Duckfat, Portland Maine

What's not to like about a restaurant that names itself Duckfat? Name aside, this restaurant is knocking out some high quality panini and french fries.

To start, I ordered the obligatory duck fat fries with a side of aioli while I waited for my panini. Crunchy, salty fries and a tasty garlic aioli. Went well with my Marshall Wharf Pale Ale served in a mason jar. A local brew out of Belfast, ME. But fries are not the main attraction for me.

When I'm in uncharted territory, I tend to stick with Cured Ham benchmarks for quality assurance purposes. A reuben sandwich is one of my favorites and a fairly universal preparation in restaurants, whether they be a pub or gourmet sandwich shop. Lucky me, Duckfat has a reuben on the menu. But not an ordinary reuben, a Corned Beef Tongue Reuben!!!

Why mess with a regular corned beef reuben? Because if you can make corned beef out of a cow's tongue, you deserve some respect and a chance. Combine this with some homecured cabbage and Thousand Island Dressing and guess what, Reuben, right? Not yet. Generally, Swiss cheese is used in a reuben. Well the folks at Duckfat play with that too by substituting gruyere cheese, which is Swiss. Lastly, the bread. Rye bread is usually just sliced with no real texture or crunch. Once again, by making this a panini rather than just a grilled piece of bread, the texture of the sandwich changes. Duckfat buys its bread from Standard Baking Co. in Portland and the bread is delicious.

So I've described the source of the ingredients, how did everything taste when assembled into the Reuben I ordered? Wonderful from the first bite to the last. Honestly, I think it was the bread that "made" the sandwich successful.

I eat reuben sandwiches more than any other across the country. And the best reubens' are made in Portland! Veritable Quandary in Portland, Oregon and now Duckfat in Portland, Maine. Two completely different sandwiches in terms of preparation and ingredients, VQ a textbook reuben. Duckfat, gourmet interpretation of a classic and no doubt a solid one.