Pennybackers

One word: disappointing. I am a HUGE fan of the sandwich. There are few things better in this world than a really good sandwich. Just ask my best friend, I always wish for a "really good sandwich" and he says "well of course you want a good one, no one wants a mediocre sandwich." But when I say really good sandwich I don't mean bells and whistle, compotes, fancy cheeses, etc. I mean a simple sandwich made well. So back to the topic at hand, Pennybackers, in downtown Harrisonburg. They opened about a month ago and boy was I hopeful. I was looking forward to a great sandwich place because I feel Harrisonburg is missing that. I did not get a great sandwich place. I got an overpriced, blah sandwich, with some weird tater tots and some campbell's soup with chunks of cheese.

Let's start with the soup. I ordered the roasted red pepper and gouda soup, I believe that was the correct name. What I got was a crock about 2/3 full of some semi-hot soup with chunks of cheese in it. The soup tasted more like campbell's creamy tomato than roasted red pepper and the chunks of cheese just made the texture odd. The cheese wasn't really melted because the soup wasn't that hot but it also wasn't cold and firm-just bizarre.

Moving on to the main dishes. I will talk about mine and my best friend who accompanied me on my quest for a really good sandwich. I got the Honey Turkey Reuben. It was ok, and I mean ok. The rye was a little too overpowering for the sandwich and it was kind of a flat grilled mess. The turkey, coleslaw, cheese and dressing all kind of blended together and I couldn't really taste the separate things, just a gooey mess. It wasn't a horrible sandwich but it wasn't good either. My friend got The Italian. Again, had one very overpowering component, and this time it took the form of the balsamic vinaigrette. The meats and cheese were ok, positioned oddly on the sandwich, and the lettuce and tomato were too much to be really "italian." The bread was nothing to write home about, a roll probably bought at Kroger.....but anyway.

All sandwiches are served with "Ott Tots." I normally love tater tots, they take me back to my elementary school days in the cafeteria when I didn't have a care in the world. So even though my sandwich was sub-par I was optimistic about its companion because how can you mess up frozen tater tots? And that is my question to Pennybackers-How can you mess up frozen tater tots!? These things were just weird! Obviously I know tater tots are minced/chopped/whatever and then compacted back in to a tot shape, but when you bite into one everything has somewhat become whole again. Pennybacker's Ott Tots were bizarre because when you bit in to them you could feel each individual minced potato part that made up the tot! Weird! They should be called "Odd Tots" (excuse the lame joke, I get my corniness from my father)

So all in all Pennybackers gets a big thumbs down. For 2 sandwiches, 1 bowl of soup, 2 sodas, tax, and tip, I paid almost $30 for a Tuesday night mediocre dinner out. To me, that is ridiculous and depressing. I will not be visiting Pennybackers anytime soon, if they are still open in a year maybe I'll give them another shot, but if you can't make a good sandwich at a sandwich shop......well I don't know what to say.