🥪 The Club
Serious sandwich 08
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The club is situation-specific; rarely found outside hotels. It’s unclear where the sandwich was invented, but it took off thanks to NYC’s Waldorf Astoria, with the introduction of room service. Order a club to any hotel room in the world and it’s likely that you will receive: a triple-decker toasted bread sandwich layered with chicken, bacon (or its halal alternative), salad, and mayonnaise. Its dinky triangles will be skewered with cocktail sticks. It will be served with chips or crisps and a garnish of one (1) wilting leaf of Lollo Rosso (frills may be transparent with age) and half a (possibly unripe) cherry tomato. It will arrive under a cloche on a gigantic tray with a glass of slightly too-warm white wine and one (1) minuscule pot of ketchup. Ahhhh, room service.
What’s been your most memorable room service experience? Share your memories on the Sandwich Board!
If you’re going triple-decker it has to be bog-standard sliced white, otherwise, you’ll end up with something only a python could manage. That said, you could do a club that’s basically a sandwich on bloomer-style white bread, ditching the middle slice. We make our choices!
Our research in this area is wide-ranging. Variations have included olives (no); cheese (no); fried egg (this pops up every so often and many will claim it was part of the ‘original’ line-up of ingredients) and… strawberries. This last addition was courtesy of a hotel in Ethiopia circa 2013.Â
A club sandwich - like a burger - demands a side. French fries (MAYBE shoestring fries) or crisps are the only acceptable options here. Regular chips will be eaten, sure, but they don’t feel quite right. We want to grab salty, greasy fistfuls of crunchy carbs in between consuming other, slightly less salty, slightly less greasy carbs. Balance.
Crispy Chicken Skin Club
Serves 1 The chicken skin adds a super savoury, crispy and fatty layer that’s full of the flavour the chicken breast is not.
3 slices white bread (the bag kind)
1 chicken breast, skin on
3 rashers smoked streaky bacon
2 leaves crisp lettuce such as Little Gem, shredded
1 tomato, slicedÂ
A few very thin slices of red onion
4 slices cucumber
A few tablespoons mayonnaise
Small handful tarragon leaves, finely chopped
Small handful chives, finely chopped
Crisps or fries, to serve
Oil, for cooking
Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add a small splash of oil. Add the chicken breasts skin side down and weigh them down with something heavy like another pan. We use a bacon press from the amazing Netherton Foundry.
Once the skin is golden brown, flip the breasts over to continue cooking them through.
The skin will naturally release itself from the meat, which is good. Take it off. Once the breasts are cooked remove them from the pan then continue cooking the skin under a weight until it’s golden brown and crisp through - drain on kitchen paper. It will continue to crisp up as it cools.Â
Grill or fry your bacon until crisp too and get all your veggies ready. Combine the herbs and mayo and season.
Toast the bread and layer up the sandwich with mayo, sliced chicken, salad, chicken skin, bread, bacon, more salad and more mayo. Serve immediately with crisps or fries.
Crabby Club Sandwich
Serves 1 There’s a slightly Cali vibe to this crabby club, and the combo of creamy mayo-bound crab with salty bacon and salad is DREAMY. If you want something even crabbier (we see you), add a smear of brown meat too.
3 slices white bread (the bag kind)
4 rashers smoked streaky bacon
100g white crab meat (and some brown meat if you fancy!)
3-4 tablespoons mayonnaiseÂ
Squeeze lemon
2 leaves crisp lettuce such as Little Gem, shredded
4 slices cucumber
1 tomato, slicedÂ
1 spring onion, finely sliced
Small handful tarragon leaves, finely chopped
Small handful chives, finely chopped
Crisps or fries, to serve
Combine the crab meat with the mayo, herbs and lemon juice and season. Mix well.
Grill or fry the bacon until crisp and get all your veggies ready. Toast the bread.
Layer up two slices of the bread with the crabby mayo - this will be the two outside slices of the sandwich. Then it’s a case of layering everything up, making sure you add an extra slick of mayo to the middle slice of bread. If using brown crab meat, add it here.
Serve with crisps or chips!
Dulse Club Sandwich
Serves 1 Dulse is an incredible seaweed that, once fried, has smoky flavours similar to bacon. Honestly! The hummus does take things in a slightly different direction, but a good one.
3 slices white bread (the bag kind)
10g dulse flakes (you can buy these online and in health food shops)
A few tablespoons of hummus
2 leaves crisp lettuce such as Little Gem, shredded
1 tomato, slicedÂ
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
4 slices cucumber
Crisps or fries, to serve
Oil, for cooking
Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add a splash of oil. Add the dulse and fry very briefly until crisp - 15-20 seconds. Drain on kitchen paper.
Toast the bread and spread two slices with hummus. Top one with the dulse and add the plain slice of bread.
Top with the salad and the remaining hummus-spread slice. Serve with crisps or fries.