Well, I may have had the best sandwich of my life right here in Placerville, just a couple of weeks ago. That is a difficult thing for me to say since in my 80 years I have eaten a lot of sandwiches and still have memories of a local chili-cheese dog “to die for” and a “perfect” meatball grinder I bought from a food truck parked in a Safeway parking lot in southern California, decades ago.
What made all of these great was a perfect combination of bread and ingredients that worked so well together it imprinted the flavor in my memory.
This adventure started one day, not too long ago, when my morning walking buddy, Mike Long, came across an article in the recent “VIA” magazine. They had asked readers for their favorite sandwich and right at the top of the list, with a picture, was the Smoked Oyster and Bacon sandwich from Timmy’s Brown Bag at 451 Main Street in Placerville.
“We should go there,” he said, “I don’t know if I would like that sandwich in particular, but I stopped by and looked at their menu. They have great sounding sandwiches.”
I hadn’t been to Timmy’s in over two years, so was now anxious to go back. We arranged and cancelled a trip there a couple of times and, finally, on the spur of the moment met there for lunch a couple of weeks ago.
The menu at Timmy’s hangs from the ceiling on pieces of cardboard, each one listing a sandwich and its ingredients. If a sandwich is available, there is a clothespin on the card: no clothespin, not today.
The cards are easy to read, since they are close to you, the whole restaurant, kitchen and all, occupying a bit less than 200 square feet of space. Don’t worry, there is plenty of seating in the adjacent patio.
We looked at the menu over and over while asking a lot of questions. Finally, Mike said he wanted the “Timmy’s Cubano Chicken Pollo Nugget Cordon Bleu” made with chicken nuggets, yellow mustard, ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles and Hollandaise slaw on Ciabatta.
I was still arguing with myself, trying to decide between the Timmy’s Tater Tot Poutine!!! and ¡Kaeng Kari! Po’ Boy !, when I finally bit the bullet and ordered the Smoked Oyster with Pressed Pepper Bacon, with Polish dill pickles, Thai mignonette, mixed greens and P’yatdesyat sim mayo on Brioche.
It took several minutes for them to put together the sandwiches, but soon they showed up in a brown paper bag, complete with several napkins and some Hershey’s Kisses. They even delivered it to a table we had selected in the back of the patio area, overlooking Hangtown Creek.
We split each sandwich and started with the Smoked Oyster and bacon.
Our initial thoughts, and one that almost kept me from ordering it, was that the smoked oysters would overpower everything else. WRONG! The sandwich was so well balanced with just the right amount of everything that each bite was spectacular and a nice mixture of textures and flavors.
We were actually becoming full from that sandwich, but given the experience we had both enjoyed with the first sandwich, we bit into the Cubano.
“Not only is this on the correct bread,” Mike said,”but this is wonderful. I don’t know how they do it.”
I thought the same: the crunch, the taste – texture and flavor. Perfect.
Both of us slowly enjoyed the sandwich and then noted that we had way too much to eat and one sandwich would have been enough. But then we wouldn’t have enjoyed the experience of both.
On our way out, we dropped our trash in the trash container and our recycles in the recycle container, Mike noting that many people did the opposite and obviously couldn’t read.
We thanked the people at Timmy’s and slowly and happily made our way back to our cars.
As I mentioned, Timmy’s menu changes, depending on what is available. It is posted daily on his webpage at www.timmysbrownbag.com. (You have to check out the webpage.)
T
he menu may include things like Timmy’s backyard BBQ Puerco en Adobo with Onion Rings, Vada Pav Hash Brown Potato Patty X2 ,Timmy’s Tater Tot Poutine!!! with Spam & Jalapeño!!! ,Spam and Kimchi!, Chicken Satayayam, Smoked Paprika Balsamic Roasted Portabello with Leek marmellata and more – way more.
To accompany your meal they have fries, special fries, truffle fries, tater tots and truffle tots.
The have bottled and canned soda and juice and hope to have beer in the near future.
Timmy’s Brown Bag is open Monday through Saturday from 11 until 3 and can be reached by phone at (530) 303-3203. You can actually order by phone starting at 8 a.m. for 11 a.m. pickup.
Timmy has mastered the art of sandwich making, How he does it, I don’t know, but I have never had sandwiches this good. You should try them.