Serious Sandwiches at Jake’s Sandwich Board

I love reading menus of the places I plan on going to eat. When I first looked at the menu for 12th Street’s newest sandwich joint, Jake’s Sandwich Board,  the words “whole roasted pig” jumped right off the page and smacked me in the face. Then I got hit again- some crazy genius at Jake’s designed a sandwich with hot dog slices and rib eye steak and another with turkey breast, bacon, and a black cherry spread. I knew I was going to like this place.

All sandwiches are either 7 or 8 dollars and are huge.

Jake’s provides pencils for checking off the ingredients on a list to customize your roasted pig sandwich. I checked off the boxes for crushed chili, provolone, and cracklings. Of course cracklings.

Sandwiches are served on plain, seeded, or multi- grain carangi rolls. I liked the seeded as a match for the pork au jus. While the meat wasn’t the thick, hand carved slices of pork that I expected, the chunks of pulled pork mixed with the crisp skin cracklings and spicy chili relish served me well. They pack a ton of juicy meat into that sandwich.

The slices of turkey in the Village Turkey had crispy bits of skin clinging to them. The turkey flavor was brightened by the smokiness and fat from the bacon. I loved the added twist of the cherry spread; it established the savory, salty, sweet trifecta. The arugula provides the bitter element if you like that sort of thing, or you could sub in spinach.

The fries are also very good. $2 adds a soda and a pile of fries to your sandwich. You will undoubtedly be stuffed after consuming the combo.  The sodas were some microbrew that I did not recognize, but I was happy with my honey ginseng iced tea option.

One downside is that after a sandwich and fries, I had no room for a milk shake. I will be back very soon for one of those and to try the other crazy sandwiches.

P.S. Don’t forget, as Meal Ticket pointed out- sandwiches are buy one get one between 5-7 until the end of the month

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

  • Eclectic menu of giant sandwiches
  • They are good about substituting ingredients to your preference
  • Tasty fries and a good combo deal
  • They even offer salads and naked (no bread) options for carb phobes

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

  • So full! No room for a milk shake!
  • Hand-carved whole roasted pig makes me think of something other than pulled pork

Jake’s Sandwich Board,  122 S 12th St  (@ Sansom St ), 215-922-0102

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3 Comments

  • This sounds absolutely amazing… and CRACKLINGS!!

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    My friend told me he has a coupon for buy one get one free. They gave him one as he walked by yesterday. I googled the place and found out there was a midtownlunch entry about it, cool.

    After looking at the menu online, I knew I wanted the whole roasted pig. When we got there, the place seems packed, we didn’t know where the line starts. Even though we were confused and have no clue what was going on, the cashier who took our order was very friendly and patience with us. I ordered the whole roasted pig with everything. This included roasted peppers, roasted long-hots, broccoli rabe, sharp provolone, raw onion, crushed chili, and cracklings. I decided to get the au jus sauce instead of the horseradish sauce with the mult-grain roll, but they didn’t have the multi-grain so I went for the seeded.

    My friend got the Mensch. It’s 12 hour beef brisket, horseradish sauce (that’s why I didn’t get the horsey sauce), fried onions, melted provolone cheese. He order the combo, and I got a root beer floats.

    There is a roll of paper towel on each table…you’ll need it. the sandwich was ready before I had a chance to sit down and read all the menu items.

    My friend and I swapped half our sandwiches. My original plan was eat 1/4 of mine and 1/4 of his… then take the rest back to work. when the sandwiches came out, I realized there is no way I can eat this at work without creating a mess…so I decided to eat the whole thing…

    After tasting the first bite, I had a feeling it was messing something. Someone came out with the long-hots, they forgot to put it in, no problem. I took one and threw it on my sandwich. It was perfect… No ketchup or sriracha needed. They have sriracha sauce, I always figure places should offer sriarcha on cheesesteak or cheeseteak like hoagies.

    Toward the end of my 1/2 half sandwich ,I bit into the end part of the pepper. You know where it’s the stem is at.. it’s the part that has the membrane that holds the seed together… yea… that was hot…

    I was sweating non-stop..even after my mouth stop burning. The ice cream from the root beer float help control the burning. Thank gooodness from root beer float.

    The pork was good, I enjoyed the meat itself, everything else added to the sandwiches was just extra goodness to the meat.

    After 5 paper towels and 1/2 a sandwich later, I went after the Mensch. My friend suggested I put the sauce in the sandwich, putting it on top will just make it slide off. Good advice, but I went with no sauce (other than the horsey sauce that came with it). There were two things I remembered from the mensch… at this point I can’t really taste anything anymore… but the fried onion were good and the horseradish was nice. It wasn’t too strong but had just enough kick to it.

    My friend noticed a food challenge on the wall. It’s near the bathroom… something about 2 ft long, pretzel, peanut chew, drink… I think I can do it… I don’t think I should do it…

    My friend thought I was crazy, he was completely stuff from the meal and wanted to go home. I was more than satisfied.

    Oh, they had $1 ice cream cone special on the sign in front of the entrance.

    my hands still smell like roast pork… I should’ve saved half for work…. dang it.

  • @ mbuu Good call on the ice cream, I just passed by that today. I really can’t resist things that are a dollar. Sounds like you had a delightfully messy lunch. If you are thinking about taking the Jake’s challenge you better let us know!! I want pictures!

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