Sandwich Awesomeness Abounds at the Serious Eats All-Star Sandwich Festival

Record breaking heat? Eh. What's a little heat when you have the Serious Eats All-Star Sandwich Festival on Governors Island where the spirits were as high as the triple digit temps...

Saturday morning I packed up my Cookie Monster bag with necessary sun essentials, grabbed my enormous umbrella (the kind that would make an i-banker cry from unwieldy umbrella envy) and bid Lawman and Little B farewell.

I helped with set up and watched the lovely shade disappear was the sun moved across the sky.

Thankfully Counter Culture was plying volunteers with delicious iced coffee, which I was happily slurping down, until my brother, Lil Bobo, cut me off on coffee #3.

Serious Eats Overlord, Ed Levine making the rounds pre-opening.

Serious Eaters, start your stomachs! Let the sandwich fest begin...

With Lil Bobo's help I was able to get through almost all of the sandwiches...

Bành Mí Zòn 's refreshing vegetarian bánh mì...

...and classic bánh mì, named best in the city by Serious Eats. I handed this over to Lil Bobo for a bite, and let's just say, I did not get it back.

Peanut Butter & Company's Elvis...yes, that's pb, bananas, honey, and bacon grilled up right.

Locanda Verde's lamb meatball slider. These two bites of lamb-y perfection packed a flavor whollop and turned out to be an awesome size as the eating wore on.

'wichcraft's Pork Belly Slider

and Ricotta and Zucchini sandwich with tomato and olive oil on artisan bread. This sandwich was sprinkled with just a touch of sea salt. I regret not going back for seconds.

Taim's green falafel

The house roasted turkey sandwich from Torrisi Italian Specialties was Lil Bobo's favorite for the day. "Great turkey, great bread, with just the right amount of kick."

My hands-down-couldn't-stop-blabbing-about-it favorite was the ham & cheese from Gramercy Tavern. I'm not really even a ham & cheese fan, but this is a crave-worthy rendition that starts with house smoked ham, shaved thin, topped with fontina cheese, pickled carrots and radishes topped with garlic aioli. BEST. HAM & CHEESE. EVER.

Not surprisingly on of the longest lines was for sliders grilled up by Serious Eats' own J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.

Regular readers know that I don't eat beef. I just don't really like the taste. In fact it's probably been more than fifteen years since I had my last burger. But if I'm going to make a burger exception, a burger developed in the Food Lab kitchen is a good, no, great bet. Delicious.

Once sated with sandwiches I turned my attention to dessert.

Red Plum Sour Cherry popsicles from People's Pop's.

Look! Full sour cherries inside!

And chocolate bouchons from Bouchon Bakery. Why have I never had these before? The heat of the day warmed these brownie like confections up so that the internal chocolate chippies were nice and melty. Heaven.

Also consumed was a curried coconut dusted Cococone from Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. Unfortunately it was demolished before it could be documented, but suffice it to say I enjoyed it as much as the first Cococone I had a couple summers back.

Alas, I couldn't try the Cuatello with Grilled Peaches and Mint from Salumeria Biellese (can't do the hazelnuts) and I somehow missed the meatball sub from Best Pizza, but with the sheer number of food blogger in attendance I'm sure you'll be able to find plenty of pics and delicious write-ups.

And if you can believe it, the company was even better than the sandwiches. It was great to catch up with food lovin' friends both Serious Eats contributors and commentors alike. All-in-all it was a fabulous day. Special thanks to Ed, all the folks at Serious Eats (way to many to name, but you know who you are!), Amy, JoAnne and all the fabulous volunteers. So, um, when's the next sandwich fest?