This Sandwich Shop Will Forever Have My Heart
Just 20 miles north of San Diego sits La Jolla Shores, a little beach town my family started visiting when I was eight years old. Those two weeks were the highlight of my summer (I’m sure spending my days learning to surf at an Aussie surf camp had something to do with that).
One of my favorite spots was Cheese Shop. Opening in 1972, this deli-turned-sandwich shop holds a very, very special place in my heart. I grew up eating these sandwiches on the beach for lunch almost every day. It was the perfect meal to restore the energy expended swimming and surfing and gave the parents some much-needed sustenance to support the day drinking.
Cheese Shop sandwiches are hefty (I usually can’t take down more than half in one sitting), so we, being a family, order family-style. Normally, I support this tactic, but when it comes to Cheese Shop, mamma gets her own, aka the turkey, jack, and avocado. Pretty self-explanatory, two slices of untoasted sourdough bread get generous swipes of mayo and whole grain mustard that insulate thick slices of turkey and jack cheese, crisp iceberg shrettuce, tomato, chunks of avocado, and a dusting of black pepper. It’s not a complicated sandwich by any means. These guys simply know that quality ingredients, and proper ratios, are essential to executing a sandwich that lives in your head rent-free.
The roast pork sandwich is the other item in the family rotation and is just as good. The tenderloin is seasoned with a combination of spices, roasted in-house, and layered on sourdough along with lettuce, tomato, melted jack cheese, mayo, and homemade honey mustard. The thinly sliced meat is full of flavor, the cheese effortlessly pairs with the pork, and the honey mustard adds an element of sweetness that brings the whole sandwich together. I don’t typically opt for pork when it comes to my sandwiches but I make an exception for this one.
Lunchtime isn’t complete without the famous Cheese Shop oatmeal cookies. If the right amount of cookies isn’t ordered (aka, at least two per person), it’s bedlam. Because these cookies aren’t your standard oatmeal cookies. They’re chewy in the middle with crunchy edges, caramel in color and flavor, gluten-free, and insanely good. Despite my best efforts, I’ve been unsuccessful in charming the owner into giving me the top-secret recipe, which has led to aggressive recipe testing that ultimately ends with me in a defeated, frustrated heap on the kitchen floor rage eating dozens of cookies that don’t cut the mustard. But I’m determined to figure it out, one of these days…
I don’t know when I’ll be back next but until then, I’ll be dreaming of Cheese Shop.