In my arduous search for a good sausage sandwich in San Diego, I discovered the Swiener. Okay, stop. I’m not being totally up front. I really wasn’t looking for a sausage sandwich. There was no arduous search for sausage. It’s a lie. I was actually looking for beer. The sausage or Swiener just happened to be there. In my blog about San Diego’s Finest Pork Sausage Sandwich, I talked about the Salumi Company’s (Now MeatMen) sausage sandwich and how good it was. It’s still a delicious sandwich, and I highly recommend it. However, the Swiener takes the sausage sandwich to a whole new level of yummy goodness.
Now what exactly is a Swiener? Well, let me break it down for you. It’s a Swiss take on a sausage sandwich, being a Swiss Wiener, or a Swiener. The sausage itself isn’t Swiss, that cultural distinction belongs to the cheese it’s drenched in is. It’s a Swiss cheese called Raclette, and it melts beautifully. First the Swiener People take half a baguette and work a hole into it with a heating rod that also makes the bun warm up quite nice and toasty. Next they warm up the Raclatte cheese on this interesting broiling contraption. When the cheese is rich and melty, they ooze it down the opening made in the bun. Then they add the condiments you request. Lastly, they shove a hot-off-the-griddle sausage into the bun and hand it to you in a crisp white paper bag.
They offer a variety of sausages to choose from, such as German Brat, Spice Pork or even a vegan sausage (I recommend the vegan with bacon and cheese). The Swiener People also offers a sausage that has cheddar infused into it for people like me who can’t get enough cheese. I must offer a warning about this one. It burned my upper lip after I bit into it. The pressure from the heated cheese within the sausage shot some hot cheese onto my top lip, and it burned. So be careful when you bite into the cheddar cheese sausage or, as my heterosexual life partner dubbed it, The Porndog, because it might get you in the face.
Unlike the Salumi Company, you probably won’t find the Swiener touring San Diego’s Farmer’s Market circuit anymore. The owners grew tired of it and found a new outlet: San Diego’s brewery circuit. They post their whereabouts daily on Facebook, so do a search for “Swiener” and it’ll come up.
I know when you think of San Diego, you probably don’t think of beer. However, after living in San Diego for some time I’ve come to know what most San Diegans have known for quite a while. San Diego is a beer Mecca! And what goes great with beer besides Pizza? Sausage!
Beer and Sausage go hand in hand and, with the Swiener, you can literally have a beer in one hand and your Swiener in the other. The tiny paper bag that it comes in makes it easy to work your Swiener up out of the bag cleanly with one hand after every bite. So you never have to put your beer down. It does take a little practice, but once you get it, you’ll be working your Swiener up like a pro.
Lastly is the price. To get everything on your Sweiner costs $9.00. That does seem a little steep for a sausage sandwich, but it’s worth the money. So give it a shot. You won’t be disappointed.
