Ike's Place, San Francisco: Best Vegan Sandwich!
by Janel on September 29, 2009 · 0 Comments
in Restaurants | 
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As you might have read from previous blog posts, Funk and I were very well fed during our trip to California. We went with a “no holding back” mentality when it came to all the restaurants we wanted to visit. At home we might not splurge on a three course meal or ignore the price of a bottle of wine, but we were on vacation and wanted to take in all of the flavors. That’s not to say we didn’t hold back for all meals. We did load up on bread and peanut butter to make quick and inexpensive pb sandwiches, so we could save our pennies and our appetite for the big doozie meals.
So when it came to our final evening in San Francisco, before we had to get to the airport for our 11pm flight, we were looking for a quick, cheap sandwich or slice of pizza to chow down on while at the airport. We figured we hit all of the vegan restaurants on our list, and at that point, a veggie sub at a local Subway would do. Little did we know we had missed THE best sandwich shop in all of San Francisco, which was located conveniently a half of a block away from us in Funk’s uncle’s neighborhood. He warned us that sometimes the wait for sandwiches at Ike’s Place was over an hour long. It is such a tiny place that there are no seats inside, and people wait patiently outside for their sandwiches, which are well worth waiting for.
We checked out the menu ahead of time online to call our order in and by some stroke of luck the wait was only 15 minutes. But looking back, I would have opted to miss our flight if it meant waiting for these amazing sandwiches. Yes they were that good.
The menu, broken down into meat sandwiches, vegetarian ones, and vegan sammies is extensive. I have never seen a sandwich menu, meat or vegetarian, so long and varied. Typically a vegetarian sandwich is some boring combo of cooked or raw veggies with melted cheese on bread, or a hummus roll up. Want it vegan? They’ll take out the cheese and you have a very unsatisfying lunch. Not at Ike’s.
“This ain’t your momma’s sandwich shop (says Ike’s website). Or your dad’s. Or your gramma’s, cousins, dog’s or cat’s, spiritual advisor’s, CEO’s, or hamster’s. We offer hand-crafted, finger-lickin’-good, fresh-baked, so-good-that-every-description-is-hyphenated, delicious sandwiches to the masses, made how you want them, be you meat eater, vegetarian, or veganite.”
the Vegan “We’re JUST Friends” sandwich with vegan turkey, sweet orange glaze, avocado, and soy cheese on wheat while Funk ordered the Purple B’s Veggie-CA BLT with veggie bacon, cheese, avocado, lettuce and tomato on rye. I’m not usually a fan of vegan turkey, which I find too salty and a little rubbery, but when Ike’s mixed it with these flavorful ingredients, my taste buds were converted. I also don’t usually gravitate towards orange-flavorings, so I don’t know why the orange glaze (or this entire sandwich, for that matter), caught my eye. But it’s sweet-tangy 
flavor combined with the buttery avocado and smokiness of the turkey was a hit. I remember Funk’s sammich tasting great as well, but I was pretty pre-occupied with mine and went right back to it. 
What’s your favorite veg-sandwich?
