Pork Philly — A Cut Above, Santa Monica Ave, Los Angeles

2015-03-17 11.08.17If you find yourself in a place that offers a roast pork hoagie but not a cheesesteak, order the hoagie. I need no other signal that a sandwich is going to be quality; if you realize that the real story out of Philadelphia isn’t what everyone says it is, you’re probably going to make a sandwich I’ll enjoy. The above was no exception. Thinly sliced roast pork, collard greens braised with a smoked ham hock, smoked gouda and mustard on a soft hoagie roll. Just the right sort of harmony a great sandwich needs: rich, earthy, smokey, deep and with a slight tang. A Cut Above is a high end butcher shop, the kind of place where it would all be too easy for them to just insist on the heritage of the pork and expect that to carry the sandwich. The pork here is of fine provenance, no doubt, but they also care enough to put together a darn good sandwich.

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