Many fast-food-style delis allow customers to basically build their own sandwiches. Bleu, located in the Westin Hotel, has taken this idea and put an upscale spin on it with the B.Y.O. sandwich. At lunch, customers can follow an easy eight-step process to create the sandwich of their dreams. A quick glance at Step 1: Choose Your Protein and you know already that you’re going to have a great sandwich. Among the choices: Black Angus beef, marinated chicken breast, ahi tuna, fried catfish, portabello mushroom cap, or sliced sirloin. Aw, yeah. From there, you choose the way you want your protein cooked and what you want it served on. (My personal favorite is a grilled cheese bun.) Then it’s time to choose a fancy sauce and a fancy cheese, if you so desire. Step 6 allows you to add any three of the following: iceberg lettuce, arugula, sliced pickles, cole slaw, Bermuda onions, jalapenos, caramelized onion, sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, and roasted red peppers. Step 7 — premium toppings — is arguably the best, even if it costs an extra $1. Choose to add avocado, fried egg, applewood-smoked bacon, onion rings, or fried tomato. Step 8 is all about the sides: hand-cut fries, potato salad, fruit cup, sweet potato fries, or cole slaw. The trick, of course, is to not get carried away or overthink it. And if at first you don’t succeed in building the best sandwich ever, you can always try again. — Stacey Greenberg
Bleu, 221 S. 3rd (334-5950)