Loafin' and loungin'

not just breakfast sandwiches

Hi guys!

Time to kick off the week, I hope you’re hungry for some sandwiches.

This week I joined up with my pal Max Glassman, who is a former employee of our neighborhood’s Moonwalker Cafe, which is how I initially met him. He’s now working on his pierogi pop-ups full time under the moniker Pierogi Papi, and you can find him in residency at Consignment Lounge in Logan Square.

Max slings his pierogis every Friday and Saturday night there, starting from 7 p.m., so do him a favor and go visit. His pierogis are delicious, playful (he recently did a chopped cheese-style one), and they rotate out frequently, so you’re always sure to get something fun from him. That, and hanging out with Max is just as good as his food, since he’s one of the most enthusiastic people I know.

He happens to live not terribly far from me and Davida, so I thought it’d be good to see him for a quick lunch at a sandwich shop by us that you’ve likely heard about, thanks to a little Emmy-winning show called The Bear.

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So Max and I met up at Loaf Lounge in Avondale, just by Milwaukee and Central Park.

Loaf Lounge has been around since August of 2022 (so just over two years now), and it’s quickly gone from a newcomer to a pretty sturdy mainstay on that stretch of Milwaukee.

Davida and I visited not terribly long after it opened, and though it’s been a long time, I remember that we really liked the sandwiches at the little bakery-focused shop. With my constant weekly nosing around for the newsletter I hadn’t had the chance to go back, but I hadn’t seen Max in a while, so I figured this was as good a spot as any for lunch.

Loaf Lounge is owned and operated by married couple Ben Lustbader and Sarah Mispagel-Lustbader, both whom have had stellar kitchen careers around Chicago. If you’ve ever watched The Bear, which was hard to avoid for a while, Sarah was a consultant for the show. In fact, she created the sweets you saw on TV, including the character Marcus’ chocolate cake, which was eventually available (and still is) for purchase.

It’s all counter service, and you can order pastries and bread from the display up front, along with breakfast and lunch sandwiches from a pretty tight menu. There’s 10 sandwiches evenly split between breakfast and lunch, though breakfast sandwiches are served until the kitchen closes at 2 p.m. In true Party Cut fashion, Max and I just dove in and ordered food from both sides of the menu, including a few sides.

First off is the sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich ($10), which often makes best-of breakfast sandwich lists.

It’s composed of a garlic-maple sausage patty, an egg cooked overeasy (that’s by default, you can request it runnier or harder), and American cheese, with herb mayo, all on a housemade English muffin.

Honestly, you can’t get more classic than this, since the McDonald’s Sausage and Egg McMuffin immediately comes to mind, but in a good way. Though once you bite into this thing, you already know you’re leagues out — and that’s because your attention will be immediately be drawn to the English muffin.

The muffin is soft, airy, and lighter than it appears, and it compresses easily with every bite. You don’t wrestle with this thing like you do a factory-made one, and if you can get your mind off of how good the bread itself is, you’ll be rewarded with a filling that’s not your run of the mill Jimmy Dean shit. I love that it doesn’t stray from the American cheese, either; I’ve always thought American cheese on breakfast sandwiches is genius, since it sort of melts down to a vaguely hollandaise-like (but tangier) sauce.

That’s a lot of words to say that yes, this sandwich is great, and to me, worth the $10 splurge. Are there any surprises? No, not really. It just takes every part of the original classic and makes it a hell of a lot nicer.

But man, I was not expecting to be bowled over by its veggie sibling ($10) so much.

Why don’t people talk about this thing all the time?! Everything about it is the same as the sausage version, except the sausage is replaced with braised kale, peppers, and pickled mushrooms. The kale is cooked soft, with a little bit of spice to it thanks to the peppers, and the pickled mushrooms bring a surprising hit of acid I wasn’t expecting.

I almost never go for the veggie breakfast option if sausage is available, since old habits are hard to break, but this one might have wrestled the meat away from me completely. You’re going to have to trust me on this, you can’t skip it.

And another surprise is the cured salmon open-faced sandwich ($15).

It’s a slice of housemade marble rye with cured salmon, herbed cream cheese, pickled red onion, radishes, cucumber, fried capers, pea shoots, and fish roe (if I have to hazard a guess, it’s trout), and it’s so pretty that it almost feels out of place next to the English muffin sandwiches.

It tastes as good as it looks. Yes, a bunch of the shit falls off of it once you pick up a half (it’s sliced, thank God), but I have a feeling you won’t mind too much once you’re through your first bite. Most of the immediate flavor focuses on the hearty rye and soft cured salmon, but the fresh toppings keep everything moving along, down to the pops of the occasional fish egg.

I feel like the cured salmon sandwich would be perfectly at home at a fancier full-service type place, too, so if you’re in the mood to treat yourself to something nice, go for it. I could eat this thing multiple times a week.

And I’m not sure what kind of black magic goes into the hash browns ($2 each), but they’re perfectly fried, crisp, and are what fast food hash browns can only aspire to be.

Based off their uniformity, I’m fairly certain they’re not made in-house. I’m more inclined to think whoever’s on fry duty just needs a raise. What’s particularly notable is the corn flake-like crackliness of their exterior. I could have easily eaten two to three of these things and not gotten sick of them. We did get the fries ($5) too, which are fine, but I’d skip them and get more hash browns instead.

And onto the lunch side of the menu, which starts at 11:30 a.m. and goes till kitchen close, which is 2.

It’s tomato season, which means getting the BLT Club ($15) was a requirement. This is a triple-decker with bacon, thick steak-like slices of heirloom tomato, lettuce, and plenty of Duke’s mayo, on jalapeño cheddar sourdough.

And I have a bit of a guilty admission to make — this is my first bite of heirloom tomato all summer, and I’m pissed I missed the entire season. But I have to grudgingly forgive myself, since it’s been the worst summer of my life, and I spend most of the hours farmers markets are open working on the newsletter.

At least I got a chance to try this, because Loaf doesn’t fuck around with the tomato slices. They give you massive pieces, which vie for your attention against the excellent toasted sourdough. In my mind, you only need enough bacon in a BLT to season each bite with smoke, fat, and salt, and the ratios here are perfect here in that way. The sandwich is a fucking mess to eat, but it’s a club; I’ve never been able to eat a club sandwich without looking like an absolute monster. Get it while you can.

Lastly, we went for the zucchini sandwich ($15), which is packed with lightly-cooked zucchini, more heirloom tomato slices (yay), feta, red onion, marinated kohlrabi, pickled jalapeño, and basil mayo, all between two slices of toasted olive polenta bread.

The zucchini sandwich is great because its fillings are very bright, with the vinegary kohlrabi bursting straight through (I mistook it for slices of deli turkey until I bit into it). I particularly love that acidity, because while most veggie sandwiches I’ve had shy away from that aspect, this one embraces the hell out of it. And it’s so generously filled, too. If you’re looking to embrace the flavors of summer, crush this one.

I asked Loaf Lounge via Instagram whether or not it’s seasonal, and unfortunately it is, which only makes sense. They told me it’d likely be around for another week, but I’m guessing at some point we’ll all see another sandwich in its place once fall produce hits its stride.

And if you want to buy baked goods from Loaf Lounge, which I highly recommend you do, you better do it as soon as you step in. Max and I had schemed to purchase a few items to grab on the way out, but by the time we’d finished eating through most of the menu, the case was already emptied. Whoops. I guess that means I just need to go back immediately.

But while I’m there, twist my arm, I guess I’ll have to stop and eat something. It’ll be hard to choose what, since everything here was so damn good, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out. Also, about that chocolate cake; Davida and I have had it, and from what I remember, it’s a really solid frosted chocolate slice that’s worth trying at least once.

So drop by. Loaf around for a while. You’ll be glad you did.

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I won’t keep you any longer, so get out there and have a great week. Love you guys. And don’t forget to visit Max, tell him I sent you!