Foodie Friday: The Wardroom – Sandwiches

EASTON, Md. – Last week, the Foodie Friday team showed us the awesome cheese and bread selection at The Wardroom. But, we’re not quite yet done exploring their craft.

Crafting the Perfect Handhelds

The Wardroom is more than just a one-stop-shop for all things aged, fermented, and baked. They also make incredibly delicious, and nutritious sandwiches.

By night, Chef Jesse Wheeler and the team whip up homemade fresh pasta; but during the day, it’s a must-stop spot for sandwiches. Each one is handcrafted to contain only the best selection of cheese, meat, and fresh-baked bread from Bluepoint Hospitality’s Head Baker, Glenn May.

“Not a lot of restaurant groups have bakeries,” said May. “They’re very labor intensive, they take a lot of space, a lot of time.”

Roast Beef on Dutch Crunch

As he prepared the ingredients, Chef Wheeler explained, “We’re going to do a roast beef sandwich on our Dutch crunch bread. The two together are just a perfect combination.”

The Wardroom’s Dutch crunch bread, also known as tiger bread, gets its iconic crunchy patterned top from a dusting of rice flour before it hits the oven.

“Dutch crunch and roast beef is ubiquitous on the West coast,” said May. “We want our food to be timeless. Now, or 50 years from now, that sandwich is going to be delicious.”

After cutting the bread in half, it’s given a loving dollop of homemade Dijon mustard, and horseradish cream. “We’ll soak mustard seeds overnight in some vinegar, and then we just pulse it in the blender with some water,” said Chef Wheeler. “[Horseradish cream] is sour cream, horseradish, black pepper.”

Next, comes the crunch, the chew, and the cheese.

New Pleasures

“The texture of this bread is so awesome,” said Foodie Host Hannah Cechini as they sunk their teeth in. “The rice flour that you put on top of this bread gives it that little pattern and texture. It juts makes it so crunchy and satisfying. When you’re eating a sandwich, you want a little bit of crunch, obviously. You’re getting crunch from the bread, crunch from the lettuce.”

Hannah is not usually a fan of horseradish; but this sandwich may have changed their mind. “I’ve got to be honest. When I get a roast beef sandwich, I really don’t like the horseradish because it’s always just a little too overpowering for my taste,” they said. “The sour cream and the black pepper really help to offset the intensity of the horseradish. It’s not a searing burn in your nostrils that you would typically get. It’s just a really nice compliment, and adds a nice extra bite to that sandwich.”

And of the roast beef, “You can really tell that you’ve taken that time to use those spices to bring out the flavor, and the aromatics of the meat,” Hannah said.

Foodie Photog Mike was equally as enamored with the hunger-killing handheld. “That’s a gorgeous roast beef. It’s got such a good chew. It’s so easy,” he said. “When you construct a sandwich, it’s so easy to go overboard on the size of the bread, you know. That’s a perfect handful right there.”

It Keeps Getting Better

But, the generosity Chef Wheeler and May didn’t stop there. They also served the team up with an Italian cuisine lover’s dream; truffle mortadella, cremini mushroom goat cheese, frisee salad in champagne vinaigrette, tomato confit, all sandwiched between a sliced focaccia.

And if you’re in the mood for something you won’t typically find stateside, try May’s Jerusalem bagels; a soft and tasty street food, packed pumpkin, poppy, and sunflower seeds, and millet and flax.

“When my American brain hears bagel, it thinks ‘chewy,’ but this is very soft, said Mike. “It’s very pleasant. I can see walking down the street anywhere, and just enjoying this.”

The Wardroom

The Wardroom is located at 103 North Washington Street, Easton, Md. You can call them at 410-826-5489. If you go to check it out, tell the team that you saw them on Foodie Friday.