Ruby & Rach - the Reuben

Good Living Growers' Market
Pyrmont
Sydney
3 September 2011

One of the things about twitter is that sometimes, the pace of your tweetstream is so rapid that without bookmarking it, it can be hard recall where you read about something.

In this instance, it was Tony Gibson's venture "Ruby & Rach", a new sandwich stall at the monthly Pyrmont Markets serving only two items - a Reuben sandwich, and a Rachel sandwich, and with its inaugural appearance on 3 September. I cannot for the life of me remember who tweeted about it.

The Reuben is what drew me there, as well being intrigued by the idea of someone being dedicated to producing only two sandwiches.

Inevitably, I chose the wrong way to do the market circuit in search of the Reuben, and it was one of the last stalls I came to. By that point, all you could hear from me was "WHERE IS IT?!?"

Examples of both sandwiches sit at the front of the stall for illustrative purposes. The Reuben ($9.50), described as "corned Wagyu, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing on Rye", is made from 72 hour brined Wagyu.

As each order is placed, the bread is toasted, the corned beef hand-sliced and then warmed up, the cheese melted etc, and the completed sandwich wrapped in a what appears to be butcher's paper, which is great, space wise, for sandwich consumption.

At $9.50, this is priced well in terms of the sandwich competition at Pyrmont, which seems to be dominated by the ubiquitous bacon and egg sandwiches, though there are also steak rolls, sausages in rolls and chorizo, to mention a few other options. 

How does this Reuben compare to the others that I've eaten in the last twelve months? The corned beef is great and marginally saltier (this is not a bad thing), the pickles and meat were comparable to Sourdough's in terms of quantity, the sauerkraut had a good sharpness, was not too sour, and was pretty tasty, and the Russian dressing had a good punchy presence but wasn't overwhelming. All up, a Reuben which I enjoyed and would happily eat again. To give you an idea of the Reubens I have enjoyed the most - the others are Lauren Murdoch's at Felix and Sourdough.

The Rachel (also $9.50) is a variation on the standard Reuben sandwich that substitutes pastrami for the corned beef, and coleslaw for the sauerkraut. 

That's on my list for the next Growers' Market.

[AP]