Like most Ithacans, I consider Ithaca Bakery an essential part of the local cultural landscape. Its logo is easily recognizable from the many bumper stickers, hats, and t-shirts spread throughout town, and one can hardly claim to be Ithacan if one has never tried at least a bagel from the bakery. Over a lifetime of patronage, spent sampling sandwiches from all parts of the incredibly expansive menu, I have found the absolute best sandwich Ithaca Bakery has to offer: the Danby Revisited.
The Danby is both complex and simple. On the surface, it is just another turkey sandwich. Delve deeper, however, and one will discover that light but wholesome ingredients combine to make this sandwich a winner.
Start with the bread. The Danby Revisited comes on hand-sliced multigrain, which has a thick and fluffy inside but a formidably chewy crust. Then there’s the parsley-garlic dressing, daintily spread over a thick layer of turkey and made all the airier in contrast. I would do terrible things for a lifetime supply of this dressing, so please believe me when I say that it is the best part of a great sandwich. After the dressing and turkey is a tomato, and then a layer of creamy avocado.
This superb sandwich is elevated above its competition by the masterful combination of hearty ingredients, as the comfortingly dense is contrasted with the wonderfully weightless. While some sandwiches have simply too much meat and others barely put a dent in one’s hunger, this sandwich fulfills, meets, and exceeds all expectations. The Danby is both a solid meal and something one could eat again and again, leaving it a cut above the rest and clearly The Best.
Note: No, the author was not hungry when this article was written; immediately afterwards, however, she did have a hankering for a good pickle.