Tasty-Ass Sandwiches of the Ivy League: Grendel’s French Dip
In the latest installment of Tasty-Ass Sandwiches of the Ivy League, Harvard scribe Will Payne violates all social customs about typing with your mouth full.
Grendel’s Den, a cozy Harvard Square restaurant that takes its name from the Beowulf antagonist (and not, disappointingly, from the alternate phrase for “taint”), has a motto above the door: “Resisting the tide of corporate homogenization since 1971.” It’s true — even as the Square gets overrun by the twin threats of wrap and burrito, which a judge in Worcester actually ruled is not a sandwich [Ed.: We may or may not file an amicus curiae on the appeal], Grendel’s reaffirms on the daily a fundamental truth that no amount of Qdoba will ever change: that everything — everything — is better between two slices of bread.
Case in point: their legendary French Dip Sandwich. At the absurdly reasonable lunchtime price of $3.95 (that’s with chips), this holy trinity of beef, broth and bread proves that you don’t need your own personal endowment to indulge.
The French Dip, it is claimed, was discovered accidentally during the 1910s in Los Angeles, when a cook dropped a roast beef sandwich into a bowl of beef jus. In keeping with its baptismal origin, the sandwich was originally served pre-dipped, but Grendel’s follows a more recent tradition by serving the cup of jus on the side.
It’s this performative twist — the Anointment — that earns the French Dip its legendary status. There are few things better in this cold Cambridge of term papers than dipping two hefty sandwich halves into a bowl of piping hot beef gravy, biting through a crisp and warm outer crust of bread into the succulent layers of prime roast beef piled inside, and walking away only five dollars lighter (albeit a few pounds heavier).
Like French fries, the sandwich has little to do with the land of Asterix and McDo (adding Dijon mustard doesn’t help much, however good it tastes). Instead, it is one of the few remaining carryovers from the Golden Age of American sandwiches — the perfect synthesis of culinary conservatism and American populism.
Or, put another way, fuck wraps.
After the jump, more Harvard sammiches…
Bonus! More tasty-ass Harvard sandwiches: Within a three-block radius, students can choose from a smorgasbord of sandwiches, from the unabashedly decadent Donald at Cardullo’s Gourmet Shoppe ($10 of duck confit, fig spread and Gruyère; currently off the menu until the proprietor finds someone who can cook duck), to the storied Story sandwich (prosciutto, mozzarella, pesto) at Darwin’s Ltd., an off-beat gourmet café and deli with a cult following. Even Ben Affleck’s favorite pizza joint, local legend Pinocchio’s, keeps its reputation alive in the sandwich arena, serving up mean cheesesteaks and burgers on sub rolls to curb that post-cocktail party peckishness. Another bright light emerged on Harvard’s noshing horizon last year, when the All-Star Sandwich Bar (proud motto: “Wrap-free since 2006″) opened for business in nearby Inman Square, featuring throwbacks like the Texas Reuben and the legendary “Beef on Weck,” am old-school specialty from upstate New York.
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April 12th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
FYI the official term for “grendle” (alternatively “grundle” or “taint”) is actually “perineum”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perineum
April 12th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Is it just me or does that “roast beef” look disgusting?
April 12th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
just you
April 12th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
it’s not grendel. who call’s it a grendel? it’s grundle.
also that girl, while she looks awkwardly disfigured, is a cutie.
the sandwich sounds a little plain for my taste. id have rather you profiled that duck confit or prosciutto number
April 12th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
The Story is delicious, but last time I checked it cost almost 8 bucks. Not exactly college-student budget food.
April 12th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Sandwiches again? Boooooooring!
April 12th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
No mention of this Penn alum?http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/04/10/2007-04-10_its_jurisimprudence-2.html
April 12th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
fewer pictures of the sandwich and more pictures of the girl please.
April 12th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Did you know the cia’s most valuable assets are the murderers, rapists, thieves, muscle, pedophiles, sodomizers, pimps, prostitutes, americas favorite proxies. The fbi turns them loose on domestic americans for social engineering those on the left of plutocratic fascist naziesque orwellian roveianlly infanticidal idealogy and there are lots of facts to back that up. The infant child mortality rates sure are high in america’s infanticidal economic theology, why should we model our countries after you sick satanic f.pukes, baby killers. You deserve no respect. The american elite is raising sadisitic self medicating sociopathic lemmings, zombies for war. Get a clue and gain a life, your own, losers. Have fun when the draft comes, you earned it, come on lets here the big wahh, wahh like the babies you are, go cry in mommies lap or run like the wind for some education interruption insurance from w.buffet. Draft your ass is exactly what you ivy league snots deserve and not nascar racing. Y’all seem to think it’s nice to profit from the stealing but you don’t seem so confident when it’s gonna be your butt hanging out the top of a humvee. Come on where’s the snappy ivy league come back ? Y’all scared the fbi and cia are watching ? You better add a few more government and corporate agencies. You wouldn’t believe the money these clowns have wasted on me but wow what an education for me. Oh yah nighty night satan america, bye.
April 12th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Re: christianarchisti
You’re letting Dartmouth people post here now?
April 12th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
While I appreciate the shout-out to Darwin’s (below the fold? c’mon!), your anointment of Grendel’s, of all places, as the best sandwich place in Cambridge proves definitively that you suck. My skin crawls just thinking about that dank basement.
April 12th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
09yalie: nobody is concerned about how desperate you are.
Yaaaaylie: it’s not sandwiches that are boring, it’s your life.
April 12th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
y r some of u checkin out that girl? for all u know, shes 16 and u twenty-somethings are ogling on your computer screen wishing u had the courage to be a pedifile. yuck
April 12th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
@ ghost_dog:
no, you got it all wrong! It’s not her pubescent look we’re attracted to, it’s the gangly retarted thing she’s got going on. Nothing like some disabled ass . . .
Danny says:
Yaaaaylie: it’s not sandwiches that are boring, it’s your life.
I used to use comebacks like this in second grade. They weren’t funny then either.
April 13th, 2007 at 8:47 am
That’s totally the girl from the Mitsubishi Eclipse ad! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH0zWrDi6GA)
April 13th, 2007 at 8:50 am
As a Buffalonian, I can attest that the All-Star Sandwich Bar’s beef on weck is a pretty good approximation of the original…even the horseradish is good. The only thing it is missing is a decent kimmelweck bun.
April 13th, 2007 at 10:03 am
On the nose. While I don’t think that the dip is the best sandwich in the square (I’m partial to Noch’s steak sub), it’s a RIDICULOUS deal and is way tasty. I feel the comment about grendel’s being not an ideal venue, but this sandwich more than makes up for it.
Go Payne Go!
April 13th, 2007 at 11:04 am
jesus christ! how did you guys get gollum to wear that wig? i didn’t know he was into roast beef!
April 13th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
darwin’s > cardullo’s > noch’s > nearly every other sandwich place in the square > grendel’s.
don’t get me wrong. i love grendel’s. but no one goes there for the sandwiches.
April 14th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
I’m impressed.
April 15th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
forgive me, but that girl might not have been the best choice for a sandwich model. furthermore, darwin’s is clearly the best sandwich place in the square, especially for vegan/vegetarian selections. meat, as it were, is not an essential part of every bread-on-bread creation.
April 16th, 2007 at 1:27 am
um…yah. chick looks like she hasnt seen a sandwich in years! and her odd pose only exaggerates just how uncomfortable she is to be touching such an unfamiliar substance-food. what a fatty!!
April 16th, 2007 at 1:30 am
um…yah. chick looks like she hasnt seen a sandwich in years! and her odd pose only exaggerates just how uncomfortable she is to be touching such an unfamiliar substance-food. what a fatty!!