Grandwich 2014 sampled: Rapidian team reveals five favorites

Last week, in four day's time, our team of four local food lovers tried 32 out of the 34 Grandwich sandwiches competing to be this year's Grandwich winner. You can read our individual assessments of the sandwiches on days one, two, three and four.

All 34 restaurants are vying for public vote through July 27. Then on August 1, the top 10 will go up against a panel of judges in Rosa Parks Circle to determine the final winner. 

With not much time for the average citizen to get to try many sandwiches, we set out to give honest assessments of the options early in the game, giving plenty of time for others to try them as well, and vote online for their own favorites. Though we were on a quest to rate them and find our top choices, we all recognize that there is more to Grandwich than just a competition.

"Grandwich really isn't about finding the best sandwich," says Wendy Hammond. "It's about finding new places to eat and trying new things. Really, I wouldn't have ordered some of the sandwiches that I ended up liking the best."

Just like other years I too was pleasantly surprised by several restaurants that I didn't expect to be contenders, and was unpleasantly surprised at others not measuring up to my idea of them. We all quickly noticed the difference between a restaurant that really prepared a sandwich concept carefully and those that didn't take much time to finesse their theories and practice making the sandwiches before they were serving them to customers: the story was written in the quality of its execution.

"There are definitely some restaurants who take this competition seriously. It was fairly obvious who were the ones who put the extra effort into the competition, because it showed up on the plate. We ate some really delicious food over the past couple of days. And I am hoping that the level of excellence inspires others in the town to start taking the competition more seriously," says Kendra Vanderlip.

So where did excellence show up on the plate? According to our numbers, and our fond memories, these top five restaurants impressed us:

1. Osteria Rossa: Porchetta Sandwich

2. The Bistro at Courtyard by Marriott: Grilled Caprese Sandwich

3. Reserve Wine and Food: PBAB&J (Pork Belly, Almond Butter, & Rhubarb Jam)

4. Stella's Lounge: Nada Cubano

5. J. Gardella's Tavern: Chicken Drowned in Brew - Chicken Cordon Bleu

But how did we ever decide who would really win out over the competition? What stood out for us more than anything else?

"Our favorites were pretty clearly based on appreciating good ingredients," says Tory O'Haire. "If you're using low-quality products, even the best chef will be hard-pressed to make something that doesn't taste low-quality." 

Often, piling on more and more ingredients did not equal out to a better sandwich. In fact, we appreciated a balanced combination of several key items rather than a long list of items that didn't really end up comlimenting each other. Simple and strong won us over much more quickly than complex. 

Though we unfortunately were unable to try the offerings from the B.O.B. and Grand Rapids Brewing Company, after 32 of them, we have some advice:

"Don't just go to your favorite restaurant," urges Hammond. "Try somewhere new. That's the best part of this competition, is to get outside of your comfort zone."

And for our chefs: we'd also love to see more vegetables, fewer piles of meat and a less pronounced focus on pork products. We all love bacon and ham and pork belly- perhaps more than we should- but this year it seemed to become the easy hook for too many restaurants. Though it's an easy sell, it also doesn't distinguish you from the crowd in a competition. If you're going to do pork belly, or even bacon, you better be astoundingly good at it, find a way to balance those rich ingredients and be able to procure really good cuts of the stuff. 

And one more thing, all too common in this competition, that rang round our table in agreement as O'Haire proclaimed it:

"Salt is not a flavor!"