ReidWegs.com

Homegrown Sustainable Sandwich Shop
1531 Melrose Ave.
Seattle, Wash., 98122
(206) 682-0935

*Update as of 3/2/11: Homegrown is making way for a new Spring menu and is pulling the sandwich reviewed below from its menu with no promise to ever bring it back. If you want to sample this sandwich get it before March 19.

Another Saturday, another sandwich. Ah yes, life is rough. Perusing the list of Seattle Magazine’s 48 top-rated sandwiches is a dreamy affair and what I imagine the wealthy must feel like when trying to decide which Caribbean island to moor their yacht on each weekend. The choices are vast and each represents the creme dela creme; the upper crust if you will. This weekend’s sandwich stop had two things going for it before my wife and I even walked through its door: for one, I’m all about sustainability. It’s more than just a marketing buzzword for this flak. And two, even though I no longer partake in such pleasures, nothing tops the homegrown, be it sudsy or smokey.

Upon entering Homegrown’s Capital Hill location diners are whisked away from the concrete jungle and into the dynamic Melrose Marketplace which includes an old-fashioned, but suddenly hip butcher shop in Rain Shadow Meats, the fragrant Calf & Kid cheese shop, the beautiful Marigold and Mint flower shop, and the avante garde Sitka & Spruce restaurant, among others. There’s even a small bar called Ferd’nand. All of the shops in the Melrose Market, including the bar, feature their goods in a communal environment, giving it the feel of an indoor farmer’s market. If forced to choose between Homegrown’s Freemont, Queen Anne or Capital Hill location for lunch, my wife and I would choose Capital Hill every time. Ambiance is key.

When my wife saw the Crab Cake, Bacon + Avocado sandwich on the menu board she was elated. I tried to talk her into the Turkey, Bacon + Avocado offering for diversity’s sake, but she wasn’t having it. So we ordered two, plus a side of yummy french fries with toasted fennel and herbs, served with a tangy sage aioli. Finding a place to sit with our eight-month old was dicey because of Homegrown’s limited seating, but not impossible. Fellow diners in Seattle seem to understand the issues that babies bring to the table, making it a truly unique city, and they play along with us in cramped situations which is always a relief. And for convenience, our sandwiches were ready within minutes. At least one of them was. The girl working the counter somehow missed out on the fact that we wanted two sandwiches. Too many piercings, perhaps?

The cook behind the counter made up for the mistake and showed what customer service is all about. Recognizing that the wife and I wanted to eat together he offered to cut our sandwich in half. And when the next one was ready did the same and through in a couple of yummy dill pickles for free. The timing of the second sandwich was perfect too, as we gulped down the first one in just minutes. The thick and smokey bacon topping the crispy crab cake was the perfect accomplice to the fat slices of avocado the crab cake sat on. And the hazelnut romesco and chimichurri lining the toasted bun gave just the right amount of zip and zest to the sandwich.

Being a fan of all things crab, I’ve always stumbled on and bitched about the many crab cakes that have come my way. Perfecting a crab cake truly is a science. And Homegrown hit a home run with its crab cake. It wasn’t doughy, or dominated by nappy flour. It was just crab, seasoned to lemony perfection, and housed in a tight, thin and spicy crust. It let the crab dominate, proving its freshness. Most crab cakes are lame attempts to mask a lack of freshness, but not at Homegrown. This crab cake could stand all alone as a small plate dish. The fact that it lives in a sandwich that includes bacon (my favorite meat) and avocado (my wife’s favorite veggie) is pure genius. We were still licking our lips and enjoying our burps while working the clearance racks at REI hours later.

Homegrown’s Crab Cake, Bacon + Avocado belongs on Seattle Magazine’s list of the top sandwiches in Seattle. Based on Seattle culture, history and industry I think it belongs in the magazine’s Bucket List, but I digress. Reidwegs.com will have its own Bucket List by the end of this wonderful process. The quality a Bucket List nominee should inherently own is the ability to make one want to visit that sandwich again and again, and to want to sample the other goodies on the menu as well. The Swinery has been calling us back for two weeks now to sample more of its porkey fun fare, and now Homegrown has had the same effect. If I’m not grubbing the Crab Cake, Bacon + Avocado delight on our next visit, I’ll be sampling the Reuben Revised or one of the awesome seasonal offerings, such as the Pot Roast sandwich.

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