Hot Roast Beef Sandwich of the Dakotas

Driving across South Dakota could be a dull experience. I-90 is 400 miles of mostly flat, mostly straight road going east to west or vice versa across the state. South Dakota has compensated by filling the towns servicing I-90 with roadside attractions. The “World’s Only Corn Palace” in Mitchell, the delightful Porter Sculpture Park in Montrose, the infamous Wall Drug or the breathtakingly beautiful natural history on display at Badlands National Park–South Dakota offers plenty of ways to get off the interstate for a while and stretch one’s legs.

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But how, to inadvisably continue the metaphor, do the folks in South Dakota stretch their stomachs? Some time back–was it earlier this year or a century ago? I can’t even tell anymore–Food Network published a list of the 99 (why 99? It is 2020, nothing makes sense) best sandwiches across the country. It’s a fine list–I’ve had a few of the sandwiches on it, and would love to try a lot more of them. For some odd reason though, one of them stood out to me–the Hot Beef Sandwich at the Wheel Inn in Watertown, South Dakota.

Just look at that gorgeous pile of fat and carbs. I’d never had it and I found myself longing for it, the way a person pines for the comforts of their youth. I began looking for excuses to get to South Dakota and try it.

Cue this summer’s 100% necessary trip to Washington for our sons to visit my wife’s family. Who wants to put their children on an airplane during a pandemic? I elected to drive them to Spokane and back myself, through South Dakota of course. Sadly, Watertown did not line up with our planned itinerary. This is not the only place in South Dakota to get a hot roast beef sandwich, though. In fact, the Wheel Inn in Watertown is not even necessarily on South Dakota’s local list of the best hot beef sandwiches. It’s not on this list anyway, but the Phillips Avenue Diner in Sioux Falls–just off I-90 and far more manageable on our current trip–is right up top.

The Phillips Avenue Diner has a patio seating area (on the right in the photo above) perfect for these times. However, we were traveling with a dog and they didn’t allow dogs on their main service patio. They had a secondary, carry-out / self-service patio where dogs were welcome though, and were kind enough to seat and serve us there.

Dishes ordered for the self-service patio were served in to-go containers, drinks in lidded plastic cups with straws, plastic-wrapped bundles of white plastic utensils with the tiny napkin and the salt and pepper packets included. It was worth it to be able to relax and enjoy a dinner out with my family and include our four-legged member.

We started out by splitting orders of fried cheese curds and poutine. The poutine included the same brown gravy that would be served on the hot beef sandwich as well as smoked pulled pork, cheese curds that were semi-melted by the gravy, and some thin coated fries of the type that stay crisp in the bag and are somewhat edible even hours later. The fried curds came with a tub of Ranch dressing that some speculate is made in-house but just tasted like Ranch to me. They were both tasty starters but we didn’t have long to wait for the main event.

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The Phillips Avenue Diner’s hot roast beef sandwich starts with white bread–not cheap squishy white bread, nor quite an artisanal handmade loaf, but a substantial, thick-sliced bread. Between two slices is placed a well-proportioned amount of shredded roast beef, a scoop of mashed potatoes on the side, and the whole is doused in a rich, deeply brown gravy.

The potatoes were suspiciously lump-free and may have been instant, but they tasted fine. The gravy also had a color and consistency very similar to something that came out of a packet, but if so it had been enriched with some beef juices because it tasted better than that. The beef was tender but less juicy than I’d anticipated–not braised or wet-roasted then, but dry-roasted, with some dark ends attesting to that fact. It was simply seasoned but tasted good, and combined with the solid bread and good potatoes and gravy it made a very satisfying dinner.

It can’t be the best out there though. Any readers from South Dakota–or for that matter from North Dakota, or western Minnesota, or anywhere else these sandwiches are also served–want to weigh in on their local favorites? Next time I’ll go for the heavy hitter rather than the easy mark. This is a sandwich where care with the individual components could mean the difference between something pretty OK and something spectacular.