Grinders
 North Canton, Ohio        Date of Visit  05/26/13        http://grinders.net/ 

I have been going to Grinders for quite a while at their Canton location but it has been a while since we have been there. In my undergrad Grinders was where  you went for a high class experience that wasn’t in the dining hall or delivered by Dominoes. We’ve been to a couple of them including the original in Minerva and it started as a sandwich shop, as the name might suggest. For a while they had opened some outposts that didn’t seem to survive very long but hopefully they have their business plans worked out. This day we tried the North Canton location, never having been before, but it’s all familiar.
 

Spudniks
 

Inside of the few locations they have a definitive brand, it reminds me of an upscale casual brand much like Baker’s Square which I haven’t seen around for a while. The menu has expanded over the years including dinners, salads and any number of things but we still enjoy the sandwiches. Meeting some friends and collaborators for lunch we slide back to the classics. We ordered the Spudniks with split cheese, a Santa Fe chicken and a steak and mushroom.

Our server was a young lady and that came with the good and the bad. She was friendly and nice but seemed to have some difficulty keeping up with a near dead restaurant. COFFEE! They do a vanilla Pepsi which for some odd reason is sweet Nirvana. I am more a coke guy but somehow when you add sweet to already overly sweet Pepsi it seems to work out due to the vanilla overtone. We started with the mandatory Spudniks, fried taters with cheddar and provolone and bacon which is served with sour cream and Russian dressing.
 

Just as remembered the soft interior, crunchy exteriors, bacon smokiness, cheesiness, sourness of the tainted cheese and the tang of the dressing reminded me why Grinders was considered high falutin fare in my college days. My culinary experience has changed but good is still good. It’s not fine dining but they do an above average job…above and beyond right.

We got our standard sammitches, Steph the Santa Fe Chicken and I the Steak and Shroom. Here’s what on the chicken: mesquite grilled chicken, cheddar cheese & bacon topped with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mayo & Italian dressing. The steak is black angus steak topped with mushrooms, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, mayo & Italian dressing. Doesn’t sound too exciting does it? It’s not necessarily but the fresh veggies, the oven toasted bun and meats, the tangy dressing, the fatty mayo, the vinegary bite of the peppers and on and on make for a better than many version of a sandwich. I have a lightly special place in my heart for Grinders and it seems every time I make it back they remind me why. They also have some pretty tasty pies and whatnot which we didn’t have room for this trip but they tend to be worth the calories. Grinders is simply a sandwich shop with a few locations which seems to always make a nice basket for your approval. COFFEE!