i remember the very first time i went to subway. my college boyfriend, joe, took me to the subway in kirksville, missouri (i went to what is now truman state university after i graduated high school). i guess i would have been 19 years old. that's right, 19 years old before i set food in a sub shop. i ordered a turkey on white with swiss cheese, mayo & mustard. and... that's it. i got "what? that's IT?" looks from everyone i was with & those behind the counter. i hadn't yet learned the joys of piling on the extras. but i hadn't had much experience in my youth with multi-ingredient sandwiches.
we didn't have cold cuts or deli meats in our fridge when i was a kid. we always, ALWAYS, had hunter brand bologna & pickle loaf and usually some kraft singles. there was a time when i was addicted to braunschweiger but that was very early on & relatively short lived. (an aside: i tried braunschweiger again when i worked at a deli & really have no idea what i was thinking as a kid. eeewww!) i ate braunschweiger, pickle loaf and "raw" bologna the same way: with lots of mayo on white bread. (that's another thing. we only had white bread in our house. i remember hating to have lunch at my grandparent's house because they only had wheat bread. oh how naive my tastebuds were!) if i fried it (oh mama, i love me some fried bologna!) i'd have it with ketchup & toast the bread. sometimes i would fry the bologna then put it between 2 peices of cheese & then fry it in a pan with some butter so i had grilled cheese with bologna in the middle. the only other thing i might put on a sandwich was the occasional layer of potato chips smooshed under the bread (mayo holds the pieces in nicely).
since that first visit to subway, my love for different kinds of sandwiches with more & more accoutrement has grown exponentially. i still go back for the occasional bologna (in fact i kinda want one now) but my palate has matured, i suppose, and i've been more & more adventurous when it comes to the extras. i like subway but prefer mr. goodcents and like quizno's baked subs even more. then, i found the ultimate. within a mile of our apartment, there is at least one of all the aforementioned sub shops but i will drive an additional 6 miles, passing all the others, to get to my new favorite: planet sub.
planet sub originated in lawrence, kansas (as "yellow sub") but now has locations in the kansas city area, iowa, nebraska, oklahoma, illinois & colorado (yay! i can still get my fix after we move to denver!). the atmosphere is very i-listen-to-phish-and-wear-hemp-necklaces. while i was waiting for my order, i heard the grateful dead and primus coming from their speakers. the walls remind me of a few college dorm rooms i've been in: framed beatles posters & album covers & a yellow submarine-esque mural on part of one wall. the tables look as if they found a furniture store that was going out of business in the late 80's & bought about 20 heavy wood dining room sets. the dining area is large, open and uncrowded. there are huge windows in between the kitchen & dining room so you can see them making your sandwich.
both times i've had planet sub, i've had the green turkey sub. i'm not sure what john had previously but on our most recent visit, he had the planet sub (also called the yellow sub). i'll get to what's on these bad boys in a moment. i hadn't thought about writing about planet sub until after i got home so i didn't think to take a picture of the shop.
selection: they have a selection of traditional and unique sandwiches made with fresh ingredients on bread they bake daily. once the sandwiches are assembled, they are oven baked. a lot of the extras they have can't be found at any other sub shop. the selection is simply huge. for example, they don't just have *A* veggie sub, they have TEN different veggie subs. i just counted on their menu & they have no less than 45 different sandwiches plus 2 wraps & 4 salads. to see the kansas city area menu, click here.
taste: yummy doesn't even begin to describe it. is there a word that combines delicious, bliss and disneyland? because that might be close. the green turkey has turkey, bacon, guacamole, onions, sprouts, tomatoes and cream cheese. yes, cream cheese! the first time i ordered it, i wasn't too sure about having cream cheese on a meaty sandwich which was then baked to boot but planet sub has made me very sure about it. it adds a creaminess that i never knew i was missing. then there's the little bit of sweet & spice from the salsa and the wonderful avacadoy-ness (new word. i just invented it.) of the fresh guacamole. it was like sex on a stick, without the stick or the cuddling. the ONLY thing that occasionally sets the sandwich back the littlest bit of a half-step is that the sprouts get a tad chewy after they are baked. john's sandwich was equally tasty. it had ham, roast beef, turkey, bacon, swiss, lettuce, tomatoes, brown mustard and mayo. they pack in so much meat & top it with an abundance of extras. these sandwiches are simply amazing.
ranch: none at this time. but it would probably be a good addition to john's sandwich.
service: after you place your order, you are given a playing card (i had the ace of hearts on my last visit) and when your food is ready, they bring it out & announce what card the order goes with. there is no real wait staff at planet sub since you order at the counter but the dude who took my order was funny, helpful & nice. the food took probably 10 minutes to get to me.
value: whole subs (about 12 inches) are around $8 and half (about 6 inches) are around $4.50. the half filled me up just fine but john got a whole one so our bill was about $13. great deal for the amount of food you get & very comparable to other sub shops.
bathroom: didn't check this one out.
reheatability: not an issue here as i ate the whole thing. if i didn't i would just eat it cold which i did the last time we had planet sub. it tasted great cold, the flavors blended together nicely after sitting in the fridge a bit.
i could just go on & on about how great planet sub is. i am SO glad that there's one in the denver area so i can get my fix after we move. after having planet sub, no other sub shop will do. i urge anyone who is going to be in a state that has one to go out of your way to check out planet sub. it totally rocks my world in a way it had yet to be rocked.
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