In one respect, this isn’t surprising. The magazine’s list of the best sandwiches in the country is heavy on the East Coast, and contains some bizarre choices regardless of geography. The McRib? Plus, an Ann Arbor, Mich., restaurant called Zingerman’s is on the list, and there’s nothing special about Zingerman’s unless you went to the University of Michigan. (I got stuck in Ann Arbor after Sept. 11, so I ate at Zingerman’s a couple of times, and I know.)
As noted here previously, this isn’t the world’s greatest sandwich town. Even so, though there is plenty of pork on the list, there is no Texas brisket. There is no chicken fried steak sandwich, which is a tremendous oversight. And given how much the East Coast and local food intelligentsia wax poetic over Jimmy’s, how did one of its efforts not make the list?
Also snubbed is the world’s best hot dog joint, Mustard’s Last Stand in Evanston, Ill. And the best pork sandwich I have ever had — ever, in 20 years of eating professionally — was at Craig’s Barbecue in DeValls Bluff, Ark. Not that I would expect anyone at Esquire to know where Arkansas is.
