at Truffles ’n’ Bacon Café
8872 S. Eastern Ave. # 100, trufflesnbacon.com
The first thing you notice is its heft; eat one of these in mid-afternoon and you might skip dinner. But it’s not a show-offingly large sandwich like you see, the kind you surmount as much as eat. It's handleable. Then there are the ingredients: cheese, brisket, bacon jam, tomato, sautéed kale, chipotle ranch. Amped up by some flavor thug who dreams of Food Network glory ( sudden vision of Guy Fieri’s hair being lowered onto his skull like Darth Vader’s helmet *shudder*), that mix would stampede you like a mouthful of soccer hooligans. Not here. Here, the flavorful back-and-forth is more like frisky aikido, as the tangy bacon jam flips the meaty brisket into the chipotle, which applies a submission hold as the tomato slaps the mat three times. Every bite's just as good. Scott Dickensheets