Virginia Inn
The Virginia Inn has a the feel of an old saloon. It’s relaxed atmosphere, coupled with worn hardwood floors and creaky chairs is rather welcoming despite being sandwiched (no pun in intended) in between Pike Place Market and Belltown.
In the past, I religiously ordered the Muffeletta sandwich; however, it turns out that the Virginia Inn removed it from the menu. It was hard not to love the Muffeletta sandwich. In the middle of crusty French bread sat a pile of various salty meats, which were marinated in WHAT IS THE VEGE MIXTURE.
Believing that when a door closes a window opens, I decided upon the Italian Sausage Sandwich. All the sandwiches at the Virginia Inn are pretty standard. They use crusty-on-the-outside-and-soft-on-the-inside French bread for each sandwich and pair it with a side of potato chips.
The Italian Sausage sandwich is composed of small sausage patties, smothered in marinara sauce, and topped with mozzarella cheese.
The marinara sauce was really sweet. So sweet, in fact, that the sausage came across as bland and nonexistent. The small amount of mozzarella disappeared within the sweet and tangy depths of the sauce as well. So, if you’re keeping track, I was unable to taste the sausage or the cheese. Thus, I was left with sweet marinara sauce on French Bread. On the bright side, the bread was great. In fact, the bread would have been wonderful as part of a Muffeletta sandwich.
The chips, light on the salt with almost no hint of oil, went along well with a beer (actually, two beers). However, as you can (hopefully) tell, my meal was without a protein. The lack of protein equated to a lack of a focal point on the dish. While the bread, the sauce, the chips, and the beer were all wonderful in their own individual ways, they failed to come together as satisfactory unified dish.
Additionally, when I asked another person about the fish and chips, they simply responded that “… it was nothing to write home about.” This visit to the Virginia Inn left me at a loss. Not only did they remove my favorite sandwich, they failed to put something of equal taste in its place.
