Carnitas’ Snack Shack – Seen in San Diego U-T's Night and Day
February 10, 2012
Carnitas’ Snack Shack was featured in San Diego Union-Tribune’s Night and Day section…
Greatest hits at Carnitas’ Snack Shack
Top 3 dishes everyone’s pigging out on in North Park
Written by Keli Dailey
The eatery with a giant hog ornament on its roof will have you thinking you’re in pig country – as will Carnitas’ Snack Shack’s “Triple Threat” all-natural, hormone-free pork sandwich.
That’s pork schnitzel (breaded and fried pork loin), tender pulled pork, Applewood smoked bacon, pickled pepperoncini relish, some Shack-made aioli with a little bit of heat, all on a locally-baked Kaiser roll from Hearty Bread in Encinitas.
After a post-bar crawl I had a $9 pork-country picnic with this sandwich…in my car (the patio-only dining area was closing anyhow).
But some of Carnitas’ clientele are swimming against the swine tide.
At least ever since Larry Himmel did a spot on Channel 8 last month. See that here.
Himmel said Carnitas did the best steak sandwich he’d ever had. “So guess what we’re selling a lot of?” chef-owner Hanis Cavin rhetorically poses.
That steak is grilled, tender, boneless rib-eye – on your Beef Chart that’s found between the short loin and the chuck. Sliced and served with pickled Serrano chilies, jalapeño-jack cheese, vine-ripe tomatoes (“The sweet counteracts all that heat,” says Cavin), chipotle aioli and planted on jalapeño-cheddar Hearty Bread toast.
“The steak sandwich is overtaking the pork sandwich,” is the former chef of Kensington Grill’s menu commentary.
Oh, there’s a third-place favorite.
A food blogger recently praised the $9 Shack Burger: butter lettuce, bacon jam, white cheddar, Shack aioli.
And like magic, Carnitas’ went from cooking 40 pounds of ground beef, to 120 pounds last week.
Oh, what a little menu media can do.