Syracuse Sandwich: Blue Tusk's Three Pigs and Provolone Piccante

Who: The Blue Tusk What: Three Pigs and Provolone Piccante
Where: Armory Square, Syracuse Phone: 472-1934 Website: Blue Tusk
Parking: Street Accepts Credit Cards: Yes Take-Out: Yes Delivery: No

     While a friend was in town to visit family and have an engagement party last week, he invited Christine and I to join him for dinner at the Blue Tusk in Armory Square. The Blue Tusk is primarily a bar but has an extensive menu that has quesadillas, salads, soups and deserts along with different meats and cheeses from throughout the world. Of course where there is meat and cheese, there are sandwiches. Blue Tusk menu is dominated by sandwiches and paninis so this place was right up my alley. To order you go up to the food only counter and place your order at which time you get a buzzer like you do at most places when you’re waiting for a table. There is no assigned seating, you just have to find room but there were many open tables in the back of the place while we were there. Christine isn’t a huge sandwich fan but she was able to find something she might like, the roast beef and Stilton with lettuce, tomato, onion, horseradish and mayo on Pastabilities’ Italian stretch bread. You might ask what Stilton is; Stilton is a mild cow’s milk cheese from England. I decided to go out on a limb and order a very complex sandwich. Three Pigs and Provolone Piccante features prosciutto di parma, mortadella, sopressata, with roasted red peppers, banana peppers, red onion and extra virgin olive oil on Pastabilities’ Italian stretch bread. There are a few ingredients listed that I will explain: mortadella is baloney with pistachio nuts from Bologna, Italy, prosciutto di parma is salted air cured ham from Parma, Italy, and sopressata is spicy air-dried salami from Calabria, Italy. So to sum up my sandwich, I had three meats, three veggies, and some cheese. For sides they have Dirty brand potato chips and homemade potato salad. I chose the latter while Christine picked from 10 different flavors of Dirty chips.

     When our buzzer went off, I ran up to the counter to grab our food because I couldn’t wait to try it. I’ve wanted to come to Blue Tusk for a while because of the menu but never go downtown really. Christine enjoyed her sandwich and ended up bringing her chips home because it was so filling. I started with the potato salad which was very light, not too heavy on the mayo. The potatoes they used were red skin and the skins were left on. A small cup was the perfect portion to go along with my large sandwich. The Italian stretch bread is the perfect vessel for lots of fillings and olive oil because while the crumb is soft and airy, the crust is chewy but not tough. This allows for it to hold a lot and not get soggy or floppy. The best way to describe the taste from the combination of the meats is if you’ve ever had an Italian meat sub. Only this tastes ten times better because the meats are of very high quality. The peppers and red onion along with the olive oil gave supplied the moisture this sandwich needed along with a Mediterranean style taste. I couldn’t get enough of this flawless sandwich but I did have one problem, I want to taste each of the meats on their own. It’s not the sandwich’s fault at all, I’ll just have to go back and get the sandwiches that feature each one on their own.

Rating: Delicious – I can’t wait to go back, Syracuse needs more of these types of places.