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