“This is where you go to hurt yourself. This is a corner of pain. Your arteries will never forgive you, but if you’re gonna indulge, this is the place to be.”
As my friend says this, I realize she’s right. On the corner of 4th Street, mere feet away from Neonopolis, where day drinkers from the nearby Fat Tuesdays spill out onto the Fremont Street Experience, a waft of deep-fried goodness drifts by.
Down the promenade, there’s LA’s Dirt Dog. Along the way, there’s the infamous Heart Attack Grill. But right here in front of me sits Las Vegas’ first Fat Sal’s, a deli and sandwich shop that’s quickly becoming my next obsession.
A staple of the Los Angeles food scene since 2010, Fat Sal’s is praised for its oversized heroes piled high with thinly sliced meats, mozzarella sticks, fries and all the fixings of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink meal. New Yorkers Sal Capek and Josh Stone opened the first store in Westwood, near UCLA’s campus. It now boasts nine locations across LA, with Vegas being its only out-of-state venture.
“I think we were almost built for Las Vegas, from the way our menu reads, from the indulgent aspect of our food, how we are very over the top, the way that Vegas is very over the top in the best possible way. We’re kind of built for that city,” says Joshua Cook, vice president of operations.
Fat Sal’s offers a surplus of delectable items including standard Angus beef burgers, pastrami reubens ($17), Philly cheesesteak fries ($14) and wilder creations like pepperoni pizza and chicken teriyaki burgers ($15). Everything on the menu can be made “fatter,” with extra meats, toppings and sauces made in-house.
But if you truly want to test the waistband of those pants, order a Fat Sandwich. While pricey, Fat Sal’s doesn’t kid around with its portions. The Fat Texas ($20) boasts enough barbecue pastrami brisket to create a separate side. The sandwich itself is also stacked with finger foods—chicken tenders, mozz sticks, fries—as well as fresh grilled onions, melted cheddar and bacon ... so much bacon.
The Fat Banh Mi-Ki ($20), which Cook sees as “probably our most complex sandwich as far as the flavors and the textures are concerned,” converted me from my first crunchy bite.Great banh mis are hard to master, but Fat Sal’s use of house-made Vietnamese pickled veggies and Szechuan slaw adds such a tangy, salty sweet touch. The finely sliced ribeye steak, while impossibly tender, doesn’t overwhelm, creating a savory build of umami through each bite.
“It’s a very East Coast thing, thinly sliced meat, especially when it comes to deli meat,” says Cook. “Philly cheesesteaks are, of course, super thinly sliced ribeye. Sal’s from Staten Island [and] Josh is from Mamaroneck, New York. All the delis did super thinly sliced meat, and it was always sliced to order.”
Fat Sal’s bread also deserves praise for its balance of soft and firm, a quality many LA bakeries have perfected over years of competition. “It’s the most important thing in any sandwich,” Cook says. “We get it delivered every single day, fresh. It is a proprietary recipe that’s executed by a local bakery. Without good bread, you can’t have a good sandwich.”
The high standards carry over into Fat Sal’s decadent shakes, which feature outlandish toppings like a whole slice of New York cheesecake. Its half-pound, sea salt chocolate chip cookie, stuffed with red velvet cake, is also a winning dessert, and it’s created by LA’s Brady’s Bakery.
After all that, you’re going to want a salad, and Fat Sal’s has quite a few. The deli’s albacore tuna variety ($16) is an in-house favorite, and vegans will be pleased to find vegan shakes, falafel and Impossible burgers here, too.
FAT SAL’S 450 Fremont St., fatsalsdeli.com. Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-midnight; Friday & Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m.
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