Counter Culture.

Uncle Uber's Makes Sammiches, Not Sandwiches, OK?

Uncle Uber's Sammich Shop
2713 Commerce Street
Deep Ellum

Ambiance: 3 out of 4 Sammiches
Service: 3 out of 4 Sammiches
Food: 3.5 out of 4 Sammiches

It's right there on the wall when you walk in, and plastered all over their web site, too: Uncle Uber's in Deep Ellum is a “sammich” shop, not a sandwich shop. It's an important distinction, they swear.

According to Uncle Uber's, a sammich is “only the holiest and mightiest of all sandwiches,” and “a sandwich is merely a snack, but a sammich is forever.”

Like diamonds, apparently. Also: Every sammich is a sandwich, but not every sandwich is a sammich — kind of like the whole rectangle/square thing you learned back in geometry.

Point is: Uber's talks a good game. Fortunate for them, they walk a pretty good one, too. Being a “sammich” shop, the name of that game here is, of course, sandwiches. Burgers and salads litter the menu, too, but the sandwiches are really where it's at. The simple slow-roasted pork ($5.99) comes on a toasted bun with some cole slaw stacked on top of it to give the succulent meat a little contrast. The Cuban ($6.99) — re-dubbed on the wall-mounted menu as “The Mark Cuban” — pairs that same tender meat with ham, Swiss cheese and a tangy, secret “Uber” sauce in a hot, pressed baguette, for more of a panini melt vibe.

Each of the aforementioned are fine selections, but the real coup de grace here is the Shaved Ribeye Steak ($7.29) which pairs finely cut beef with onions, tomatoes, romaine, pickles, bleu cheese crumbles and a garlic mayo sauce in a hoagie bun for a veritable flavor explosion that could just be worth the terrible breath it causes after all. With perhaps the exception of the Angry Dog burger across the street, it's the best sandwich option you'll find in the surprisingly busy and cluttered Deep Ellum lunch market.

With sandwiches being the main focus here, however, the accouterments take something of a dive. Of your options — Zapps bag chips, a side salad or fries — the fries are probably the best as flavor is concerned, but that's not saying much. They're somewhat bland. Be sure to order yours with the shop's quite tasty habanero ranch sauce for dipping purposes. It'll spice things up quite nicely.

But when you add all that up — a sammich, some fries and a drink — you're not looking at the cheapest lunch around. Your bill will fall somewhere between $11 and $14.

Not exactly a bargain for a sandwich shop meal.

But if you order the Shaved Ribeye Steak sammich, you might not care in the end.