The Lucca sandwich: Breseola, rocket, truffle paste, parmesan and straccitella cheese on herb focaccia bread
If you look at the right time, you might see the little counter shop as you walk by on B Street. But you could also be ten feet away on 6th Avenue and not even know there’s a restaurant here.
Because it’s just a small box – you could hardly call it a kitchen – and the whole thing is below street level. From the sidewalk, it just blends into the gardens in front of the high-rise at 600 B Street. And you can find this building by looking for the words “San Diego Union-Tribune” written on the top of it. At least, you would have been able to find that if the newspaper’s logo hadn’t been removed last month for unpaid rent.
A small box from a sandwich shop
There Is the building is still branded for We Work offices, which apparently can still afford to be here, so I guess I’ll have to call it the We Work building instead. Don’t worry, this is only a concern if you value things like free press or print publications.
Anyway, the Lucca Italian Sandwich Shop opened around the same time last month, and its window faces the entrance of the building, because whoever works there after UT is the shop’s regular clientele. When it’s lunchtime, hungry office workers stream out of the lobby on the elevators, and this is the first food they see. Normally, I wouldn’t give this shop a second glance, even if it were easy to spot.
But I noticed the two words in the middle of the name: Lucca Italian Sandwich Shop. I was as alert as a fox terrier because I was a tourist in Florence and had to wait in line to buy such Paninimade from mortadella, Stracciatella sauce Cheese and pistachios.
The “Firenze”, the Italian name of the city of Florence, where mortadella, stacciatella and pistachio sandwiches are popular
Not for the mortadella, which is the finely ground bologna meat that an American genius had in mind when he invented “Boloney”. What I liked most was the idea of putting pistachios on a sandwich. But that only works thanks to the Stracciatella saucea surprisingly refreshing mozzarella paste that spreads like whipped cream cheese on the bread. But what really made all these Tuscan sandwiches distinctive was the focaccia-like bread.
This type of sandwich made the Florentine sandwich shop Al’Antico Vinaio a star, which now also has a presence in the USA, including two in Los Angeles. Tuscany nerds will quickly point out that the bread is called schiacciata: similar to focaccia, but thinner and crispier.
So for them I will say Lucca makes his version of this sandwich, which Florence (14 $), on the schiacciata-like bread, focaccia. It is seasoned with herbs and baked in a small electric tabletop oven in the shop. And the sandwich is garnished with basil pesto and arugula.
Other sandwiches are reminiscent of other communities with alternative meats and toppings: Rome ($15.50) consists of prosciutto and mozzarella; Pisa ($15) consists of artichokes, red pepper and spicy salami; and the typical Lucca ($17.50) consists of cured beef SubscribeTruffle paste and more Stracciatella sauce Cheese. A non-alcoholic Aperol Spritz ($3) — part of an interesting collection of organic Italian sodas — reinforced the illusion. I like that exaggeration for a sandwich shop in the courtyard of a tour bus that looks like an office building. I bet the journalists would have liked it, too.
