Episode L: Zenzero Kitchen (DFW)

Welcome to the Golden episode of the Reuben Ranger.  L! We made it. Unlike the NFL, we will continue with roman numerals until the end of time. I don’t know why I like roman numerals but I do. Maybe it was traveling through Europe as a kid and seeing the landmarks dated with them or maybe it was in high school when the Y2K was going on and MMs were the candy to have. Any kind of esoteric academic thing that annoys other people, I’m usually all about it.

A lunch date with my sweetie at Zenzero Kitchen was the perfect opportunity to try a Reuben at a cozy little lunch spot in town. I was trying to fight off a cold but I had enough in me to give this one a try.

Here’s to another L to get us to C.

Reuben Panini

“Corned beef cooked in-house with swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing. Served on jewish rye bread with house-made potato chips”

Appearance – (3.9/5.0)

The Reuben looks great but it doesn’t look like a Panini. I appreciate the toasty bread but it doesn’t look like this sandwich actually met a press. It also does not have the buttery glow of a Panini. When I ordered, I asked for the Reuben and I assumed they were going to bring me the Reuben Panini, but looks like I got the off-menu Reuben. I am ok with that but just seems misleading.

This Reuben is a good example of what happens when good toothpicks go bad. It seems to have split one half of the sandwich in two. Clean cut. Looks like a Samurai went through it. 

The house-made potato chips look great but they block the center cut cross section view.

Quality of Ingredients – (4.6/5.0)

I have to start with the brisket, corned beef. I have mentioned before on this blog that it is gutsy to serve corned beef in Texas.  You could use the same cut of meat, slather it with mustard, sprinkle on a simple salt and pepper rub and smoke it! The corned beef on this sandwich was not thinly sliced but cut more like you would serve a brisket sandwich. The meat had some body to it but was tender enough to pull apart.

The menu stressed in-house corned beef and house-made potato chips but the Russian dressing, for me, is what really had the home cooked flavor to it. So, they either have a really good supplier or they forgot to mention that.  They did capitalize Russian on the menu and did not capitalize Swiss or Jewish. This place could be the Communist Bastian of Texas.  They had me questioning whether or not they actually smoke brisket. Scary stuff…

Price – (3.9/5.0)

$12. You know it is expensive when the menu uses whole numbers. If you worry about numbers to the right of the decimal, you probably can’t afford this place. It is better than the $18 Reuben at City Café but still seems high.  

Je Ne Sais Quoi – (4.4/5.0)

There was definitely a “Ladies Who Lunch” vibe going on here. It is a narrow space with Euro style tables that run the length of the room. You can find yourself very close to your neighbor and you have to pretend you are not listening to their conversation. There is a fancy coffee machine in the front and you can pick up the subtle scent of coffee from your table. This atmosphere is hard to pull off in North Texas because if there is one thing the metroplex has, it’s space.

Taste – (9.2/10.0)

The non-Panini caught me off guard and it is expensive, but it was good! I might even say it was worth it but only if you order water. If you have to pay for a drink too, now you are up to ~$14. Plus, they make it so easy for you to tip 15% or 18% with the iPad square app, now you are getting close to $20.

The toasted non-pressed jewish rye really set the tone and corned beef was tasty and not over seasoned. The sauerkraut did its job by bringing balance to the dish but not overpowering the other flavors. If the first thing you talk about is the sauerkraut, you have done something wrong.  The belle of the ball is the meat and this Reuben had that down!

Overall – (26.0/30.0)

Would I order it again? Yes (with water).  There are usually more qualifiers when I say I would order it again, but this one I really would. Of all 50 (Arabic numerals!) Reubens, I have yet to have the same one twice. This is the closest to my house and could be the first one I go back for. 

Episode XLII: Woolman Café (ATL)

The café at work has come a long way since Episode XIV. A few months ago the whole place was remodeled and the menus updated. “Fresh Sushi” seemed to be the tagline.  My go-to is the off-menu Buffalo Chicken Wrap, extra tomatoes, provolone instead of blue, spinach wrap please. If I want to change it up, and feel well hydrated, I get the generous BLT. Once I made sure I could still get these, I was ok with the new layout and look.

One of the revamped stations features daily Panini. Word got to me pretty quickly that there was a Reuben on the menu but it wasn’t there every day. You have to check the menu at the beginning of the week. It seemed to be competing with the Cuban for the Panini shelf space.

I was in the café one Friday and the deli line was long so I walked over to the Panini station to see if the Reuben was there. I was in luck. Three Reubens, pre-pressed, were stacked high and looking right at me. The guy behind the counter popped one in the oven and the timer showed 00:45. 45 seconds?!?  The scorching Reuben came out and it was time to get down to business.

Reuben Panini

Appearance – (3.7/5.0)

This presentation is a causality of its little fry carton.  The top bread has started to fall off, exposing empty bread and a line of 1000 island. The way it is falling also draws your eyes to the Asian side salad that comes with the sandwich.  I have a feeling they don’t consider the featured sandwich when they come up with the side. I don’t see an Asian salad going well with a Cuban either.

Those Panini grill marks really steal the show. From what I can tell, only one side of the Panini press has those grooves.  Look at the bottom piece of bread. Totally smooth.  If you have to plate this in a fry carton, I would make sure both Panini groove sides are facing up.

The side view is not much better. This really exposes some issues with the Panini approach. The visual of sauerkraut/meat ratio is way off.  Universally thin cuts of meat suggest pre-package, pre-sliced.  It is also difficult to spot any cheese from this shot. I would think melted cheese would be a big plus from a Panini.

Quality Of Ingredients – (4.2/5.0)

The quality of the individual pieces was not bad. If I ever feel like a break from my buffalo wrap, I head to the salad bar. It is expensive, but what makes a good salad bar is solid individual selections.  This place definitely has that.

The problem wasn’t the ingredients that they used, it was what they did to them. Not many food combinations would do well when you press them in a Panini, let it cool, and then throw it in the oven. A piece- by-piece breakdown on this is coming up in taste.

Price – (3.8/5.0)

Long gone are my days at Bain Capital with free Odwalla drinks and heavily subsidized scratch-made meals. The café at work is run by a publically traded company. They know I had a choice of either bringing my lunch, going out to get lunch, or coming to their café. If I didn’t care enough to bring my lunch then I probably am not the most price conscious. If I didn’t go out to lunch then I probably don’t have lots of time. Crunched for time and money to spend means you drop close to $10 once you are all in with chips and a drink.  This is not exactly Dollar Taco.

Je Ne Sais Quoi – (3.6/5.0)

The romantic in me really was excited about trying the Panini. I was skeptical, but hopeful that a good Reuben could come out of that. I was wrong. The JNSQ potential quickly evaporated.  This sandwich definitely got me thinking about what should and should not go into an oven and/or a Panini press.

Taste – (7.9/10.0)

The side Asian salad was just not very good. We can leave that one there and focus on the sandwich.

Given the ingredients, I think they could have produced a satisfactory Reuben. The temperature changes just doomed the whole operation. I have talked before about how a Reuben is not something that does will in a doggy bag. You have one shot to enjoy it!

Corned Beef – This is probably the least affected by the temperate swings.  These slices are too thin to lose too much juice anyway.

Swiss Cheese – Also, largely unaffected.

Sauerkraut – This is the issue folks. I wish I would have taken more chemistry in school but I didn’t. I do know that the pH levels in this stuff has something to do with why it doesn’t age well and should not be subjected to temperature swings.

1000 island – This just seems like a bad idea given that it is a mayonnaise based sauce.

Rye bread – The bread loses some of the crunch from the Panini when it is in the oven. This gives you the weird sensation of bread that is warm, somewhat firm but not toasted.

Overall – (23.2/30.0)

This is not the café’s best dish. I will stick to my buffalo wrap or salad bar. I may even try the sushi but I doubt it could be better than H-E-B sushi!

Episode XII: Cracker Barrel (ATL)

Throughout its history, Atlanta has been a transportation hub. Plains, trains and automobiles are always passing through.  For those of you that do not know, traffic in Atlanta is horrible, even on the weekends because of construction projects. Luckily, since so many people drive through the city on a holiday weekend, state and local governments put a temporary halt to all projects to allow traffic to flow freely.

This through traffic brought to town the Meachum family from southwestern Ohio. A quick congestion-free drive from our house took us to the local Cracker Barrel to meet up with the Meachums and their awesome RV. Table for ten please.

Grilled Reuben Platter

"A generous serving of thinly sliced seasonal corned beef, four slices of Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and our own dressing all grilled on our seeded rye bread make our Reuben one to remember."


Appearance - (3.6/5.0)No toothpicks! Instead they put two pickles in their place. Interesting, never seen it. It also appears that the pickles hold the sandwich together just as well as toothpicks. Once I got over the pickles, the burnt fries took over.  The plate is also not symmetrical, does that bother anyone else? I have not mentioned that on other posts but maybe I should start noting it. I took the sandwich apart to get the money shot and the sauerkraut took over. Looks like a sauerkraut waterfall. A little bit of effort could have really improved this score.

 

Quality of Ingredients - (3.7/5.0) Butter. That is the first thing that came to mind with this Reuben. I should have known given the name was Grilled Reuben and I was at a Cracker Barrel in the south. That being said, it was good butter. It did overpower the rye flavor of the bread, which is hard to do. The Swiss cheese was great and very melty. "Our own dressing" just tasted like out-of-the-bottle Thousand Island. It was ok but nothing special. The sauerkraut was kind of sweet and tangy. I almost forgot about the corned beef, not a good sign. Once I sought it out and tasted it I would say it was average.

Price - (4.1/5.0)This Reuben ended up being free for me (Thank you, Meachums!) but at the time I did not know that. It clocked in at $8.49. Not bad. Danny Boy really like the country store and we had a nice time on the rocking chairs outside after our meal. Our server was also nice enough to put in this order for me before they officially start serving lunch at 11:00 AM. Thank you, Tanisha.

Je Ne Sais Quoi - (3.0/5.0)
Ehh.. Nothing really special about this one. Danny Boy was being fussy and made it difficult to concentrate on the Reuben. Actually these pickles were good and were not your average deli pickle.  They were tangy. I ate the first one because I was curious and ate the second because the first was so good.

Taste - (8.6/5.0)
This was really a Reuben panini. It had tons of butter and was pressed. It tasted like a panini and that is not a bad thing. I think that is why they put four slices of Swiss cheese on the thing; it works well in the panini style. The other components of the sandwich took a back seat to the butter and cheese. I think it would have tasted just as good with less sauerkraut.

Overall -  (23.0/30.0)
I liked my Reuben panini and stand by my decision to order it this time. The opportunity cost was the excellent blueberry pancake plate my wife had. It takes dedication to order a Reuben at 10:54 AM but that is why I am here. I would order this again but not at breakfast. Next time I could go for some biscuits and gravy.