Breakfast Sandwich #153 - Wilson's Bar & Grill aka Sandwich Time Warp

Sandwich: Egg Sandwich
Location: Wilson's Bar & Grill
Date: February 2, 2020
Cost: $4.75

The stats don't lie but I would not have guessed that almost 4 years had passed since my last breakfast sandwich at Wilson's. It's crazy. If that wasn't crazy enough the price of the sandwich hasn't changed over that time either. The menu is different although the breakfast sandwich options remain the same. Wilson's is caught in a time warp and I think that's a good thing.

There are still dozens of televisions and if there is a game/match/contest/battle taking place somewhere in the world they'll probably put it on for you. I'm not sure if they'll change the channel on the monitors above the urinals in the men's room, but you can ask. You should ask. This particular morning was the day of Super Bowl LIV so the most compelling story in sports was broadcasters sticking microphones in front of random faces in Miami and asking them to say anything about the game taking place 8 hours later. I learned nothing.

Classic choices.

A bit of a glorious mess happening here.

The Sandwich - Chicken eggs over medium, bacon, American cheese on wheat toast. This was my standard Wilson's order in the years prior to this blog although I sometimes went with the rye bread.

We happened to be sitting directly across from the grill so the cook himself took our order and I could tell he was a man who takes pride in his work. I'll reiterate what I said in the last review about being able to order your eggs cooked as you like them - the importance of this cannot be overstated. This is a hill that myself and several chickens are willing to die on. Actually, the chickens have no say in the matter. It will not surprise you to learn that the eggs were cooked over medium with runny yolks. The bacon was just a touch crispier than I like it, as was the toast, and the cheese was served with a proper melt. There isn't anything of note to say about this sandwich except that it was a bit haphazardly assembled. You can kind of see it in the photo above. It didn't ruin the sandwich but these little details all come into play when we're looking at the big picture.

The Result - 4 Four Year Hiatuses out of 5 Four Year Hiatuses. The runny yolks offset the bacon and toast and made this a properly sloppy sandwich. Overall it was a solid sandwich but it had room for improvement. That's usually how it goes at Wilson's. I've had better sandwiches there and I've had worse. Not much changes at Wilson's and given how much flux the neighborhood has seen it's comforting to know you can still get a breakfast sandwich here that will point your day in the proper direction. The hash browns are also reliable and the bloody mary is delicious. My neighbor at the bar enjoyed a few whiskey and sodas while I had my sandwich and while that strikes me as a rough choice at 10 am, who am I to judge? His wife was probably at church and he wanted to watch an in-depth profile on Patrick Mahome's favorite wristbands.

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Breakfast Sandwich #152 - Lab Report: Lightning Round and Shitty Web Sites

Sandwich: Lab Sandwich - English Muffin, chicken egg, bacon and cheese with spinach.

Date: January 28, 2020

Let's just get right into this with the basic info: Newly Weds King Size Sourdough English Muffin (their web site is clunky but they have some good looking recipes on it if you're into that kind of thing), Usinger's Uncured Bacon (not shown on their site), scrambled chicken egg with some baby spinach mixed in cause I had to use it up, Kraft Deli Deluxe Sharp Cheddar (linked to some weird wholesale food site cause the Kraft web site is garbage and appears to only list about 2% of their products. That's probably the issue with Kraft - they're so busy gobbling up brands they don't even have time to add them to their site. They probably don't even know what they own anymore. Not cool, Kraft.) and finally Cholula Sweet Habanero Hot Sauce (this is the only site linked here that actually links directly to the product in question). 

This particular lab project was focused on processed cheese and hot sauce. 

When I first considered buying the Deli Deluxe cheese my thought was "this is silly". And it is. Deluxe processed cheese? C'mon. But we can't assume these things and the lab exists for this reason.

We also wanted to test drive the Cholula Sweet Habanero Hot Sauce. Full disclosure - this hot sauce was sent to me by the Cholula people along with a Cholula pajama set. These items were won as part of a contest and were not sent to me because I am America's Breakfast Sandwich Sweetheart, although I am that, obviously. 

I could have centered this on a plain plate and removed the rice cooker but I did none of that.

The Result - The Deli Deluxe Cheese isn't quite as creamy and melty as your good ol' regular processed American cheese but it does have a bit of that cheddar zip. It worked well on this sandwich but ultimately I don't think it's worth the higher price tag. In terms of flavor, I think you'd be better off purchasing your favorite cheddar cheese from a creamery such as Shullsburg Creamery and you'll get way more cheese for your buck. However, it does melt better than real cheddar and you may appreciate that for your sandwich. 

The Sweet Habanero hot sauce was new to me although I've been partial to Cholula brand hot sauces for years. The sweet and the heat hit the tongue immediately but the heat dissipates quickly, which is good for a guy like me. If you're a real heat seeker you might need to douse your sandwich with this to get the burn you crave. For me, it's the perfect amount of heat and not as hot as I expected when I saw "habanero". I still prefer their green or original hot sauce for a breakfast sandwich, but I'll be trying to find the perfect compliment for this flavor.

Finally, I recommend throwing a little spinach into your scrambled eggs. It gives the sandwich some color and all manner of vitamin and mineral. You don't get the runny yolk you get when the chicken egg is fried or whatever but you can do that next time. 

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Breakfast Sandwich #151 - Tally's Tap & Eatery aka Egg Reassurance

Sandwich: Tally's Sunset Special
Location: Tally's Tap & Eatery
Date: January 12, 2020
Cost: $9

I'd been to Tally's a few times but either hadn't noticed the breakfast sandwich hiding at the bottom of the menu or it was added as part of their recent menu update. I'd like to think they added it specifically because they noticed that I'd been coming in but I know that's not true and I can't convince myself that I'm a sandwich influencer in Waukesha County. Not yet. But let's be honest, Waukesha County could probably use some influencing, sandwich or otherwise.

I was just about to order Breakfast Tacos when I saw the Tally's Sunset Special lurking in the horizontal stripe at the bottom of the menu. Your yolks can run, but they can't hide. This day just took a turn for the better - a breakfast sandwich has come into my life. A surprise breakfast sandwich. Oh, the glory. 

I nearly missed it.

Nice, right?

This photo is a disaster. It looks like I tried to cut my sandwich in half with a ballpoint pen.

The Sandwich - Tally's Sunset Special. The name confuses me as the sandwich is only served during breakfast which is more of a sunrise type of situation - but let's not get sidetracked by that. 

As far as breakfast sandwich meats go, if given the choice, ham is usually not going to make the cut with me. I'm always afraid I'll get some sad deli ham and that's not a proper foundation for a sandwich. But I had no choice on this day. Ham was my destiny and I was OK with it because the menu description started with "Two eggs prepared the way you like" and the importance of this cannot be overstated. Too many places just tell you how they're going to make your chicken egg, or worse, they don't even tell you! You order your sandwich and all of a sudden you're playing egg roulette with a person you've never met. That's a dangerous game and I don't like my odds and frankly, it's inexcusable. The egg is versatile and can be served on a sandwich in a variety of ways and we know you can do it. So, pull it together menu-makers of America. Give us egg variety or give us...death? That seems a bit dramatic but I think you understand my point. Are you with me here, America? If you are not, I cannot in good conscious be your sandwich influencer.

I ordered my eggs over medium and they were done perfectly. You've already seen the yolks so you know this. 

Before I went off on my egg rant I was talking about the ham. It was NOT sad deli ham. I cannot pretend to know the origins of said not-sad ham, but it was not sad. Not at all.

The other part of this sandwich that I liked was that it comes on a grilled asiago focaccia bun. Here was the only misstep of the sandwich. This bun did not appear to have been grilled. It was tasty and it held up throughout the entire process, but it was rather squishy and grilling it would have helped quite a bit and given it hat nice toasty quality. Perhaps the underside was lightly grilled and I couldn't see it on the inside of the sandwich. If so, it merely kissed the grill.

Oh, there was also cheddar cheese. It was lost in the flavors of the ham and the asiago bun, and that's fine.

The Result - 4.30 Egg Temper Tantrums out of 5 Egg Temper Tantrums. This was a somewhat basic sandwich with the added touch of being served on asiago focaccia that may or may not have been lightly grilled. My ham trepidation was unfounded. Being allowed to order my chicken eggs any-damn-way-I-please and then having them arrive exactly as I thought was reassuring. My wish that the bun had been grilled a bit more was only minimally upsetting. I enjoyed this sandwich and the hash browns were fantastic as well.

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