Level up your sandwich game.
Is there any dish that is as simple yet complex as a sandwich? It’s seems easy to make until you miserably fail at it. So we figured, why not ask someone who knows better. We met with Thirdy Dolatre, head chef of the new sandwich place, Alley at the Grove by Rockwell.
After having gone to culinary school and interning abroad, Thirdy returned to the Philippines to gain more experience at various restaurants before finally deciding to open his own. In 2015, Alley was born.
Alley – The Grove by Rockwell
Alley aims to emulate the casual vibe of European-style restaurants with no compromise on serving high quality food. Alley is a sandwich place, a modern one that takes your traditional lunchbox sandwiches to a whole new level.
For one, everything here is made from scratch–house cured beef, freshly baked breads, homemade vinegar, special hot sauce, etc. It’s Alley’s secret to making all the ingredients in one sandwich mate perfectly together.
The young 24-year old sandwich specialist, Thirdy, shares the ins and outs of a making or ordering a good sandwich. Here’s what you should look for and watch out for on your next sandwich hunt.
LOOK FOR:
✓ Good, house-baked bread. One-bread-fits-all doesn’t apply here. The type of bread used should depend on the sandwich’s filling and should be made to fit your own taste.
✓ The bread you use should also be good enough to eat on its own. It should be crisp enough to hold everything in between. That’s the foundation of a good sandwich.
✓ Spreads and fillings should be made from scratch. Do away with jarred mayonnaise, for example, and try making it yourself.
THIRDY SAYS: “A perfect sandwich is like a tale of two. You have to complement everything, from the bread [to] what goes in between.”
KEY MISTAKE:
X – Overloading your sandwich.
X – Making your sandwich too moist. Excess oil or moisture can lead to soggy bread and messy bites. At the same time though, a dry sandwich is as bad as a soggy sandwich.
X – Imbalance between flavor and texture.
THIRDY SAYS: “Less is more.”
WATCH OUT FOR:
X – Restaurants using cheap flour. The most common way to cut corners when it comes to sandwich-driven restaurants is using bleached flour, which are cheaper. Good flour comes at a price, but it makes a huge difference in taste and texture.
THIRDY SAYS: “Here at Alley, we try to do things the right way. If we don’t do things right then we would rather not do it at all. If you sacrifice quality, you lose dignity. And people would know.”
RECOMMENDATIONS:
✓ Grilled Cheese Pimiento Sandwich
✓ Angus Patty Crunch
THIRDY SAYS: “[These] are our favorites because it brings nostalgia and is our artisanal take on the lunch box classics we grew up eating— cheese pimiento spread from a jar or a mayo laden tuna sandwich.”
Hunger waits for no one! Check Alley out on Booky and call ahead for reservations. We’ve already got our eye on their Grilled Cheese Pimiento Sandwich!
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The Grove By Rockwell, 117 E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue, Pasig
(0916) 493-3136
