food Get to Know Your Chefs
Chef Olive Reinvigorates Classic Sandwiches at Salty’s Sandwich Bar By Jen Ring
JEN RING
If you ask Olive Davis what’s the key to being a successful chef in Gulfport, she might tell you three things: use good ingredients, be consistent and don’t get too crazy. “Our clientele in Gulfport is a little more traditional. I do specials that are a little on the crazier side, but as far as the menu goes, we’ve tried to keep it kind of traditional,” says Chef Olive Davis, the master of sandwiches at one of downtown Gulfport’s newer eateries, Salty’s Sandwich Bar. “Our biggest selling sandwich is the turkey club, and a BLT right behind it, followed by probably the fried bologna. So they’re pretty standard sandwiches. We just try to use good ingredients and make sure that we do them correctly and consistently.” Consistency, however, doesn’t mean bland. “I get my bread from La Segunda in Tampa and a couple other baker-
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ies,” Davis said. “We use Boar’s Head meats; I get fresh produce in every day.” Davis gives the Reuben as an example of a sandwich that you don’t want to change too much. I was going to write a couple sentences here on the Reuben’s origins before discovering that this is actually a highly controversial subject. According to a 2016 article by Elizabeth Weil in Saveur Magazine (saveur.com/reuben-sandwich-origin-history), New York City and Omaha, Nebraska are battling it out for the coveted title of “Home of the Reuben Sandwich.” Some say that Arnold Reuben combined ham, roast turkey, Swiss cheese and coleslaw between a couple slices of rye bread in New York City in 1914 and called it a Reuben’s Special. But this is far from our modern idea of a Reuben as corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and
Thousand Island dressing on rye. One thing people do agree on is that the Reuben was invented sometime around the 1920s, which would make it about 100 years old now. And why mess with a sandwich that Americans have loved for a hundred years? Davis’ favorite Reuben of all time came from Detroit, Michigan. “In Michigan, where I grew up, there used to be a department store called Hudson’s Department Store, and they had a Reuben,” says Davis. “I went there for Reubens for years. Now I’ve been all over the place, and they still have the best one.” Davis makes her own Thousand Island dressing for Salty’s Reuben. The homemade dressing is an example of one of the little things Davis does to upgrade classic sandwiches. But, she says, “A Reuben is a Reu-
theGabber.com | June 10, 2021 - June 16, 2021
