It's been a while since Sara and I made the trek out to San Gabriel to visit Sam and Marlene at the Stuffed Sandwich. For some reason the 45 min or so seems a lot longer than it actually is. I don't know of it's the traffic getting through LA, or if it's the daunting drive home after a few pints and a big meal with Sam, but we don't go visit nearly as much as we should.Sara and I met Sam about 3 years ago on our first visit to the Southern California Homebrew Festival. Sara wasn't much of a beer fan, but she came along to humor me.
To make a long story short, we were introduced to Sam, and he took her around the booths, showing her how to evaluate beer, what to look for in a pale or a cream stout. He always made her come up with her own opinions and find the flavors herself. In the end, Sam helped my wife on her way to beer geekery, and I'm forever endebted. :)If you haven't had the opportunity to meet Sam, then there's no way for me to explain, but he's quite an eccentric character. He may be as much (or more) of an attraction to the Stuffed Sandwich as the beer selection or the food. For instance, if you're planning to make a visit, you'll have to obey some of Sam's ground rules for the shop. No 1, buy some food. You can't have beer unless you buy some food. Second, bring a glass, or be prepared to buy a glass, otherwise he'll be serving you in a dixie cup. Not that there's anything wrong with dixie cups. Third, he doesn't like spills. So, after he fills your dixie cup 'til the head is nearly spilling over the top, he'll make you bend down to the bar, and sip the top of the foam off the cup before you take it back to your table. Other than that, have some fun, give Sam a hard time and enjoy the rare beer and homemade food selection.
Sara and I started off with quite a meal. I had the spicy sausage sandwich, and she had a capicola. Both were larger than either of us needed. And, let me warn you. The spicy sausage is EXTREMELY spicy. For beverages, we tasted a few years of their Hair of the Dog beers. Sam likes to sit on a few kegs for a long time. On this particular visit, he had put up a few Hair of the Dog beers on tap all from 1998 (Adam, Fred, ED and Golden Rose).
Next, we went to the bottles. I knew that Sam's collection was something spectacular, but I had no idea he had all those extra beers hiding behind the counter, and in fridges in the back. Sam pulled out a few special brews for us. Pictured on the right is the De Dolle Brouwers Oerbier Special Reserve, which is a Flanders red ale. It's got a small sour bite to it, but it's surprisingly refreshing for such a big beer. There's a lot of apple and light fruit aroma on here, and the flavor is fairly complex with a malty backbone to compliment the apparent tartness. Unfortunately, I messed up the picture, so the De Dolle beer is actually next to the Traquair bottle. Se la vie.Sam brought out an old Traquair House ale for Sara. This isn't your average Traquair either, it's one of the bottles Sam has been hanging onto for a while. It poured flat. You can see in the picture, there was virtually no carbonation and no head on this beer at all. Even still, the aroma that pored off was something spectacular. What a complex beer. There's tons of malt, chocolate, roasty, sweet, plum, and even some smoky notes. What a treat.
We finished off by splitting another Belgian, the tSmisje Dubbel. It's a bit hoppy for a dubbel, but a nice ending to a great meal. Even though we couldn't rationalize another beer before heading back to south Orange County, we had to pick up something to take home. I asked for something hoppy, and Sam pulled out a Hopsicle Imperial IPA from Moylans, which we sampled later that night. Sam wasn't kidding when he said this beer was hoppy. It's an over the top hop-ified west coast imperial IPA to be sure.All in all, the Stuffed Sandwich is a great little shop in the LA area. If you are into rare beers, and you like mom-n-pop sandwich shops, this place is your stop. I'd suggest it to any beer fanatic in the area, and if you live here you must stop by from time to time, even if it means an hour or more of driving. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.
