I Can Eat 50 Eggs: The Noble Pig
In honor of Paul Newman and “Cool Hand Luke,” I’ll review 50 days of eggs from 50 different restaurants.
Day 47: Noble Pig (now called Noble Sandwich Co.)
Hours: 7am-3pm Mon-Thu. 7am-5pm Fri-Sun.
By Mike Sutter | Fed Man Walking | 02.16.12
John Bates and Brandon Martinez started the Noble Pig in 2010 as highly overqualified sandwich guys who’ve run their own kitchens, baked their own breads and cured their own bacon. Since then, they’ve become seriouser and seriouser, expanding into the shop next door to sell a line of bread, pickles, bacon, sausages and other charcuterie, including a linguisa terrine with pork, bacon and wine for $12.99 a pound. Add a little apricot mostardo and a $3 loaf of oatmeal honey wheat bread and you’ve got a picnic lunch.
Or you can just let Bates and Martinez build it for you. The Noble Pig BLT ($7) is among the city’s best sandwiches, with roasted tomato and bacon in slabs larger than life. Even a humble egg-salad sandwich ($7) gets the full-brass treatment, with three full deviled eggs cut in half and distributed in unstable hillocks on that same wheat bread. The eggs, in fact, overwhelm the loose weave of the bread, cut too thin to carry the load. Given the eggs’ hilly backsides, it’s already an unstable construction, but this time it fell apart like a trick sandwich from a novelty shop. Napkins, lots of napkins.
Besides the eggs, the build-out is simple. Just a few ribs of Romaine, lacy thin red onions and mayo. That’s enough, because the eggs cradle a bedeviled and be-curried yolk that counts for a full sandwich-building line of flavor and complexity. It comes with a house-pickled mix of sweet cucumbers, carrots, celery garlic and onions and a handful of potato chips from a bag, a good deal for $7. Good luck maintaining that thrifty resolve at the charcuterie counter next door.
(Photos by Mike Sutter © Fed Man Walking)
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