State Street Bread Company

Please try State Street Bread Company for a delicious assortment of sandwiches and salads. I really like the Applewood Smoked Ham Sandwich. It is ham and apple slaw served on a raisin pecan bread. Sooooo Good. 30 East Hubbard, River North Neighborhood. Let me know what you think!

Are you affiliated with the business or just a "fan"?

This is the sandwich shop in the Courtyard by Marriott?

Welcome to LTH Forum.

Just a really big fan. And for those that are health conscience, salads, salads, and salads, Thai Chicken Salad, Southwest Chicken Salad, and if you like goat cheese, try the Hubbard Street Salad. Ohhhh and soups.

Yes. It is located across from the Starbucks on State Street.

Sounds good, I'll check it out if I'm in the area.

Do you have the actual address, phone # handy? Do they have a website?

Hasn't anyone else's troll alert gone off here?

I think everyone's has.

It is just so amusingly transparent.

Perhaps we should write up something that goes to new members when they sign up that says something like, "We welcome hearing from proprietors about their new restaurants. Our experience is that there is a much more positive response on LTH Forum when proprietors identify themselves as such and share their enthusiasm with us. By contrast, attempts to pose as a disinterested fan are quite easily spotted and generally backfire."

Here's a recent example of the right way to do it:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=14085

Based on Cookie Monster's post, I made a point to stop by her stand at the Lincoln Park Farmer's market.

Darren,

Nice suggestion except people often don't read the posting guidelines already. They are usually acquainted with it once they cross the line. We are fortunate most of the people sense from posts what is and is not acceptable, so even those reminders to read the posting guidelines are rare.

Fortunately shills of this sort are relatively rare. Now the porn, pills and appliance repair companies from Egypt are daily in multiples.

Regards,

While the shill-meter is certainly high on this one, I would note that State Street Bread Company is owned and operated by the Courtyard by Marriott. It seems less likely to me that someone from that organization would shill, but who knows. Debrah, if you're for real, accept our apologies. I'll have a sandwich there soon and report wether my enthusiasm matches yours.

Kennyz wrote:...but who knows. Debrah, if you're for real, accept our apologies. I'll have a sandwich there soon and report wether my enthusiasm matches yours.

Exactly right and classy response. Thank you, Kennyz.

I know we don't typically post to reviews on other sites, but this Yelp review of State Street Bread Company was just too good to not pass along -- and let's just say the reviewer's enthusiasm mirrors the OP's on this thread (although the review is fairly light on details about just what was so good).

Matt, that review was written by someone who did 155 reviews of other places. Not likely to be a shill.

Kennyz wrote:Matt, that review was written by someone who did 155 reviews of other places. Not likely to be a shill.

Yeah, if my phrasing suggested I suspected the Yelp reviewer might a shill, I didn't mean to do so. Not only does she have 150+ other reviews, but not another 5 star one that I could see. Her write-up just made me chuckle.

Kennyz wrote:Matt, that review was written by someone who did 155 reviews of other places. Not likely to be a shill.

On the other hand, the author seems to have given up her "virginity" seven times in the past month alone. I've known girls like that.

Unlucky in love and sandwiches? She's been to 155 other places, none of which stack up to a soup and sammy outlet at an interstate-exit motel plopped down in Chicago? I'm sure it's spectacular, but 5 stars? I think I'll have to take everyone's word for it.

Maybe she should have saved her virginity a little longer . . . she also gives 5 stars to PF Chang's.

aschie30 wrote:Maybe she should have saved her virginity a little longer . . . she also gives 5 stars to PF Chang's.

Too funny. Guess I should've dug deeper. Sorry to get the thread so far off track. Now, back to our scheduled programming.

I wanted to get a second actual food review in before this thread got out of hand, so I just returned from a quick lunch at SSBC. My office is about equidistant between it and Fox & Obel, and I'll be choosing SSBC for my sandwich needs from now on.

While the corporate feel made me a bit uneasy (logoed uniforms, too-glossy menu, samples handed out on the street a la Panda Express in the mall), my "Grown-Up Grilled Cheese Panini" was very good, despite the silly name. The mozzarella was truly fresh, but not overly moist so it melted nicely without making a big mess. The tomatoes - while not nearly on par with the Kinnikinick Farm heirlooms I picked up at Green City this morning - were reasonable, very ripe supermarket-quality types. The highlight was definitely the pesto, which I'm nearly certain is made in-house. Just a perfect balance of the traditional ingredients, a couple of stray whole pine nuts that hadn't been fully processed (my clue that it was homemade stuff). Overall, this was a very good sandwich relative to other options in the area.

Sandwiches are served with house-made chips, or "seasonal fruit salad" for a 75 cent upcharge. I chose the fruit, and emphasize the quotation marks because here "seasonal" meant pineapple, grapes, and some decent supermarket cantaloupe. Decent, but not the peach, blackberry combo I (probably foolishly) hoped for.

Kennyz, are you affiliated with the restaurant or are you also just a fan?

I'm kidding, of course. Thanks for adding quite useful information to this thread. While it's clear you aren't blown away by the sammy, it's very nice to know you can get something decent there (which I wouldn't have otherwise assumed).

This reminds me....I have yet to try Absolutely Delicious.

I have been here twice now and I give it 2 thumbs up. Big meal both times and I like that! Turkey sandwhich was very tasty and the tuna melt was huge. Turkey and tuna?...I'm watching my weight:). Chips were a little scarce imo.

I'll probably be sorry but I just have to jump in. I think that the sarcasm level can get pretty high on some of the comments here. While I think that the post sounded suspiciously like she is somehow associated with the restaurant, I don't know that for sure. Maybe that's just her style. I don't think I'm any more naive than anyone else and certainly I'd want to know if anyone else can confirm her enthusiasm before I try the place. That having been said, I certainly wouldn't want to insult someone just because they don't share my tastes in food. Isn't that a little snobbish?

Jean Blanchard wrote:I'll probably be sorry but I just have to jump in. I think that the sarcasm level can get pretty high on some of the comments here. While I think that the post sounded suspiciously like she is somehow associated with the restaurant, I don't know that for sure. Maybe that's just her style. I don't think I'm any more naive than anyone else and certainly I'd want to know if anyone else can confirm her enthusiasm before I try the place. That having been said, I certainly wouldn't want to insult someone just because they don't share my tastes in food. Isn't that a little snobbish?

Snobby? Not in my book. While some are quick to jump on troll patrol, posters with no or few previous posts who appear to advertise for a restaurant will almost always seem suspicious. By "appearing to advertise," I mean that the post generally has very little detail about the food, and is often punctuated by exclamation points and assertions that it is the best place ever. Now, here, the OP came back and explained that she was not associated with the restaurant,* and people backed off accordingly. Perhaps you misunderstood that some of the tongue-in-cheek comments were not directed at the OP but actually to the Yelp.com poster linked to by Matt?

While some can be overzealous about trolling for trolls, trolls (people who disguise themselves as posters who patronized the establishment, but are really associated with the establishment) bring down the quality of these boards significantly. Do you think LTHforum would be more useful if it was a parade of advertisements? Or as genuine, on-the-ground reports by disinterested individuals like you and me?

Unfortunately, trolls never admit that they're trolls, even when they are, so people are quick to use the sniff test in ferreting them out. Only with repeated posting do people establish some type of credibility.

*On this score, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt. She never actually said that she wasn't associated with the restaurant; instead she reiterated that she was "just a big fan," which she could be even if she worked there.

Overzealous...perhaps that's a better way to phrase it. Particularly since I think that we all got that the post was suspicious anyway.

Overzealous...perhaps that's a better way to phrase it.

Well trained palates, for which this site often self selects, are generally accompanied by highly sensitive olfactory glands. Consequently, many folks around here become awfully vocal when something smells rotten.

Like most Courtyard by Marriott food service, overpriced and underwhelming. The sandwich was just OK, the soup was mediocre and the bill was north of $10.

I will pass on return.

Disclosure: I was on on CYBM employee for years.

Noise sure has died down in this once-heated thread. I made my beta voyage to SSBC today, and my original take that this is a good spot for the neighborhood holds true. Still way too corporate feeling, but my tuna melt clearly had fresh, house-made tuna salad and nice, fresh multi grain bread. $8.75 for the sandwich with chips did feel like highway robbery, and is probably the main reason that once-per-year will be enough for me at SSBC.