Review: Fozzie's Sandwich Emporium . STL

Bottom-line first: You should definitely give it a go.

Fozzie's has a lot going for it, first of all the name. Any place that includes emporium is alright in my book. The word 'emporium' puts itself out there as *the* place for whatever wares it's peddling, but isn't overused. Just sayin', 'I like it'. Secondly, Fozzie, like the Muppet? I can only hope. I was raised on The Muppet Show, even having two stuffed twin animal raccoons (is this common?) named 'Muppet' and 'Show'. They were identical, so I think the names were interchanged a lot between the two. Point being, a nod to Jim Henson and his crew is close to my heart.

Now that we've got whatever weird, subjective points out of the way, lets move on to more common subjective aspects:

Garden:
Walking up to the entrance winds you past an outdoor veggie garden in full bloom and purportedly used in the kitchen. Yeah, you had me at hello on that one.

Selection:
The sandwich selection is varied, so go with a group wanting falafel, catfish, hamburger, hot dog or pretty much anything between a bun and you will be the lunchtime champ.

Size:
With a kitchen that seems 4 times bigger than the indoor dining room (totally a made-up stat), you can't help but feel either 1) Like VIP if you score an indoor seat during inclimate weather or 2) Like a squatter in a take-out joint. They are definitely aiming for the take-out crowd, packaging all orders in a brown paper bag and all items very definitely leaning towards the outward-bound. Having said that, they seem very aimed and ready for the call-in orders, should that be your modus operandi.

During our lunchtime visit, our trio order very different mains (pics taken by phone camera, don't hold that against them):

THE KING - creamy peanut butter, crispy bacon & bananas on sourdough
For our taster: the King was more novel than some of the other lunch choices (meaning: worth a try, in case this is your bag, but a one-off in our taster's case).

THE GRACEY (VEGETARIAN) - crispy falafel, roasted peppers, grilled onions, baby spinach &artichoke/spinach spread on flatbread
For our taster: Excellent. I will say, during our 30 minute tenure at Fozzie's, The Gracey was called out more than any other sandwich. I think that speaks volumes.

CATFISH PO’ BOY - cornmeal dusted catfish, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, roasted corn tartar sauce on a hoagie
For our taster: Excellent taste, but the cornmeal gave it a bit of a bite. A little softer on the crust and tad more tarter sauce and it is the Mississippi on a bun (I mean that in a good way, as I love catfish).

Not even mentioned in our brief review are the spreads, salads, milkshakes and numerous other items offered.