A Review of the Great Outdoors

There have been many sandwich shops over the years, and many of them seem derivative of other, more successful establishments. The Great Outdoors does not fall into this trap, and instead makes itself out to be an above average "fast food" restaurant that, with moderate success, attempts to create the atmosphere of the outdoors in there restaurant to help their costumers get away from the brick, metal and concrete they will find surrounding the building for miles. I say "fast food" because this restaurant is, quite simply, not built to be a fast food restaurant, and yet attempts to be with a pitiful excuse for a drive-through that fails in all attempts to be in almost anyway convenient, but more on that later.

I had been to the Great Outdoors a few times previously, albeit quite a long time ago, so I already knew, before even entering the building really, what I wanted to order. My order was a #6 with double meat, "the works" with mustard, and a cherry milkshake. Now I should explain exactly what this order actually means. The #6 is a sandwich they call The Great Special, which has what I counted as four different types of meat, though the only list three on their menu, and swiss cheese. When you order a sandwich, you then can then have your sandwich modified to the way you particularly like it. I personally like it for them to pile everything on , which I why I asked for double meat, which is what it sounds like, and "the works" with mustard. "The Works" is what the restaurant's simple way of saying that all major vegetables, oils, and spices are to be added to the sandwich. What is included in the works is shredded lettuce, red onions, tomatoes, vinegar, salad oil, oregano, parmesan and salt.

After I ordered my food, I then proceeded to walk down the aisle adjacent to the counter and watched my sandwich being prepared, all the while engaging in friendly banter with the employee preparing my sandwich. When I reached the end of the line, the employee wrapped my sandwich in paper and then began to prepare my milkshake. About halfway through the preparation of my milkshake, I was asked whether i wanted it to be thick or thin. his question actually caught me off guard, because I honestly did not expect there would be any restaurant that served milkshakes that would actually bother to ask what there patron's personal preference for it was. I was afraid to give an answer because it is very easy to badly prepare a milkshake. I was worried that if I asked for thick I would have received a drink that would take an hour to suck up through the straw, and I was afraid to ask for thin because I did not want a water thin milkshake. Afraid to give a direct answer, I told the employee to make it the way they like it, and left the fate of my milkshake in his own tastes.

After receiving my food, I sat down in a booth and began to remember why so many years ago I used to eat this food almost religiously. The sandwich was just as I remembered it, with almost more meat than one could possibly want and a "homemade" milkshake that was just the right thickness that tasted of something other than vanilla ice cream. After finishing, I sat there in the booth for a little while, satisfied and full, and I my mind began to wander and as I was about to leave, I realized I had made I huge mistake, that being I forgot to have any leftovers to take home, because as good as the sandwiches were fresh, they were even better after having sat in its own juices in my fridge for a night. So I then immediately went back to get another sandwich to take home, once again engaging in friendly banter with my dedicated sandwich maker, and then headed home with another sandwich in tow.

The next day during lunch, I sat down with my sandwich, and after slight hesitation to eat the quite soggy sandwich (it had been steeped in its own juices for a whole night in the back of my refrigerator after all), I was immediately reassured that I had made the right choice as my mouth was drowned in even more flavor than it had been the previous day. Having spent the night in my fridge caused all of the juices to seep into the bread and give the bread its own unique flavor that just improves what was an already fantastic sandwich.

I mentioned this early, and now I will finally explain the biggest fault of The Great Outdoors, the horrid excuse for a drive through. First off, the speaker is essentially a modified police megaphone set to its highest volume. This makes extremely difficult to tell if your order was taken right because instead of listening to see if your order is right, instead all focus is spent covering your ears, trying to reduce to the pain that your ears are put under. After that, you are then force to wait, at the least, fifteen minutes for them to finally get your sandwich to you, assuming there is no one in line in front of you. If there is someone in front of you, be ready to shut off your car, because you are in for a long wait. Also, the food form the drive through window tends to not be at the same quality as the food order inside, and this especially holds true for the milkshakes, because, no matter what, if you order a milkshake through the drive through window, it will be impossibly thin and taste of melted vanilla ice cream and milk. The final issue I have with their drive through is the people placed to work the windows are not kind and friendly, unlike those that prep the sandwiches indoors. It is almost as if they are deliberately saying that you should not use their drive through window.

And you shouldn't use it. The Great Outdoors is something you have to experience to fully appreciate it, and you are not getting that if you go through a drive through.

The Great Outdoors
4 out of 5 stars