Swich-in' things up...

After hearing about Swiches from both the Sauce Boss and the Knackwurst Nightmare, I felt it was about time I pay them a visit.

The first thing I looked for when I walked in was the face masks Sauce Boss mentioned in his posting, and there they were.  Face masks.  Not like Jason's white goalie mask, but clear painter-style face/nose masks.  On the two women behind the counter...
So...anyways...
The menu.  It was almost overwhelming.  I picked up a tri-fold so I'll be ready next time, but being that this was my first visit, I was unprepared for the variety.  You ever hear someone say that they know of a place that makes something you can get on any street corner, but this particular place makes it really well?  For instance; your local deli might make a really good turkey BLT wrap.  Whatever makes it stand out from every other turkey BLT wrap you've had might escape you, but you know it's better there than any other place you've had one.  I figured that this was another one of those places.  Good quality cold cuts, fresh veggies, good bread, and a variety of dressings to spice things up.(I'm a skeptic)
I was wrong.
Staying true to my name, I was drawn to the first thing on the menu that mentioned bacon.
There it was...the Apple Cheddar Bacon sandwich.
I had it set in my heart that I wanted a panini, well before arriving.  Even though the Apple Cheddar Bacon wasn't listed as being available in panini form, the woman behind the counter was more than happy to accommodate my request, for an additional charge.  While waiting for them to assemble and grill my sandwich, I grabbed a small container of coleslaw out of the floor standing soda cooler to the right of the register.  I'm always excited to try a restaurant's coleslaw or potato salad.  It's just one of my 'things'.
Within 10 minutes, our sandwiches were ready and we were out the door.

This is what I unwrapped back at the office:

A toasty warm pocket of ham, cheese, bacon and apples.

Yes, apples.  You see them in there?  Those are apples in my panini.

I ordered extra bacon too.  You see that in there?  No?  It's because there's like, half an apple in there sapping up all the real estate!  You'd figure that the 'apple' in the name of the sandwich would refer to, oh, I don't know...Applewood Smoked Bacon?  Nope.  I got actual apples.

(I was surprised.  I also didn't read the description, so, my fault.)

You know what though?  They were good!  Very good, in fact.  And probably even better after having been warmed on the panini grill.  The bacon, apples, and honey mustard went together extremely well.  The crispiness of the bacon, along with it's smokiness, coupled with the tangy apples and sweet honey mustard was like having Frank Sinatra serenade my taste buds.  And that was just the upper half of the sandwich.  One would think by looking at the bottom half, the ham and cheese might not be there to serve as much more than just fillers.  On the contrary, the smokey sweetness of the ham and the bite from the cheese only added to the overall flavor.  It's not every day you find something out of the ordinary that goes together quite like this.

Even the bread itself was exceptional.  It had the consistency of sourdough, but not having seen a sourdough flatbread/wrap before, I was unsure.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to confirm as the sandwich just disappeared before I had a chance to thoroughly investigate.  Maybe next time.

To wrap this post up I'd like to say that the variety in the menu, and my eagerness to try new and unique things will keep me coming back for a while.  By the way, the coleslaw was excellent.  Try it next time you're there.  You won't regret it.