May 18th, 2011 Wet Hot Beef

Wet Hot Beef

Southwest Alder Street, Portland, OR

(360) 609-9008

http://www.wethotbeef.com/Wet_Hot_Beef/Welcome_to_Wet_Hot_Beef.html

Mon –Fri 11 AM – 4 PM

May 18^th, 2011

I’ve been rolling pretty deep in the way of sando carts this week so I thought I should just keep on going with Wet Hot Beef, which serves French Dip sandos.  I would like to start off by saying this is one of the more crudely named establishments I’ve been too.  In fact it’s by the far the crudest one I’ve really ever encountered. Their slogan alone is, “We can’t wait to put our Wet Hot Beef in you.” Ahh the nervous giggles and shy glances as people would read it aloud or to themselves as they would walk up.  I’ve never known a food cart to make people so shy just by reading their sign and/or slogan.  Well-done boys.  Moving on though, I’ve put it on my list and as hungry as I am I’m not about to shy away because of a few strong innuendos.

The cart looked, as most of these carts right now do, very put together.  They kept it relatively clean it seemed with one man working the line.  He kept busy stocking this and cleaning that while I stood outside and looked over their menu.  Not a wide variety because they only serve French dips but they do different set ups as far as the filling goes.  I went with their “Dressed Sandwich” because it had a bit more than just meat and bread.  I ordered and took a step back to watch him from the window as he worked the stove putting everything together. He had taken pause every once and a while to talk to customers who were coming up to the window asking if they took Debit cards, to which he said no they didn’t.  I understand why some carts don’t or even can’t offer that as a payment option but if you didn’t, wouldn’t you memorize all the locations of an ATM in a two-block radius?  I watched as at least two people came to the window asking if they took debit and the cook only answered, “Sorry, No.” That was the length of the conversation.  Oh well. At least I bought a sando from you today ya?

He finished up my sando and handed it to me with a smile, thanking me for coming out today.  I thanked him in return and started to take a good look at my sando.   

They wrap their Dips in paper and set them in a cup so that the au jus can collect at the bottom. I like this idea for portable French Dips because it still gives you a chance to pour any remaining jus over the sando. I dove in on the remainder of my walk to work taking mental notes with each bite.  In all it wasn’t too bad but I believe the shock humor of the name brought more people in than food itself. 

Rating:

Bread:

The Bread was a French style hoagie roll.  It was toasted so it had some structure to hold together better with all the au jus that was put on it. It was fine but nothing great. It was pretty bland all around.

2/5

Filling:

The filling had Piedmontese Beef, which is their selling point for the sandos and if you don’t know what it is check it out online, House made pickles, caramelized onions, and au jus.  The beef is pretty good but I was a little confused when I had the caramelized onions with the house made pickles being…onions.  I’m not sure why anyone would want to have two different types of onions on a sando especially when there are so many great items to pickle.  I guess keeping food costs low doesn’t amount to keeping a better variety available. 

3/5

Price:

For $6.75 I’d say you are getting a fair deal with the amount of food.

4/5

Customer Service, Sides, Drink Selection:

The cook/cashier was very helpful with everyone, including me, who came up to the window. They house made potato chips as a side and make their own sodas as well. Very basic flavors but I like the idea of making your own sodas.  I didn’t have enough cash to purchase one but I would hope they’re tasty.

4/5

Over all Rating: 13/20 points

Repeat Visit?

  Probably not. I'd like to check out their sodas one of these days but nothing really other than that.