French Dip Quest! 5 beefy sandwiches
We love a good salad, but there’s nothing like a roast beef sandwich when we need to get our protein on.
So we’ve been searching for the best French dip sandwich in Charlotte. It’s rigorous, demanding work that has taken years. But we’ll clog our arteries at CharlotteFive because we love you.
Philippe The Original in Los Angeles claims to have created the “French Dipped Sandwich” in 1918. They put beef and other meats on a crusty French roll dipped in jus. And that’s what we were looking for. We’re FD purists and disqualified restaurants who claimed a FD when it was really a panini (even if we liked it).
Recommendations:
Nan and Byrons offered a credible sandwich of shaved prime rib for $10.25. Mac and cheese gets a CharlotteFive-star rating.
East Blvd Bar and Grill: Shaved beef with melted swiss cheese on French bread. Inconsistent (one sandwich was fatty). Love the home fries. $10.49
Lebowski’s: Gotta love a place with pictures of the Dude on the wall.
OK, beef on weck is not a French dip but it’s a first-cousin. And we love our cousins.
Slow-roasted angus round on a kaiser roll with embedded caraway seeds and kosher salt. $8.95.
They charge 49 cents for the jus. Go for it. Comes with chips and fries are extra. Loved ’em.
(Bonus: We liked the Fredonia Dip On Grilled Hoagie, even though it’s actually a panini with jus. $9.75.)
Firebirds Wood Fired Grill: Prime rib on a toasted baguette, steak fries and cider slaw.
At $15.99 you should expect top-quality beef and a great overall experience. They deliver: Lots of food, excellent beef, good bread, good fries.
131 Main: Our favorite. We have eclectic tastes. We can appreciate the basic burger at Brooks Sandwich Shop (see our 5 things to love about Brooks on C5) and the upscale French dip at 131 Main, far and above others (and we checked out about five more dips).
It’s called the Sterling Prime Rib Sandwich and it retails for $18. Yeah, 18 bucks.
Tender tasty beef, some of it rare, sliced very thin on an uninteresting toasted roll. In other words, the bun stayed out of the way.
Mayo helps keep the sandwich moist, since we didn’t care that much for the salty jus. It was unnecessary because we slathered on some horseradish. Nice boost. Lots of thin fries.
Worth the money? Yep. Eat half and take the rest home.
Michael Weinstein is features editor for the Charlotte Observer. Follow him @mikew234.
This story was originally published May 12, 2015 at 11:29 PM with the headline "French Dip Quest! 5 beefy sandwiches."