Breakfast Sandwich #142 - Player's Sports Bar aka Friends Old and New

Sandwich: Buzzy with Sausage
Location: Player's Sports Bar & Grill
Date: September 21, 2019
Cost: $7.50, with cheesy hash browns

This sandwich was not planned. My visit to Player's came up at the last minute and since I hadn't eaten I knew I'd be revisiting my old friend. Until I sat down to write this I did not realize that it had been since January 1, 2018, that I'd had a Buzzy. There have been a few patty melts and burgers during that span, and at least one basket of chicken wings, but no breakfast sandwiches. 

I was ready for a Buzzy but I didn't know I was missing an important part of The Buzzy Sandwich Story. A cornerstone to the monument of the Buzzy had not yet been put in place. 

Specifically - I had never ordered it with sausage. I'm as shocked as you are. No, I'm several layers more shocked than you are. 

This seems impossible but when I looked back at my previous visits I realized that Sandwich #109 coincided with the period when the sausage option had been replaced by the burger patty. At some point the burger was wisely switched back to sausage and the options are once again ham, bacon, or sausage. 

Looking further back on the timeline, Breakfast Sandwich #100 was ordered with bacon as was Sandwich #69. Everybody knows the story of Sandwich #1. (No? Spoiler - it had bacon on it.)

I'm shocked but not ashamed. I like bacon and so do you, however, we strive to provide a wide swatch of informative sandwich opinions here and this oversight needed to be corrected. Toot Sweet.

It is very unlikely I'll order the version with ham, research be damned, so this post about sausage is as historic as writing about a breakfast sandwich can be. Gravitas with a side of gravy. 

This photo wasn't taken by a drone, it just looks that way. 

Wait just a daggum minute! Is that TWO sausage patties? Yes, it is. Also note, Hopalicious photo bomb. 

The Sandwich - Buzzy with Sausage. Other than choice of meat there are no other options offered for the Buzzy. I assume they always double up on the sausage patties since they are quite thin but I don't know that for a fact. They do always get that Texas toast just right. The American cheese was perfectly melty and the egg was just slightly runny. Take a good look at that photo and you know what this sandwich was all about - it was a salty, fatty, slightly crunchy, gooey and tasty treat.

The Result - 4.3 Corrected Oversights out of 5 Corrected Oversights. In short, the sausage version gives the bacon version a good run for it's money. It's a win-win situation (not for your arteries), and since both versions are both equally bad for your aortas and ventricles, choose whichever your heart desires. The Buzzy is a classic, simple breakfast sandwich. It does benefit greatly from it's surroundings as I notice when I look back at my previous reviews that all five of the Buzzy's have been consumed on a weekend during football season. The atmosphere at Player's on a football Saturday is a perfect compliment to this sandwich - folks attending the game are getting a quick bite in before heading out to the game and everybody else is settling onto a bar stool to watch it on the teevee. If you're lucky and you choose the right stool you'll make a new friend like I did. His name is Herbie and he likes sports. I wish he had ordered a Buzzy as he would have made a helluva guest reviewer, but it wasn't in the cards on this day.

I came away with a new friend and the realization that my old friend the Buzzy Sandwich had a tasty side to him that I was unaware of.

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Breakfast Sandwich #141 - Gotham Bagels aka Bagel Trifecta

Sandwich: Arthur Avenue
Location: Gotham Bagels
Date: August 30, 2019
Cost: $10.50

I had to hit the Dane County Farmers Market and that meant a breakfast sandwich was on my horizon. After mulling potential new options I realized I didn't want to mess around with amateurs and the choices were narrowed to Ancora or Gotham. Sandwich redux! Gotham won out because that's where I parked my bike. This isn't rocket surgery. I don't know why I didn't consider Casetta Kitchen.

If you're up to speed on all of this you know that Gotham Bagels provided sandwiches #40 and #132 and that both of those sandwiches are in the All Time Top 25. That's a lot of pressure. (I just realized that the phrase "All Time" can't be accurate. If I were to eat 20 sandwiches that rank 4.81 or above, Gotham Bagel will no longer be on the list. It's too late, I'm not renaming it, but I want you to know it's bothering me a little bit. If you're the kind of person who prays please say a prayer that I am served 20 near perfect breakfast sandwiches so we can solidify my hasty foolishness. Thanking you in advance.)

They've revamped the menu since my last visit. How exciting! I was really struggling with choosing an option and was leaning towards the Rocky's Deli (not pictured here) or the O.M.F.G. but switched it up before I made it to the counter. Please note this is only half of the menu. 

That's a righteous cross-section shot. I wasn't planning on eating this at the park but it was too hot and crowded in the bagel shoppe.

Fear not! The Sandwich Gods are looking after you. 

The Sandwich - Arthur Avenue on an Everything Bagel. I don't know what I was picturing in my head when I ordered it but this is a real chunka-hunka sandwich! It has heft. I love that it was wrapped up all tight and snug so I could bike down to the park without a worry that something would happen to my precious cargo. The rope sausage makes this a little clunky to eat, you just have to be mindful of your bites and aware that your sausage might try to sneak out the back door. We should all be in-the-moment when we eat our sandwiches anyway. (Consider signing up for my workshop - Zen sandwiching.) If my memory serves this sausage isn't quite as spicy as that of sandwich #132, but it still has some kick. The chicken egg isn't runny although the bagel could handle it. The onions and green peppers pair with the sausage expertly and provide some extra texture and viscosity. The mozzarella is proper here as well providing a smooth balance and letting the sausage, onion and pepper do the heavy lifting. Let's be honest, this isn't groundbreaking stuff, people have been pairing those items for a long time, and there's a reason for that. The perfectly toasted everything bagel (the adult version of the donut with "sprinkles") provided the salty and slightly nutty vehicle for it all.

The Result - 4.00 First Impressions Are Important out of 5 First Impressions Are Important. My first thought was to order the Rocky's Deli sandwich and in retrospect that may have been a wiser choice. There was nothing wrong with this sandwich, it was mighty fine, but I felt like I was trying to eat lunch at 9:00 AM instead of breakfast. It's not the sandwiches fault and I still enjoyed it, but something wasn't quite right. This slight misstep may have been the worst thing to happen to me all day and that's something to be thankful for.

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