Who Made Me? The Copycat Sandwich

Who am I?  I taste like the Godmother.  I smell like the Godmother.  My bread seems almost identical to the Godmother.  I have hot or mild peppers.  I am stuffed with spicy capocollo, mortadella, prosciutto di parma, ham and provolone.  You can order me with the works and in a medium or large size.  I even look like The Godmother from Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica, but I am not the Godmother.  I'll give you a clue, I'm a copycat and they call me The Godfather.

(Above is the Godfather from All About The Bread.
Below is the Original and Famous Godmother from Bay Cities Italian Deli.
Could they look anymore like Twins?)

ALL ABOUT THE BREAD - Melrose, Los Angeles - www.allaboutthebread.com

Everyone copies everyone in all industries.  When we heard about Armageddon, suddenly we also heard about Deep Impact.  When Umami Burger suddenly and undeservingly got popular, Stout opened up serving small over priced burgers just like Umami.  Just as we thought Tiger Woods was the ultimate ladies man, Jesse James stepped up making us question who officially was a greater Man Whore.  When Nike's Shox became big sellers Adidas introduced the Bounce and now Reebok has just released the Zig.  Everyone copies, everyone takes inspiration from others and tries to improve on it or make it their own.  However, All About The Bread, which opened about 4 months ago on Melrose is doing what I've believed someone should have been doing for the last ten years; open up a Bay Cities on the Eastside.  But what I didn't necessarily consider was just taking Bay Cities best and most popular sandwich and coping it unequivocally without even trying to improve on it.  It's as if they just said, "Fuck it.  Let's just do the exact same sandwich."

People drive from all over Los Angeles County to get the Godmother and other sandwiches from Bay Cities.  It's packed everyday, all day long, except on Mondays, cause they are closed (who hasn't made that mistake).  And nobody does a sandwich like the Godmother until now.  The Godfather is identical to the Godmother in almost every way.  Is it as good?  It's a tough call; it's close, that's for sure.  If the Godmother is a 10, then the Godfather is a 9.5.  

What's different?  I'm a strong believer that what really makes Bay Cities Sandwiches great is their bread.  Well, All About The Bread bakes their own bread, which is almost identical and they do it fresh every thirty minutes.  So while they taste the same, All About The Bread's bread (hard to say) is a little bit fresher and if you're lucky it might even be a little bit warm.  Bay Cities' Godmother is messier because the sandwich seems to be packed more full with meat and condiments and this is where the betterness now lies (I know betterness it's not a word, but I'm making it one.  If you don't like it don't use it).  The Godfather is messy, but it doesn't leak all over your hands and eventually cover the butcher paper like the Godmother does.  The hot peppers from All About The Bread are "famous Chicago hot peppers" but they aren't as good as Bay Cities Gardineria spicy pepper mix.   

To make this simple, I like Bay Cities a weeee bit better, but if I lived closer to Melrose and La Brea than I do to Lincoln and Broadway I'd go to All About The Bread.  This is so hard, it's like asking me who was hotter in their prime Carmen Electra, Angelina Jolie, Marilyn Monroe or Barbara Bush, who could choose.  A plus for All About The Bread is it's open on Mondays and I was able to walk right in a 1pm and get my sandwich within 15mins which would never happen at Bay Cities.  However, when All About The Bread does get popular it's gonna get killed.  I don't think the kitchen layout or the speed of the sandwich makers will be able to support the massive rushes Bay Cities takes.

Side Note:  I also had a Chocolate Chip Truffle Cookie, which I think I could happily live off of for the rest of my life.  At first glance it looked a little over cooked and hard, but then I broke off a piece and it was perfect.  Hard and crunchy on the outside and soft and like fudge or a truffle on the inside.  This was a deliciously sexy cookie and now since everyone believes dark chocolate is good for you I might just have to take these cookies as nutritional supplements.

If you're a die-hard Bay Cities lover like I am stay loyal and continue to get your Godmothers at Bay Cities.  I won't be buying Godfathers just out of principle and as respect to the Original.  Also, I don't want to find a horse head under my sheets.   However, you still need to go check out All About The Bread for the chocolate chip truffle cookie.