ST. LOUIS – A sandwich-loving father is using a spreadsheet to come up with the best St. Louis area sandwiches. He has rated many sandwich shops so far in the St. Louis area and started blogging about the city in September 2023.
“My day job is doing internet marketing for a startup, and I was looking for a creative outlet that combined my love of food, internet experience, and St. Louis. Thinking longer-term, I wanted to create a digital record for my kids of all the experiences we have in the city,” said Chris Kolmar, blog owner of All Around Saint Louis.
“I’m very opinionated and data-driven about silly things. I keep an informal power ranking in my head of the best sandwiches in the city. As my buddies and I went to lunch every week, I kept finding better and better places.”
He said he started bringing a ruler and scale to lunch with his buddies, and it snowballed from there.
He keeps track of:
- Price;
- Overall sandwich weight;
- Meat weight;
- Length of the sandwich;
- Time to sandwich: From the time you get in line to the time you’re eating, how long does it take?
“And now I’m the guy measuring meat on my sandwich,” said Kolmar. “To compare anything, you need a baseline; a control group, if you will. I set Subway as that control group, giving it a standardized sandwich score of 5/10 based on taste (my buddies give me a lot of flak for this). This score lets you have a mental reference for my taste since most people have had Subway once.”
From there, he tries to score each sandwich on a 1 through 10 scale, with ten being the best, all relative to the Subway score. Here is his mental breakdown:
- A score in the 5.0 – 7.0 range is better than Subway.
- 7.1 – 7.9 is a good local deli, but it may not be worth driving to.
- 8.0 – 8.9, you’re not crazy for driving 15-20 minutes to get it.
- 9.0+ bring out-of-towners and family here.
- A score of less than five means something has gone wrong.
| Restaurant | price | sandwich_rating | sandwich_type |
| 1. Blues City Deli | $10.50 | 9.7 | Italian Beef |
| 2. Carl’s Deli | $11.95 | 9.3 | Pastrami |
| 3. Union Loafers | $15.00 | 8.9 | Special |
| 4. LeGrand’s Market & Catering | $10.49 | 8.6 | Special |
| 5. Parker’s Table | $13.00 | 8.5 | Special |
| 6. Nomad STL | $14.00 | 8.3 | Pastrami |
| 7. Vivola Express | $13.00 | 8.1 | Italian |
| 8. Gioia’s Deli | $12.00 | 7.8 | Italian |
| 9. Eovaldi’s Deli | $11.95 | 7.2 | Italian |
| 10. Mom’s Deli | $9.50 | 7.1 | Special |
| 11. Adriana’s on The Hill | $13.50 | 6.9 | Italian Beef |
| 12. The Gramophone StL | $14.00 | 6.7 | Special |
| 13. Snarf’s Sandwiches | $13.50 | 6.4 | Italian |
“The sandwich ratings are purely on taste. Anyone rating is then me trying to compare the current flavor explosion to past flavor explosions. I’m not a trained food critic, so it’s just me trying to explain why I like or dislike the sandwich relative to other ones,” said Kolmar. “I also do the standard ratings of 1 to 5 on the restaurant that includes more on price and service.”
In your opinion, what is the best sandwich in St. Louis?
“Blues City Deli Hot Italian with both sets of peppers. Top three sandwiches of my life and the best roast beef by a mile. The amount of flavor in each bite of that Italian beef outpaces every other place in the City,” said Kolmar. “To top it off, the sandwich is one of the cheapest in the area. It’s definitely not the biggest, but each bite packs a punch way above its weight class.”
What makes the best sandwich?
“My personal way to tell – the number of napkins you need to finish it,” said Kolmar.
He explains that the more “sciencey” way to make a great sandwich is to think through the combination of ingredients and how they interact.
Some of Kolmar’s tips to making a great sandwich are:
- Use meat that packs a ton of flavor.
- Make sure the toppings don’t overpower the meat flavor.
- The quality of the bread.
- This is seriously underrated. The bread is one of the biggest sources of calories and flavor in the sandwich, which is why Union Loafers sandwiches are amazing.
- Sauce both pieces of bread.
- Put salt on the toppings, specifically the tomatoes.
- Interweave layers of cheese, toppings, and meat for different flavors.
- Bacon and avocado are cheat codes, so they disqualify sandwiches somewhat from ranking well but make everything taste better.
Kolmar finished his interview by stating that, “Sandwiches are like wine and cigars, you figure out what you like and don’t let anyone else tell you differently.”
If you are interested in seeing what else Kolmar rated, you can check out his blog “All Around Saint Louis.” He rates restaurants, parks and playgrounds, and attractions around St. Louis.