So, last week I got an assignment from OnlyInYourState.com to find an incredible Leftover Thanksgiving Sandwich and write about it. So I started searching… and searching… and, y’all, I couldn’t find a damn thing. Like, I knew these hearty sandwiches were likely seasonal specials, but why wasn’t anyone advertising them?
It was getting so bad that I considered calling delis near me in the hopes they had one on special. If I still lived in Florida, I feel like I could have called up Pom Pom and asked her if I could feature the Mama Ling Ling, because in my brain, there is simply no better Thanksgiving Sandwich, and no one else should even try.
But I’m in Michigan and not in Florida, so I had to find something tasty to eat now. I asked on Facebook, in groups, in subreddits, and at one point, I just yelled into the ether. No one responded.
I discovered the Turkey Trot sandwich existed at Mudgie’s Deli and Wine Shop in Detroit and kept in my back pocket for about a week in case I found something better. I did not, and we were gearing up to head over to Mudgie’s when I got a response to one of my Reddit posts.
Our plans changed immediately. It was about 20 minutes away, so totally doable. Then I spied their hours. They were already closed, and I wanted to write this article the next day. So, onto Mudgie’s we went. And I’m so glad we did.
First up, the food was great. You can read about the Michigan Thanksgiving sando here. The vibe was incredible, as were the people. I’ll tell you one story I watched that I wasn’t even involved in.
A small family emerged from the dining room to the left of the bar area, where we were sitting. Even if I don’t drink much anymore, I’m always and forever a bar sitter. It’s where the best people watching is.
Near the bar, a back-of-house worker spied that one of the ladies in the family had a walker and asked her where they had parked. See, there are three or four steps up to get into the restaurant, which aren’t necessarily easy for disabled folks to navigate. The family indicated where they parked and the BOH fella said, “Hold on, take a walk with me, I’ll show you where to park next time so you don’t have to go up and down the steps,” and whisked them away to a no-stair entrance.
Human service. Not customer service. And that’s what I look for above all else when I’m giving a business my money.
I mean, they also have to have good food and Mudgie’s totally had that. I didn’t have enough room to cover this in my article for Only Ijn Your State, but we topped off our turkey sandwiches with a slice of Dutch Apple Pie.
And, y’all, this might be the best pie crust I’ve had in my life. I am often hyperbolic because I enjoy escalation. This time, however, I am not. A line from one of Maeve Binchy’s books has stuck with me since the first time I read it.
“You have a light touch with pie crust.”
I never really knew what she meant, but now I get it. Oh, boy, do I get it. The crust, flavor-wise, was perfect, and, in fact, it was the taste that made me comment on it to begin with.
Then I took another bite. A bigger bite, with more crust. And then, the first slice of my tooth through the, uh, slice of pie was a texture wonderland. I felt like I was in a movie scene where it gets really close on my eyeball (which is rolling up into my head because this pie is orgasmically delicious), and then zooms out into a veryfast montage of everything that went into this crust:
- the flour
- the sugar
- the butter
- the love
- the muscle
- the years of knowledge
- the love of a woman
- the memory of a grandmother
- the smell of the ocean
- the feel of nighttime
- the look of twilight (not the book. come on. plz)
All of it. I felt it and, what’s more, I could taste it. My eyes teared up (embarrassing, but true).
” This might be the best pie crust I’ve ever tasted,” I said quietly, not wanting to cause a scene.
Also, though, I wanted to check in to make sure my hyperbolism wasn’t acting up again.
Mickey nodded because he was too in love with the pie crust to do anything else. I savored every chew.
Look, the pie filling and the vanilla ice cream atop the crust were also delicious. This crust had main character energy, so I’m giving it what it deserves.
But something else deserves a mention:
The Wine
As we were leaving, our bartender (who was also amazing) asked if we wanted any beers to go, cause we were curious about a can of the local stuff. The art only, my chuggin’ days are over. I said no, but asked if they had any bottles of Chablis in their wine shop, cause I’d been on the hunt ever since I traversed NYC solo for an evening earlier this year.
She wasn’t a wine gal, but brought over someone who was. She was so knowledgeable and passionate about wine and, most importantly to me, curious. Lead with curiosity, I always say.
They didn’t have a bottle of Chablis, which wasn’t surprising because it is quite out of fashion. However, the conversation didn’t end there; instead, she asked me, “What was it you liked about the Chablis so much?”
And I told her the best way I could describe it. I’d been a red wine drinker because the whites didn’t have enough meat to ‘em for my palate. I enjoy champagne, crispier the better, rosé — best when crispy, and very, very dry reds. When I was in NYC, I had an orange wine that I enjoyed very much; I’d also had a glass of orange wine that night with dinner, which was also delightful.
After giving my lifetime wine history for some reason, I spent a good minute talking about why I enjoyed the Chablis so much. I used the word ‘crisp’ and its variations a lot and kept saying that it reminded me of drinking an iceberg. Iceberg is still the best word I can say to describe it.
“What I’m hearing is that you like crisp wine,” she quipped.
Then walked me to the wine shop portion of events and talked me through some of her (impeccably curated) wines.
The one from Volker was the closest of the two, but when I tried the other one… the beginning of the first sip was SO CLOSE, but the back end was too juicy. Oh god, the beginning was brilliant though.
That’s it, y’all. I think that’s all I have to say about Mudgie’s until next time I visit, which will be soon. If you come visit me and have already been to Mugly’s… this is where I’ll take you next. But if you haven’t been to Mugly’s, that’s still first on the list.
