Ike's Place, San Francisco

No, I haven't forgotten to post the picture for this one. Tonight, we actually have our first review that will not have a picture, because my Dec. 2009 visit to Ike's Place predates when I began taking pictures of the places I visited. So I'll try to describe things as best as I can without the use of visual aids.

Luckily, Ike's Place is so creative that this is probably the best place to have to do one without photos if I must. Those of you who read my Voodoo Doughnut review know that in addition to wonderful doughnuts, it's just as famous for its creative names that it bestows upon said doughnuts. 

What it is to breakfast, Ike's Place is to lunch. Owner Ike Shehadeh has come up with no fewer than 83 sandwiches that dot the Ike's Place menu, and that doesn't include discontinued sandwiches or sandwiches that are only available to Ike's fans that sign up via e-mail or social media for the restaurant's alerts. All sandwiches are available on your choice of freshly baked French, sourdough, wheat or Dutch crunch bread, and all sandwiches come toasted with lettuce, tomato and Dirty Sauce. If you want, you can add onions, pickles, banana peppers and mustard for free.

Plus, every sandwich has some kind of creative name, with the majority of the names having something to do with San Francisco, although that's by no means required. Here's a sampling of what you can find on Ike's menu:


Menage a Trois: Halal chicken, honey, honey mustard, barbecue sauce, pepper jack, Swiss, cheddar
Nacho Girl: Wild salmon burger, mushrooms, avocado, havarti
Paul Reubens: Pastrami, coleslaw, French dressing, Swiss
Peg Bundy: Breaded eggplant, French dressing, avocado, cheddar
Lincecum: Ham, turkey, bacon, avocado, havarti
Tom Brady: Vegan breaded chicken, garlic and herb sauce, mushrooms, avocado, cheddar
Kryptonite: Roast beef, corned beef, pastrami, salami, turkey, bacon, ham, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, onion rings, avocado, pesto, pepper jack (basically, just about every ingredient on Ike’s menu)


OK, if you've read this far, I'm sure you're wondering exactly what is Dirty Sauce? Quite simply, Dirty Sauce is the condiment that takes Ike's from being good to amazing. Dirty Sauce is Ike Shehadeh's garlic mayonnaise, with several secret spices for a simply fantastic taste.


Before any ingredients touch the sandwich, Ike's spreads the Dirty Sauce onto the bread and bakes it into the bread, giving the sandwich the distinct flavor of the Dirty Sauce in every bite. The sandwich is then toasted again once the ingredients are all loaded onto the bread, resulting in hot and fresh deliciousness that simply has to be tried to be believed.


On my visit, I went with the SF Giants, an incredible combination of turkey, bacon, mushrooms, Swiss and avocado. Quite honestly, it might very well be the best sandwich I've ever had. When combined with the Dirty Sauce throughout the sandwich, a bunch of things I already like become perfection.


Ike's is so incredible that it's won numerous awards in the short time it's been open and has become an indelible part of San Francisco and the Bay Area in just a couple years. When you manage to do that, it's because of one reason: you're really, really good at what you do.


Recap
Time to go: Lunch or dinner. Ike's is open between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.


Wait during my visit: Oh boy. Ike's is the reason that San Franciscans need more than an hour for lunch. The line almost stretched to the end of the street, and Ike's location (at the time) on 16th Street is on a pretty long street. I waited approximately two hours for my sandwich. That I'm still giving this a high review speaks to just how good Ike's creations are.


The good news is that Ike's does allow you to call in your orders, and if you do, you can pick up your sandwich without having to wait in line. I highly recommend doing this. Even better, if you're not sure you can make it to Ike's by 7 p.m. and you call your order in, Ike's will hold your sandwich for up to an hour after its doors close so you can pick it up.


Location: You can find Ike's at 3489 16th Street, a new location across the street from the original Ike's. Ike's also operates a secondary location on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto.


Parking: Good luck. It's San Francisco, which means parking will be both costly and a nightmare. There are meters available, but they will cost you a few dollars for your wait. I would recommend finding a transit option of some kind. You can take BART to the Mission/16th Street stop, which would give you a half-mile walk to Ike's. Not ideal, but at least you don't have to find parking.


Cost: Average. Ike's sandwiches tend to cost roughly $10, which can be more or less depending on what you order.


Website: Ike's Place. Ike's offers a great website, allowing its patrons to rate their sandwiches and listing the ratings of each. It's a great feature.


Signature items: Sandwiches, Dirty Sauce

Black Market Pizza, Ames, Iowa

Yes, there's more to Ames, Iowa than Iowa State University and its wonderful buttermilk brownies. Those who know me from college are very familiar with my assertion that Iowa State will dominate the Big 12 if the Cyclones are ever smart enough to give their football recruits the brownies they serve in the press box at Jack Trice Stadium, but Ames is also home to some excellent pizza at Black Market Pizza, just north of the university's campus. Given that I've yet to review anything from the Hawkeye State, which I now call home, it's the perfect time for this review.


What sets this pizza apart at Black Market is the unusual kinds of pizza you're going to find on the menu here. Black Market is famous for taking sandwiches and turning them into pizza form. See if you can recognize what inspired their Witness Protection Pizza based on its ingredients:


Ground beef, Thousand Island sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed crust.


If you guessed a Big Mac, you're absolutely right. Other pizzas served at Black Market include taco, Reuben, chicken bacon ranch, bacon double cheeseburger and Patty melt. Every ingredient you'd find on these creations in their normal form shows up on the pizza. The Reuben, for example, uses rye seeds to mimic the rye bread one normally eats a Reuben on. It's an interesting concept that really works.


Of course, the reason it works is that Black Market uses quality ingredients and makes sure the flavors match up perfectly. In my pizza at the top, ranch sauce is used in place of tomato sauce on the pizza, and it's then topped with chicken, bacon and tomatoes. I can hear the purists howling in New York, but it's actually really good this way. A pizza isn't much different from an open-faced sandwich when you think about it, and Black Market certainly has.


If you're not up for a sandwich as a pizza, Black Market also serves the traditional thin crust and deep dish pizza those in New York and Chicago respectively have grown up eating. In fact, its Chicago-style pizzas are just as much a part of its identity as its sandwich pizzas. If you want something really different, try one of these pizzas using a sweet potato crust. Different toppings also routinely dot the specials board and are available for customers to try.


Size-wise, these aren't ridiculous sizes like at Big Pie In The Sky. Black Market serves their pizza in a standard size, with 16 inches being as big as they go. The 10-inch pizza, their smallest size, can feed one person quite well.


It's a shame that Black Market couldn't sustain a second location in the Des Moines suburb of Altoona, but some places are just meant to be in one spot. Clearly, that applies to Black Market, which has found itself a home in the college town of Ames.


Recap
Time to go: Lunch or dinner work well here. The small pizzas work great for a lunch serving, while one big one can feed a family for dinner.


Wait during my visit: None outside the wait for the pizza to cook. It's Ames, not nearby Des Moines. There's not going to be a ridiculous crowd unless you've decided to go when the Cyclones are playing a home football or basketball game.


Location: Black Market Pizza can be found at 2610 Northridge Parkway in the northern part of Ames, Iowa. It also delivers to locations around the Ames area.


Parking: Again, it's Ames. You shouldn't have a problem here.


Website: Black Market Pizza

Signature items: Sandwich pizzas, deep dish

Pickerman's, Rock Island, Ill.

Although the title of this blog might say Dan vs. Food, this is hardly limited to just Man vs. Food restaurants. Occasionally, I'll branch out to good local places that don't get the worldwide attention that the Travel Channel if I choose to do so, as I did today for lunch here in the Quad-Cities.

My only rule on this is that I'm not going to be reviewing chains, unless there's something incredibly iconic about them. For example, should I make a return to California, I might review In-and-Out Burger. I'm not going to be reviewing Jerry's Subs and Pizza, even though I think Jerry's is awesome and it's almost a required stop when I visit Virginia. It's just not iconic enough to warrant it, although the cheesesteaks there are wonderful.

Anyway, Pickerman's is a soup and sandwich shop in Rock Island that specializes in toasted subs and high-quality soups. Their slogan is that it's the bread, and the bread is excellent. They offer white and wheat bread, freshly baked to perfection and serve every sub toasted.

Sub-wise, they serve 12 sandwiches that look like a pretty solid lineup. I went with an old favorite, roast beef with lettuce, tomato, onion, Provolone cheese and bistro sauce. Excellent combination of flavors and heat made it work well. Some of their other sandwiches include chicken and Swiss, ham and capicola, smoked turkey and their Numero Uno, which includes ham, prosciutto, salami and Provolone. Even their vegetarian appears to be money, served with cucumbers and dill cream cheese.

But it's the soups that really make this place worth a visit. Pickerman's rotates a list of 36 soups in and out of their menu, selling four a day. It says on one menu that they sell six a day, but I only saw four in the restaurant. Some of the soups in the rotation include the five-star mushroom, Wisconsin cheese, lobster bisque, roasted garlic tomato and what became my choice, the Asiago cheese bisque.

Two things need to be true about a quality bisque. It needs to be flavorful, and it needs to be creamy. The Asiago cheese hit on both qualities, delivering a nice mix of flavors with bacon and vegetables mixed in while providing a velvety texture that was perfect for its temperature. Throw in a soda and you've got yourself an excellent meal.

It's about as far south as you can get and still be in Rock Island, but it's worth the drive. I'll definitely be heading back.

Recap

Time to go: It's a soup and sandwich place. You're going for lunch. Pickerman's is closed on Sundays.

Wait during my visit: None. That's the nice thing about being a good distance away.

Location: Pickerman's is at 4659 44th Street in Rock Island, Ill.

Parking: There's a good amount.

Website: None

Specialty items: Toasted sandwiches, soups.