The best sandwich I have ever had was bought and eaten at Togo’s.

Yes. Other people have laughed too. When you live in one of the last bastions of local businesses and the SF Yuppie snobbery that follows it, telling anyone who likes anything at any chain store of any type (special allowance for Starbucks per Yuppie Referendum 2001, §387.9) is disgusting and immoral, you have to get used to being chastised for enjoying food at a chain restaurant. But they did not and still do not know what they were talking about.

This sandwich was something more, something divine.

By my count, there is only one Togo’s in all of San Francisco. I was heading to a particular suburban area of the the SOMissTrero District for some reason and remembered the Togo’s was there. So I cruise in and nicely displayed on a plate put up near the door is The Sandwich. A sign tells me it’s the Manager’s Special and it was the excellent combination of shredded pastrami, deli mustard, tomatos and cole slaw, all on a dutch-crunch roll. It was the cole slaw that got me.

I ordered the special and waited patiently as they put it together. From the get-go, I could tell I was going to love it. You can probably already tell that it was a wet sandwich and I love wet sandwiches. Indeed, the mustard and cole slaw juice (what is that? mayo with cabbage water?) mixed with the tomato juice, complimented by the the grease from the shredded pastrami, made it ready to explode on the first bite; and that it did.

Everything worked in concert. The flavors danced and mingled. The phrase “there’s a party in my mouth” would be an apt one. It truly was the best sandwich ever.

A few days later, I went back to see if they would make another one for me. On that day, there was no displayed manager’s special of any sort. I walked up and asked them to make me the divine sandwich. I listed the ingredients and the sandwich maker nodded at each one but stopped short when I mention the cole slaw.

Cole slaw? On a sandwich?

Yes.

I’ve never heard of that. Besides we don’t even have cole slaw as a side.

I explained that it was the manager’s special the previous weekend. The sandwich maker said he worked that weekend and does not recall that special or anything with cole slaw (he obviously was not a fan).

I described how one was made and displayed on a plate right there near the door. He told me they have never done that before. They don’t really have manager specials.

I double-checked to make sure I was in the right San Francisco Togo’s, but since there is only one, it was pointless. The best and now mystical sandwich was gone, or perhaps had never been.

My memory gets hazier each time I try to recall it, like a UFO abductee trying to relate her story; each time it’s a little different, challenging her credibility. So too, I feel like I may have never actually had this superior sandwich if it were not for the lingering memory that somehow and in someway, I was, at least once, close to God.