When taking a day drive along Lake Michigan you run into some lovely towns such as Grand Haven.  In this town is a sandwich shop that gives the pickle fans like myself a reason to stop and have a wonderful meal.  I am talking about The Toasted Pickle.

Walking in I see a big line and a large menu-overhead so I can decide what to order by the time I get up to the counter.  The problem is it all sounded so good.  The Toasted Pickle has numerous sandwich choices as well as various other options.  Every sandwich comes with a pickle spear and most have pickles incorporated in them in some way. So I already knew I was in heaven just was unsure which to pick.  After much deciding I chose two half sandwiches.  The Crusty Cuban and The High Nooner.  I also picked up a side of their house-made kettle chips.

Everthing about this meal was wonderful.  The pickle on top of each sandwich gave me more joy since I love the dill.  The kettle chips were the best I have had and the pickle sauce to dip was so good I had to get a side to go.

The High Nooner was my personal favorite of this meal.  It is a crispy chicken sandwich on sourdough with lettuce, tomato, smoked bacon and a tangy aioli mustard.  The buttery but toasted sourdough went perfectly with the juicy but crunchy chicken.  The tangy aioli mustard was top notch and covered the chicken.

The Crusty Cuban was pretty tasty too.  The house pulled pork and smoked bacon went with a tangy aioli and sweet & spicy pickles all on a grilled hoagie.  I really liked how the pork almost had a sweetness to it and when you mix that with the sweet & spicy pickles you have a wonderful balance of flavors that I wouldn’t normally think went together.  I’ve had plenty of Cubanos with mustard but this was my first with an aioli sauce on it.  No complaints on that.

So be sure to stop into Grand Haven whenever you are in Michigan and head to The Toasted Pickle.  If for whatever reason sandwiches aren’t your thing they also have amazing truffle fries and mac & cheese from what I am told.  I also plan on trying their pickle poppers next time which are fried and stuffed with pimento cheese.