Midtown Lunch

This weekend was the 4th Annual Meatball Matchup at the American Swedish Histpril Museum. I judged the amaetuer competitors along with Hawk Krall and was reminded of a review he wrote a while back about the sandwiches made at the tiny El Soto Deli & Grocery.

El Soto was even smaller than I imagined, just a few shelved stocked with things like jalepeno chips, tropical jello flavors, and mole starter kits plus a counter to pay at one end and a counter to order from their selections of sandwiches at the other end.

While they don’t make their own stuff here- the deli meat is mostly Dietz & Watson, they do have great options for sandwich accompaniments and were flexible enough to let me create me own.

I adjusted their “enojado” panini. It normally comes with chorizo, cheese, roasted poblanos, and red peppers and a chipotle mayo. Not being a big pepper person, I swapped the red peppers and poblanos out and added in avocado and sun dried tomato. The end result was something I was proud of; crunchy seeded bread, melty cheese, spicy chorizo, creamy avocado,  and tangy sun dried tomatoes. They included the perfect amount of each ingredient. The avocado was ripe and with out any brown spots. For $7.50, this was a sizable sandwich with exactly what I wanted in it.

El Soto Grocery, 1649 S. 15th St, 215 278-7831