce, pickle, red onion, jalapeno jack cheese, and so cal slaw. This sandwich was pretty darn good. It starts with moist pork, the pickles do not overpower, and the veggies add a nice crunch here. The cheese was melted nicely, but this could have used a touch more barbecue sauce. A pretty balanced sandwich, and one I would have a hard time staying away from on future visits to Sessions.

Normally when I see sprouts and squaw bread, I head for the hills thinking they are trying to push a healthy sandwich my way. That was my initial thought when I saw this Meddock Melee ($9). Matt's namesake sandwich starts with roasted turkey, jalapeno jack cheese, guacamole, razor onion, tomato, cherry pepper, sprouts, and a very well made adobo-buttermilk dressing, all on squaw.  Big time flavor with this one. The turkey was pretty solid, the produce was, of course, fresh, and the guacamole kind of brought everything together here. I'm still not in love with sprouts, but even with them, this sandwich is a winner.

Matt was pretty adamant that we try the sandwich named after his wife Summer, and who were we to argue? Again, the Summer Zephyr ($8) is not a sandwich that I would normally order, but after trying it, it made me reconsider my stance on the subject. This sandwich was kind of like a Caprese salad in sandwich form. Fresh mozzarella, marinated tomato, basil aioli, arugula, pickled onion, and a balsamic reduction was placed on a toasted french roll. Readers of this blog know that I am not too fond of big chunks of tomato, but with everything else going on here, the creamy mozzarella, the awesome basil aioli, and the tang from the balsamic, I enjoyed this sandwich. I know that when I bring Katie here, this will no doubt be her favorite sandwich.

My favorite sandwich this afternoon and one that I have thought about fondly in recent days is this Baller ($8.50). Sessions take on a meatball sandwich is right up there with some of the best sandwiches I have had recently. Not overly sauced, the meatballs had a good beefiness to them, the red pepper marinara had a kick that was appreciated by my taste buds, and the basil aioli I initially felt would have been out of place, went perfect with this sandwich. Maybe I would ask for less arugula next time, but this was pretty close to a perfect meatball sandwich. If you are a meatball lover, try this sandwich and you will leave here very happy.

By this time, my buddy Chris and I were getting pretty full, but I had to try one of their gourmet hot dogs listed on the back of their menu. They all looked so good, but I settled on the Boomer ($8). This one came with bacon, grated cheddar, grain mustard, and red onion. All the fixings that make a good chili dog, minus the chili. I thought I was going to miss the chili, but the absence of it helped showcase how great this twelve-inch, all-beef hot dog was. Very dense, with a nice meaty flavor. Again, the mustard did not overpower, and bacon is always a good thing no matter what. I look forward to trying their pastrami dog, known as the Beast on my next trip.

Both Chris and I left Sessions completely full, but not with that heavy feeling. I think it's a testament to the quality ingredients they are using here. I mean we basically ate two full sandwiches between us, plus a half a hot dog, and did not collapse into a food coma. We even picked up Chris's daughter from school on the way home. We were very impressed with the sandwiches at Sessions and look forward to them rolling out even more deliciousness with their full sandwich menu in the near future. The word is definitely getting out about Sessions. During our after lunch rush visit, they still had a steady stream of customers, including one of our beloved Anaheim Ducks partaking in a sandwich. Unfortunately, I was too distracted by the sandwiches at Sessions to strike up a conversation with him, but that just shows how great these sandwiches really are.

We would really like to thank Matt for taking the time to talk with us and show off his great vision. We look forward to watching this place take off. Also, we need to thank the great PR pro, Janet Pacheco, for coordinating our visit to Sessions. We had a great time Janet.

For more information about Sessions Sandwiches, go to their website here: https://www.sessionswcd.com/

Hope I'm Not Alone In My Love for Solita

Solita Tacos and Margaritas

7631 Edinger Ave. Ste. 1508

Huntington Beach, CA 92647

It still always makes me nervous when I am introducing a restaurant that I have raved about to my parents and extended family. This was the case on a recent Saturday night. I had been to Solita for a media event, and came home ranting about it to almost everyone. We were going to be going to roller derby nearby after dinner, and I was left in charge of picking a place to eat. I immediately thought of Solita, but then started second guessing myself. Not that Katie and I wouldn't like it, but my family really enjoys what I consider to be Americanized-Mexican cuisine. I stood by my pick, hoped that Solita would make them all happy.

I should have really been a little more confident in my choice. I mean, my parents went to Solita's sister restaurant, the much higher end Sol Cocina, and really liked it. Solita is their answer to people that want to have a weekly Mexican restaurant, not just a special occasion place. Solita comes to us from the mind of Chef Deborah Schneider, whose travels across Mexico, and in particular, Baja, have inspired her to write six cookbooks and operate three restaurants. Solita is described on their website as, "a Mexican restaurant built around a custom made wood grill". I was excited, nervous, and interested to see what my family would think of Solita.

Solita is located at the Bella Terra shopping center in Huntington Beach, which has all of the sudden welcomed a bunch of new restaurants. Bondi Republic and Eureka will make our list of places to hit up soon. For those visiting Solita, they are located on the Edinger side of the center, near Corner Bakery. We got here just before 4:30, and arrived to a nearly empty restaurant, but the restaurant filled up quickly during the hour we were here.

Solita has a very modern, upscale look, without being too stuffy. The inside of the restaurant is a little on the dark side. Our party of nine was seated on the large patio, which overlooked the fountain and other shops. The patio seemed to be more lively than the inside of the restaurant, but maybe that was because my rambunctious nieces were out there. The menu here is pretty large, and even though I had tried a great many things on it from the media dinner, I still had a tough time choosing what to order. We all made our choices, and then waited for the food to come out.

Of course as with the custom when eating in a Mexican restaurant, we definitely have to show you the Chips and Salsa that are brought to the table first. This is your first clue that this is a different Mexican restaurant. At Sol their "taste of Baja" consists of salt, limes, and hot sauce. At Solita, this three sectioned plate contains chopped onions with a radish garnish, a tomatillo salsa, and what I believe is the same red chili salsa served at Sol. The chips here are different too. These are more traditional than the flat, almost tostada-like chips served at Sol. These chips are fried perfectly, with duros added to the basket. I recently learned that duros are a Mexican snack food made of puffed wheat, that closely resemble chicharrones. I liked the lighter than average chips better than the duros, but I was pretty much out voted in my opinion at this table.

I usually do not get many drinks when I go out, but I was out with my family, so of course I needed one. Just kidding guys. I really got this Horchata Cocktail ($10) because I was pretty impressed with it when I had it before. It did not disappoint this trip either. It's made with their house made horchata, Agavales blanco tequila, 1921 Crema, and some cinnamon. It ends up tasting like a cinnamon milk, which went down real smooth. My dad tried the refreshing Watermelon Margarita ($10). Here again they use Agavales tequila, and add crushed watermelon and lime juice. The big guy seemed pretty pleased with this drink, and sucked it down in record time. My sister is a little more traditional, so she ordered the Solita House Margarita ($8). She's never met a margarita she's never liked, (it's a good thing my family doesn't read this blog), and that held true at Solita. Agavales tequila is used again, with sweet and sour, a splash of orange juice, and triple sec, and is either served on the rocks or blended. She liked the inclusion of the orange juice, which added a touch of sweetness.

The kids menu here has ten entrees, but my three nieces all got the same thing, which helps cut down on the writing for me, or maybe they don't like my writing either. Anyways they all got the 2 Tacos with just Chicken and Cheese ($4). Only two out of three really liked their tacos, but these kids are pretty picky when it comes to food, so I would consider this a thumbs up. What did not get a thumbs up was the Mexican rice that came with this. The rice was pretty overcooked, and left on all three of their plates. My sister was pretty excited that the kids plates were only four dollars though.

Both my dad and sister got taco plates here at Solita. The taco plates come with three street size tacos, two sides, and toppings included inside the tacos. They have 13 different varieties, or for the indecisive, they offer two taco tasters, so you can mix and match different ones. My dad selected the unusual sounding, Chorizo, Bacon, and Sweet Potato Tacos ($10.50). Not something that I would have imagined him getting when we came here, but he had no complaints about these unique tacos. The double dose of pork worked well here, and the sweet potato added good body to this taco. My sister was a little more traditional when it came to choosing her taco plate, as she went with the Wood Grilled Carne Asada ($12.50). She liked these tacos, and was happy with the spice rub used on them. Both of them had the same complaint as my nieces when it came to the rice, it was overcooked. My dad did enjoy the yucatecan styled refried beans, but my sister thought her solita slaw was fresh, but lacked that wow factor. They were both pretty big fans of the tacos though.

I really enjoyed the colorful plating here at Solita, which was definitely on full display with my mom's dinner choice, the Chicken Taquitos ($7.50). These are listed under the appetizer portion of the menu, but perfect for my mom, who's not a big eater. These corn tortillas are stuffed with cilantro and shredded chicken, with sour cream, guacamole, and salsa fresca served on top of the taquitos. She really liked these lighter than usual taquitos. The chicken was tender, and went well with the guacamole. The perfect portion size for my mom.

My brother in law actually got something I was considering getting, the Carnitas Torta ($8.50). This was a pretty good sized sandwich filled with carnitas, cheese, lettuce, and salsa fresca, all on a soft telera roll. He really liked this, the pork had a good flavor, there was plenty of it on the sandwich, and the roll had a good crunch to it, while still staying soft. Like the rest of the family, he was not so enamored with the rice, but was less vocal about it.

Not something you see on a lot of Mexican restaurant menus, this El Panzon ($10) is described as a Mexican calzone. A single flour tortilla is stuffed with your choice of meat, Katie got chicken, and cheese. It is then butter crisped, and topped with guacamole, sour cream, and salsa fresca. Katie was enamored with this. There was plenty of chicken, and just the right amount of cheese, without this becoming crazy rich. Good tortilla on this one too.

One thing I did not get to try during the media event, and something I use to judge Mexican restaurants is carnitas. These House Carnitas ($15.50) were a little spotty. Some bites were very tender, with a great flavor, and a few other pieces were a little tougher, and kind of bland. I did like the inclusion of the avocado hunks here, which added color and moisture. With the carnitas you get to have two side items, so I stayed pretty true to form by getting the rice and refried beans. I actually did like the flavor of the rice, but like the rest of my family, felt it was overdone. The refried beans were very substantial, with great texture and flavor. A very unique version of refried beans.

I guess I should not have been nervous at all about bringing my family to Solita. Although I was not blown away by what I got, the rest of my family all really enjoyed their meals, and bragged to their friends about it when we got to the roller derby right after leaving here. The menu here at Solita is pretty varied, and will take some time to find my absolute favorite on it, but I look forward to the challenge. Our waitress was very nice while she was with us, but was gone for long stretches at a time. She not only had tables on the patio, but also inside, so her attention was split between the two. Even with the minor service issues, my family was pretty impressed with Solita, and look forward to heading back here when the next roller derby match rolls around.

Out of five falcons, (because probably the most famous athlete from Huntington Beach is Tony Gonzalez, a former tight end for the Atlanta Falcons), five being best to zero being worst, Solita Tacos and Margaritas gets 3.5 falcons.

For more information about Solita Tacos and Margaritas, go to their website here: http://solitatacos.com/

Making Pigs of Ourselves at Oinkster, and Loving It

The Oinkster

2005 Colorado Blvd. 

Los Angeles, CA 90041

Even out of some bad, you can almost always find some good. We were going to be making a few pre-planned trips up to LA in the coming weeks, so I did a little research to see what restaurants we should try to hit while we were up there. Not to get too personal, but it was time for Katie's Grandfather to move closer to his family, so we were getting the house ready for his big move. I was being rewarded by Katie for helping, as she promised to take me to any restaurant I wanted after we were done boxing up and throwing away a lot of junk. Visiting Oinkster was definitely going to be the highlight of this trip for me.

I had seen Oinkster on Diner's Drive-In's and Dives. about three years ago. The same episode has aired a few other times that I have seen, and I knew I wanted to eat here. Oinkster comes to us from Andre Guerrero, a fine dining chef that has brought us Max and Senor Fred's, both in Sherman Oaks. Oinkster is Chef Guerrero's version of a fast food concept, which uses high quality ingredients, almost all of which are made on the premises. Whatever he's doing must be working, because within the last month he opened a second location in Hollywood, on Vine near Melrose. Our work at Papa's was done for the day, so we made our way to Eagle Rock to try Oinkster.

This original location of Oinkster is located on busy Colorado Boulevard in the trendy section of Eagle Rock. A lot of the customers here look like they just came from an H&M photo shoot, but the vibe here was pretty laid back. Oinkster is housed in an old A-frame building that reminded me of the old Wienerschnitzel's or Tastee-Freez's that we grew up going to. We arrived at about 5PM on a Sunday, and it was busy, but not out of control. We waited in line for about five minutes, then placed our order at the counter. The menu here is full of American classics, all of which are priced under $11. We had no problem finding a seat on the patio out front, and waited patiently for our food to make its way out to us.

The first item to hit our table was Oinkster's shake of the month, which I had learned about prior to our visit on their Facebook page. This shake is known as, E.T's Shake ($6). Since it was called this, of course it had to have crushed Reese's Pieces, Reese's peanut butter, and a chocolate ice cream base. Oinkster uses local legend, Fosselman's Ice Cream to make their shakes. This Alhambra ice cream company has quite a following, and we look forward to heading to their place soon. As for this shake, I thought the chocolate and peanut butter combined nicely here, but I would have liked this shake to have been a little thicker. It was very runny when we got it, and I kind of like to struggle to get the shake up the straw. Not bad though.

Katie and I kind of went a little overboard with the amount of food that we got here, but I definitely planned on taking home leftovers. The first of our three sandwiches was the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich ($8). The pork on this sandwich is very special. It is brined with soy sauce and honey, then roasted and smoked for 12 hours. The result is one of the most tender pork sandwiches I have had. Joining the pork on the roll was a red cabbage slaw, caramelized onions, and a Carolina BBQ sauce. I liked the crunch from the cabbage, the sweet onions, and the bread allowed the pork to be the star of this sandwich. If I had to come up with anything negative to say about this, it would be that it needed a little more BBQ sauce, but the pork was moist enough that it really did not need it. A great sandwich.

As hard as it was for me not to scarf down all of the pork sandwich, I left half for lunch the next day, so I could conquer this Royale Burger ($11.25, with cheese added). They hand press their one-third pound patties, using only Nebraskan Angus beef. This burger is then topped with pastrami, bacon, chili, dill pickles, onion, lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, and 1000 Island dressing. This burger was one of the best I have had recently. You can tell this is high quality beef. The bacon was nice and crisp, the produce was fresh, the pastrami is unbelievably good, and the chili added flavor and moisture to this burger. This is everything that you look for in a burger. Katie could tell how pleased I was with this, as I was too busy trying to finish this, before she asked for another bite.

After the greatness of both the pork and the burger, I was thinking our hot streak was going to come to an end, but the hits just kept on rolling with this Oinkster Pastrami ($10.50). The care that they use to make their pastrami is evident as soon as you taste it. They cure their pastrami for two weeks, it's rubbed with a bunch of spices, (pepper for sure), and then smoked over applewood. This sandwich comes with the same red cabbage slaw and caramelized onions, but Gruyere cheese is added to this one. Some might think that the pastrami here is a little too seasoned, but I liked the big flavor of this pastrami. Again the cabbage and onions balanced out the meat a bit and the cheese added a nice creaminess. Another winner in my book.

The only thing that I found average about Oinkster were these Belgian Fries ($3). Yes they are hand cut, twice fried, and made using fresh potatoes, but I just expected a little more from them. They were not as crisp as I expected, and just kind of blah. Not awful, but just kind of boring. I should have gone with their chili fries or the piggy fries, which resemble a certain hamburger chain's animal style fries.

I was so pleased with our trip to Oinkster, that I did not even mind giving up my Sunday to help pack up Katie's Grandfather's house. That's how good this restaurant is. Oinkster really reminded me of The Hat, but with way higher quality ingredients, and attention to detail. Not saying The Hat is bad, but Oinkster is a whole lot better. I was also pretty happy with the prices here. They were not overly out of control. The service was pretty good on this visit. The guy that took our order, also brought out our food, and made sure we had everything that we needed. He seemed like he really cared about our happiness during this visit. Oinkster was so good, it might be hard for us to try other places on our next few visits to Papa's house.

Out of five tennis balls, (because I recently learned that Lindsay Wagner, also known as the Bionic Woman once lived in Eagle Rock, and in the opening credits of the show , she crushed a tennis ball with her hand), five being best to zero being worst, Oinkster gets 4 tennis balls.

For more information about Oinkster, go to their website here: http://www.theoinkster.com/index.php#home

Hoping for a Great Cuban Sandwich at Stefano's

Stefano's Golden Baked Hams

18220 Yorba Linda Blvd. 

Yorba Linda, CA 92886

When my favorite Cuban sandwich place, DeSimone's closed in Orange, it left a gaping hole in my stomach where a Cuban sandwich needed to be. My love for the Cuban sandwich has been well documented on this blog. Not to get too controversial on the subject, but I feel that the Cuban sandwich is the most balanced sandwich around. It has all the components, the saltiness from the ham, the richness of the pork, mustard adds some tang, the pickles contribute a sour element, the cheese brings a creaminess, and the toasted bread rounds everything out with texture. Every time I meet a sandwich maker, I always ask them to put a Cuban on the menu. Yeah, you could say I am kind of obsessed.

People have been trying to get me to try Stefano's Cuban sandwich for a few years now. It's not that I haven't wanted to try it, but I'm usually only up in this area at lunch time for dentist appointments two times a year. After my most recent dentist visit, I made a point to meet my Mom up here for lunch. I'm not sure how long Stefano's has been in business, but their first Yelp review is from 2008, and they now have over 300 reviews, and still have a 4.5 star rating. Pretty impressive rating. I also had gotten an email from a reader, Thai, that urged me to come here. That was three years ago, hope you are still out there Thai. Sorry it took so long to get to your spot.

Stefano's is located in the Packing House Center, at the corner of Yorba Linda Boulevard and Imperial Highway, tucked into a corner, behind Chili's. Don't let the name fool you, they are not just about hams here. Think of Stefano's more as a family run sandwich shop, that specializes in panini sandwiches. Their menu features 14 varieties, along with some daily specials that are offered from time to time. They also have salads, wraps, and more traditional hot and cold sandwiches on their menu.

I met my Mom here at 1PM on a recent Thursday. I had heard this place could get a little crowded at lunch, and  they were busy when we arrived, but it thinned out during our stay, as people got back to work after their lunch hours. Ordering is done at the counter, and the food is brought out to you. There was one snafu when I was ordering, they were out of carnitas for the Cubano, so I had to make two trips here. No worries though, as I had a follow up visit to the dentist the next week, (no it was not a cavity,  it was just a polishing). Anyways, let's see what we thought of the sandwiches at Stefano's.

We'll start with my Mom's lunch selection, the Chicken Salad Sandwich ($6.50). My Mom is a real creature of habit when it comes to ordering sandwiches in restaurants. She either goes for tuna or chicken salad, and very rarely deviates from these two. This time she got her chicken salad on non-toasted squaw bread, with just mayo. My Mom was not too thrilled with this sandwich. The chicken was still in big hunks, which is one of her pet peeves when she orders a chicken salad sandwich. She likes a much smoother chicken salad. I liked the uniqueness of this chicken salad. There was celery, and maybe some grapes, or something else that sweetened this up a bit. I do agree with her that the chicken needed to be chopped up a bit more though.

Since I was foiled in my first attempt to try the Cubano, I went with my second option, the Bur-Gini Panini ($9.50). I have never seen a burger panini offered on any menu, so I was definitely intrigued. The patty here is a blend of short rib and brisket, which is then topped with a garlic and jalapeno cream cheese, bacon, avocado, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and onions. I really enjoyed this panini. The meat was tender with some big time flavor. There was a heat here, which I think was from the jalapeno cream cheese, and it was awesome. The bread of course had a good crunch from the panini press, and you can never go wrong with the combo of avocado and bacon. I'm not the worlds biggest fan of cream cheese, but it did not get in the way on this sandwich. Eating this almost made me forget about my disappointment of not getting the Cubano, which I got the next week.

I first must preface this part of the review by stating that I took this sandwich to go, so it was a little on the cold side when I ate it at home in Mission Viejo. Even after the 45 minute drive down the 5 Freeway, this Cubano Stefano Panini ($8.75) still held up surprisingly well.  The bread did lose a little of its crunch, but I attribute that to the drive. The insides of this sandwich were pretty solid. Filled with their specialty, golden baked ham, carnitas, Swiss cheese, dill pickles, mayo and yellow mustard. A pretty good substitute for a traditional Cuban sandwich, and if I lived closer I would get this with some regularity. The ham was good, but what made this was the carnitas. It had a great flavor, and went well with the other components of the sandwich. The ratio of cheese to meat was a little off for me, but not enough for me to dismiss this sandwich as anything but good.

I have been on a real cookie binge lately, so when I saw that they had them at Stefano's, I of course had to try all four that they offered. I liked all of these Cookies ($.50), but they are not going to blow you away. The oatmeal raisin was probably the best, with the sugar cookie being a close second. They had a good texture to them, not too hard, and not too soft. They needed to be a little sweeter in my book though.

Stefano's is definitely worthy of all of the praise that they receive, but I was surprised that my favorite sandwich here was not my beloved Cuban, but the Bur-Gini. That panini-burger hybrid is the one that will draw me back here, with its big time flavors. At the end of the day this is a pretty solid, family owned business, the service was good, and the prices might be a dollar or so too high, but the quality of these sandwiches is worth paying the extra dollar or two. Now I'm off to find another great Cuban sandwich.

Out of five running shoes, (because one of the most successful Italian long distance runners in history is Stefano Mei, and I could imagine that he's gone through tons of running shoes in his career), five being best to zero being worst, Stefano's Golden Baked Hams gets 3 running shoes.

For more information on Stefano's Golden Baked Hams, go to their web site here: http://www.stefanoshams.com/