Michael and I stopped by Fat Sal’s over in Pacific Beach a few weeks ago. Fat Sal’s is a sandwich restaurant that started in Los Angeles. One of the owners is Jerry Ferrara (actor from Entourage). They have three restaurants open now with plans to open more in the near future. We did a short Q & A with them which you can find at the end of the post.
The inside features high tables with a good view of Garnet Ave.
We opted to sit in the patio out back which had long benches and a bunch of large flat screens above.
A few months back I watched a tv show called The Next Food Network Star (mostly because of local chef Stacey Poon-Kinney). Anyways there was another contestant on the show that focused on what he liked to call his culinary sins. Fat Sal’s probably has broken more than a few of those culinary sins. With a ton of options, we needed a little help from Johnny, one of Fat Sal’s managing partners. He gave us a rundown of the menu and some highlights that he recommended. After that we prepared ourselves for the culinary sins to follow.
First up, Buffalo Chicken Cheese Fries. This is the best kind of ooeey goeey mess you can ask for. Chopped up chicken fingers, melted cheddar and mozzarella cheese, buffalo hot sauce, and blue cheese dressing all in one bowl. If you like fries and hot wings you will like this. If you do not, get a different flavor combo. I enjoyed the large cuts of chicken mixed into the fries with sauce aplenty. The buffalo sauce wasn’t super spicy for me and the blue cheese wasn’t very sharp either. You can enjoy the combination of flavors since they didn’t go full throttle on the sauces.
We then were served two different sandwiches. The Italiano is basically a cold cut sandwich featuring ham, pepperoni, genoa salami, provolone, tomatoes, lettuce, and hot or sweet peppers…or both as we ordered it. I hate to call this sandwich subtle or plain but compared to other menu items it may be just that here. Now that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just comparatively lighter than its counterparts, which certainly can be desired if you aren’t looking to be strangled by some of the other bold flavor combinations. Enter Fat Jerry. What a beast of a sandwich! If the Italiano caresses you and teases your taste buds, the Fat Jerry ties you up and whips you into submission. I can’t believe I’m going to name all these components but you must know what is in it to believe it. Cheesesteak, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, bacon, fried eggs, fries, mayo, and ketchup. I wouldn’t say this is going to win any awards for the health conscious but damn it was pretty tasty. I’m a fan of each and every item they add to it so how can you go wrong? My only complaint is they pack it in with so many things I couldn’t even get a single complete bite to taste everything together.
Lastly we had a vanilla shake with shaved milk chocolate, toasted marshmallow, and graham cracker crumbs. No we didn’t need it, but at this point it really didn’t matter. Yes it was good. Good enough to fit it in our bellies after eating everything else we were served.
Here’s the Q & A with Fat Sal’s:
1) Where do you get inspiration from and what other restaurants do you visit often?Our inspiration comes from food. We love food and everything about it. Food related programming and seeing what Top Chefs do with food. You can express so much creativity through food. Local Pacific Beach Restaurants we frequent are Enoteca Adriano (Pacific Beach) and Oscar’s Mexican Seafood (La Jolla).2) Do you have plans for more locations?Yes, we plan to grow locally and nationally. We are eyeing Northpark and are currently under construction in Austin, Texas.3) How often do you create new menu items?We feature seasonal and/or monthly burger and sandwich specials, some of which remain on our secret menu.4) What are your top 3 favorite sandwiches at Fat Sal’s?Fat Sal, Fat Jerry, & Fat Texas5) Most interesting request at the restaurant so far?There is a regular customer that comes to our Westwood location 4 or 5 times a week and orders 6 double dogs each with a fried egg, bacon, cheese, jalapenos, fries, and tapatio. Another interesting request was from a cheese loving customer who ordered the Fat Jerry with extra mozzarella sticks, and every kind of cheese we have (american, swiss, provolone, cheddar, and mozzarella)
Special thanks go out to Ashley and Sarah over at Autumn Communications and Johnny for setting the visit up and hosting us.
Fat Sal’s
956 Garnet Ave.
San Diego, CA 92109
www.fatsalsdeli.com
[google-map-v3 width=”580″ height=”350″ zoom=”12″ maptype=”roadmap” mapalign=”center” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”956 Garnet Ave., San Diego, CA 92109{}restaurant.png{}Fat Sal’s” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]
