The Castro’s beloved Ike’s Place is in the news again, and this time the story isn’t rife with drama.
The sandwich shop’s Matt Cain Championship Edition Sandwich has won the ESPN Fanwich award for best sports sandwich in the country, according to Bay Citizen.
Owner Ike Shehadeh and his rowdy team of Dirty-Secret-Sauce-slingers sat down with ESPN in the interview below to shed some light on the famous sando.
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After the Giants won the World Series, the sandwich shop upgraded the original Matt Cainwich with a cardiologist-alerting layer of beer-battered onion rings, California avocado and mozzarella sticks, because “he pitched so beautifully.” That’s some Cain love, right there.
The extra calories paid off when Shehadeh entered the sandwich in ESPN’s Facebook Fanwiches competition and took home gold.
The competition pitted sports-themed sandwiches from across the nation against each other in a national readers poll. Entries ranged from over-the-top to region-specific to extremely amusing. But our very own Ike’s took the crown.
In the ESPN interview, Shehadeh explained that the menu at Ike’s is stuffed with odes to sports heroes, like the Jim Rome sandwich (turkey, Ike’s red pesto, avocado, and cheddar), which took seventh in the same competition, and the Barry Z., which is basically just turkey, avocado and Havarti for $18.5 million. (It’s actually $8.98.)
Ike mentioned the Lincecum sandwich (ham, turkey, bacon, avocado and Havarti) in the interview, but had to admit that a Brian Wilson version has yet to be created. (Tuna and potato chips? Lobster risotto on rye?) This got us thinking: What sando would we create for our favorite players?
Let us know what you would put together in the comments section and check out the video below for plenty of inspiration.