WHACK. WHACK. Whackwhackwhackwhack, whackwhackwhackwhack. The rhythmic chopping is metal on metal, a complicated beat sounding like it’s pounded on a drum kit’s cow bell. We were at Mammer Jammer, once a regular stop for night-owls at the triangular intersection where Olive Street and Lindell Boulevard split, now a denizen of a small strip mall on Natural Bridge, just west of Kingshighway.
“Underground restaurants” are a hot topic these days. But the phrase also has been applied to those little holes in the wall that almost no one knows about. There is some muttering in the blogosphere about Mammer Jammer, a diner-style restaurant that, in various locations, has been around more than 20 years. But we rarely run into anyone who has heard of it, much less a regular patron. And if the folks we’re talking to are metal mouths, people who like spicy food, they need to learn.
Mammer Jammer is, in its current location, quite tiny, with only two tables and five or six chairs. Almost all its business is carry out. Once upon a time, in what we think was the original Midtown location, it was larger, with a counter and a handful of tables; so was the North Kingshighway site that preceded this one. Open very late, it catered to cab drivers, wandering newspaper reporters, musicians, street people of all types.
The dish of choice is the sandwich of the same name. A mammer jammer is thinly sliced beef, further diced by the furiously flying spatulas of the cook. Onions and peppers, both red flakes and sliced jalapenos, cook along with the meat.
And that brings us to peppers. While the sign in the restaurant merely says REGULAR, MILD OR HOT, and the man who took our order asked, “Mild, hot or mixed?” there are eight degrees of heat or lack thereof. And we quote from the paper carryout menu:
Regular – No Fire. For the Faint-hearted.
Mild – First hint. Just a little tingle.
Hot – Spicy. Taste the peppers.
Extra Hot – You like living on the edge.
Super Hot – You’ve got one foot over the edge!
Mary Francis – The hottest highsteppin’ mama in town! You are now over the edge!
Big John – Rest in peace! Notify next of kin!
“It” – You are in The Here After.
(It goes on to add, rather unnecessarily, “We Offer the Hottest Sandwich in Town”.)
We got the hot. There’s a layer of melting cheese underneath the lava-like deluge of meat, vegetables and brown gravy, which sort of holds things together on the hoagie bun, but this is still a knife-and-fork sandwich unless it’s tightly wrapped and eaten leaning waay over. The heat was not, to our mouths, anywhere near too much. We could certainly taste other things. If we weren’t cutting it up, we might have preferred a sturdier piece of bread, but this worked well. And it surely tasted great.
There are other sandwiches available — sooner or later, we’ll surely try the mushroom steak, and the Philly — but this time we went for the tripe. Deep-fried and mostly extremely tender, it was done the way fish sandwiches often are, with onion and mustard on white bread, and the not-unexpected fillip of a couple of dashes of unannounced hot sauce finishing things off. Tripe isn’t for everyone, we know, but its presence on soul food menus has long intrigued us, and this was, for the tripe lover, something to be thought about until the next visit.
Mammer Jammer closes at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, but is open until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, just the thing to finish off a night of drinking a little.
Mammer Jammer
5124 Natural Bridge Rd.
314-381-1617
Lunch & Dinner Mon.-Sat. (See above)
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Poor
Smoking: No
Sandwiches: $3-$6
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Mammer Jammer been around & is one of my favorites.