Ham and Cheese

Ham and Cheese

homemade

B

Go to a French bakery. Take home a baguette. Spread mustard on each side, throw some provolone on there and drop it under the broiler for a couple minutes. Add some Back Forest ham. Crunch it up. Toasty, salty, satisfying. Done deal.

Pâté de Campagne

Pâté de Campagne at La Belle Terre

labelleterrebakery.com

B+

Pretty sure a classic country terrine on baguette needs some dijon, no? La Belle Terre doesn't serve it, but it doesn't really matter because this baguette is one of the best in the biz, and this pâté is soft, moist, savory and wonderful. Topped only with some sliced cornichons and served with a bit of salad with zingy, creamy balsamic dressing—yep, I used that instead of mustard—and roasted potatoes, this is a simple sandwich worth a return visit. Or several.

Le Burger

Le Burger at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

mgmgrand.com

A+

If ever there was an obvious A+ sandwich, here ya go. As you can tell by this photo, this baby burger was not consumed inside L'Atelier, hands down of the best restaurants in Las Vegas (and beyond). Food & Wine magazine's annual All-Star Weekend brought many mega-events to the Strip this month, including a burger contest featuring restaurants of the MGM Grand judged by Mr. Robuchon himself, among other celeb chefs. All eight of the burgers were delish, but it's tough to beat this tiny masterpiece. It's very small, and each of the ingredients are basically the best, most fresh version of standard burger accoutrement ... except for that unbelievable, perfectly seared slab of foie gras perched atop the juicy mini-patty. Yeah, kinda hard to hang with that. The problem now is we can pretty much never eat another slider again.

Swan Mi

Swan Mi at Marche Bacchus/Jet Tila Pop Up Dinner

marchebacchus.com

A

This is a very special posting to allsandwich, because it's a one-off sandwich that we will likely never taste again. It's a damn shame, too, because it's one of the best banh mi sandwiches we've ever tasted.

Just yesterday we got the news that chef Joe Swan is leaving his post at the brilliant French bistro Marche Bacchus. This, too, is a damn shame, because he's a very talented young chef who has seemingly done the impossible by improving the already stellar menu at one of Las Vegas' favorite neighborhood restaurants. Recently, Swan and his team hosted chef Jet Tila for a one-night-only collaboration pop up dinner, featuring dishes with a French-Asian twist. The "Swan Mi" was one of the highlights: house-made pork and duck liver lop cheung, pate, garlic aioli, mimolette, and Sichuan pickled daikon and peppers on the always-perfect Marche Bacchus baguette. It was a crispy, crunchy, meaty masterpiece, a wild combination of flavors of textures. It was delicious, so good that after a few too many glasses of wine we found ourselves in the parking lot yelling something like, "You should start a Marche Bacchus Swan Mi food truck!"

Best of luck to chef Swan; we hope sometime, somewhere, someone else gets to eat this wonderful sandwich.

Nicoise Sandwich

Nicoise Sandwich at Pinot Brasserie

venetian.com

A

I never would have thought to put a classic Nicoise salad on a soft, delicious ciabatta and call it a sandwich. And I never would have thought I'd find something so good at Pinot Brasserie, kinduva forgotten French restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip. It's hidden next door to the much better-known Valentino Italian eatery, on the casino level of the Venetian. But it's been there forever and the food is still good, and I may be in love with this sandwich.

So what's in a Nicoise? Well, it's always tuna, and on the sammich version it's slices of beautifully seared, peppered ahi, spread with a little olive relish. Got to have olives in the nee-swah. Haricot verts are a constant in the dish, so yep, first time ever eating green beans on a sandwich. They aren't the right size or shape for bread stackage, but they're cool, crisp and tasty, so it works out. Finishing it up are slices of hard boiled egg and a roasted red pepper and basil salad mixture. It's all the flavor of a French classic, ready for on-the-go munching. Well, not really. It's not like Pinot Brasserie has a drive-through window. Hmm, wait ... In-N-Out-Nicoise? Don't steal my idea.