Sandwich No. 83: Ham And Cheese from Char No. 4

Char No. 4, a small restaurant on Smith Street in Brooklyn, is about as perfect a concept as I can imagine: a whiskey/bourbon bar with a kitchen that specializes in barbecue and southern cooking.  I mean, c'mon!  The night started off right with a drinking experience I'd never had before: a bourbon and beer pairing.  It was shockingly great; I would have never thought you could pair such different kinds of alcoholic tastes well, but they did.  Jeni and I then shared a scrumptious arugula and goat cheese salad, and I was rather encouraged by what the entrees would bring.  Jeni got the brisket sandwich, I got the "ham and cheese:"

 
I apologize for the picture: it was very dark and it would have been hard to get a good angle without holding up the plate, which would have been tacky.  Adding to the difficulty was the fact that the sandwich was not exactly packed with meat and cheese inside, making it flat and hard to really get a decent picture of its contents.

In any event, unfortunately, this was the lowlight of the night.  Why?  Well, for one, WAY too many jalapenos, and hot ones at that.  Within two bites, I could barely taste a thing, and had to wait for a while.  But also, the bread was extremely over toasted, to the point where it was practically burnt, and the taste of the bread overwhelmed the rest of the sandwich.  After I ate the first half, I tried eating the second half as an open-face sandwich so that I could actually, you know, taste the ham and cheese, and that worked much better.  The ham and cheese, which tasted like cured pork pressed with sharp cheddar, was delicious by itself, and the golden dipping sauce, which I assume had either jalapenos or habaneros in it, as it was also hot, was very tasty and complemented the sandwich well.

So, in conclusion, I would love to go back to Char No. 4 sometime to try anything other than a sandwich (Jeni's brisket sandwich, while good and better balanced than mine, also had the same bread issue).  The rest of the food was excellent, as was the bourbon and beer pairing.  The sandwich though was very disappointing, although the meat was tasty.  Also, I should point out that Char No. 4 is very overpriced; this sandwich was 14 dollars, and for its size and quality, is one of the worst deals I've had so far.

3.3 for the sandwich.