Artichoke Sandwich Bar was an Irish inpired dive bar that opened in 1984 near downtown.  It was since expanded to a second location as well as a food truck, which all have slightly different menus.  We went to the original location which had a full bar and restaurant at lunch and live music on Wed.-Sat. evenings.  The large place was spread over a couple rooms with a large parking area outside.  Inside there were a lot of green lights, faint music, booth seating on one wall opposite the bar counter seating with a row of small tables in between.   The walls were heavily decorated with art and memorabilia.  It primarily serves sandwiches that all come with a pickle and chips – regular, BBQ or jalapeno.  Other sides are available for an upcharge and they do offer a couple salads and some appetizers.   Many of the sandwich combinations sounded really tasty and I know if I ever get back this way I’d go again, it was that good.  Hope you’ll try it and also hear some live music.

Set-up

Food

The Famous #8 sandwich contained turkey, swiss and cream cheese, lettuce, and tomato topped with Italian dressing and parmesan cheese on a grilled onion hoagie bun.    The ingredients in this one were cool in temperature even while the cheese got melty.  The cream cheese blended nicely with the vinagrette to give the sandwich an “Italian sub” flavor.  The sandwich was quite good.  The chips were bagged Miss Vickie’s.

The Knock Out sandwich contained smoked ham, bacon, Swiss, spicy brown mustard with cream cheese and banana peppers all on a grilled onion hoagie bun.   These ingredients were warmer in the middle with more mustard flavor.  It was not that spicy – I’d call it tangy.  The bun was nicely toasted and very good with the well distributed ingredients.  Lots of good flavors in both of these sandwiches with a good amount of filling and very different flavor profiles.