Joe Fassi's Sausage and Sandwich Factory on the hill

If you live in St. Louis you know that “The Hill” is synonymous for great Italian Food. It should come as no surprise that when I saw a groupon that offered $20.00 of food and drink for $10.00 at Joe Fassi’s sausage and sandwich factory on “The Hill” I jumped at the chance to get good Italian eats on the cheap. On the day we made our lunch bucket list visit to Joe Fassi’s we stopped in Maplewood and picked up my brother Sid and asked him to serve as a special guest critic.

I ordered the #10 which is a handmade salsicca with cheese touted as the best in St. Louis. The sandwich is served on Italian bread with cheese and marinara sauce - it was delicious, albeit a tad small. The sausage was excellent the bread, sauce and cheese rounded out the flavor pallet in a manner worthy of their best in St. Louis boast.

Brendan had the #21 “Yogi Berra” dog which consisted of two all-beef jumbo franks served open face smothered in Joe Fassi’s homemade chili, provel cheese and onions. The sandwich came in a foil pan and was baked in the oven melting the cheese on the chili. The chili was excellent, flavorful but not too spicy as to drown out the flavor of the all-beef franks.

Sid had the #11 Paul Fassi New York Bomber which consisted of roast beef, genoa salami, pepper cheese, tomato sauce and pepperoncini. Sid told us the quality of the ingredients and the blend of flavors of the sandwich were extremely good, but the sandwich which was served hot was ice cold in the middle deducting points from the overall enjoyment of the experience.

Each of us made our sandwiched into a combo by adding bag potato chips and a fountain soft drink. After using the groupon we still owed $18 for the three sandwiches, chips and sodas, which seemed a bit steep considering the pedestrian nature of the sides and beverages.

Overall the food was good, but it’s easy to see why they need to have a groupon to try to get people in the door. I will probably wait until the next groupon before visiting Joe Fassi’s again.

http://www.joefassisandwiches.com/

 Value: 2 Lunch buckets (as a combo each meal was $8.59 each)

Service: 4 Lunch buckets

Food Quality: 3 Lunch buckets (all of the food was good, but warm sandwiches served cold in the middle are a problem in my book)

Overall: 3 Lunch buckets

Pepper's Deli and Southwestren BBQ

With sandwich chains seemingly on every street corner it’s hard to get excited about going out to lunch and getting a sandwich. A trip to Pepper’s Deli and southwest Smokehouse is a noticeable exception. In fact, Brendan and I drove over thirty minutes to Peppers passing many sandwich shops along the way. You are probably wondering what makes us go out of our way for a sandwich at Pepper’s.  The answer is fresh high quality ingredients, good service and generous portions. Although Peppers has a lot of menu choices including many BBQ items rubbed with their own unique dry rubs, and slow smoked over a hickory fire for up to sixteen hours at a time, I can never seems to get past the deli sandwich portion of their menu. All of Pepper’s Deli sandwiches are made in the tradition of the New York style deli. Pepper’s uses only Boars Head fresh roasts all of which are at least 97% lean and are piled high on your choice of fresh baked bread.

For our visit Brendan Chose the Tom’s club which is a triple decker monstrosity of Boar’s head Turkey, hickory smoked bacon, lettuce and tomato stacked a full six inches high on some of the best toasted wheat bread you will ever taste. Brendan substitutes brown mustard for the mayonnaise that is traditionally served on the sandwich, and ranks it among his favorite sandwiches of all time.

I chose the Stack which consists of warm smoked ham, mesquite turkey breast; Pepper's hickory smoked bacon, melted provolone and cheddar cheeses. The Stack is topped with tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and honey Dijon sauce and mine was served on fresh wheat bread. Brendan and I both opted for the BBQ baked beans for our side dish and were delighted by their unique flavor and texture.

Although a little expensive, the flavor and freshness of the offerings at Pepper’s make me repeat Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous line from the Terminator movie: I’ll be back!

To see more menu items and get directions to Pepper’s go to:

http://www.peppersbbq.com/

 Value: 4 Lunch buckets (sandwiches were $6.99 each and the side was extra as part of a platter option)

Service: 5 Lunch buckets

Food Quality: 5 Lunch buckets

Overall: 4.66 Lunch buckets