Day 2: Bailey's in Laramie, French Dips, Baking Soda

At about 11:15 this morning, my boyfriend sent me a text asking if I wanted to go to lunch while he was on his break at work. He suggested McAllister's or Chili's, but seeing as I had soup from McAllister's yesterday and we go to Chili's fairly often, I suggested that we try something new instead.

Bailey's is located in our town of Laramie, Wyoming. It has an 82% rating on Urbanspoon and it serves mostly soup and sandwiches. I ordered a french dip with banana peppers. They had two advertised soup of the day - potato and bacon and chicken and dumpling. While I was eyeing the chicken and dumpling soup in a bread bowl, I had originally been told by a friend to come here for the sandwiches. And since it is a sandwich shop, I decided I could order soup another day. My boyfriend ordered the Bailey's club, which is advertised as coming with Ham, Turkey, and Cheese.

Now, my meal was alright - nothing that special, but then again, I didn't exactly order an extravagant sandwich. But I'm a sucker for french dips. And this is one of the first places I remember offering me banana peppers on a french dip, and it was a pretty tasty combination (though they could have put more than 2 banana peppers on my sandwich). I also ordered a Pepsi and a bag of Lay's Barbeque chips. Their selection of chips was admittedly disappointing - normally, I would have ordered either Sun Chips or Baked Lay's, neither of which were available.

However, the biggest problem with Bailey's, as it turns out, was their menu, which pretty much had nothing more than the names of the sandwiches - no descriptions of what came on the sandwich or anything. This is not something that's necessarily a huge problem for me, but my boyfriend's "Bailey's Club with Ham, Turkey, and Cheese" - in addition to those three ingredients, also came loaded with lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar, and - surprise! - salami (another meat he doesn't like).

At the counter, he asked what kind of sauces came on the sandwich, and the lady said it came with oil and vinegar. He asked for mayonnaise. And when the sandwich actually came, it was loaded with lettuce and tomato. It since it was shredded lettuce right below the mayonnaise, he literally ended up wiping the lettuce off his sandwich. Not to mention he was irritated about the sandwich coming with salami.

Now, I like salami, lettuce, and tomato. But not everybody does - not to mention the fact that some people have allergies to this kind of stuff (I personally know at least two different people with fairly severe tomato allergies). And while the "Bailey's Club" sounds like a pretty damn good sandwich, I think that they, and every other restaurant, really needs to have accurate descriptions of what they put onto their food.

Interestingly, even their online menu lacks an accurate description of the Bailey's Club. (See below.)

As we pulled out of the parking lot, the boyfriend looked at me and said, "I don't really want to go back there."

Overall, it was okay, but the fact is that there are a lot of places you can get a sandwich in town. It probably would have been better without a lot of the little things - the drinks were small, the selection of chips was small, the descriptions of menu items was lacking, and despite what the above menu may lead you to believe, our total for two sandwiches, chips, and drinks was $22.50. We would have paid just as much at McAllister's or anywhere else in town, and probably ended up with more food.

Interestingly, the Urbanspoon reviews echo similar cries about the price.

"Malfan doesn't know the difference between subway and bailey's and that explains why the other posts say the prices are too hi. If your getting the same as subway then their prices should be the same too. maybe malfan is to focused on the fact that they can get a sandwich with their scooner of mexican beer. This is a review of the food not the alchohol. prices too hi, service sucks, the owner is sexist and needs to be investigated for his selfconduct with female staff. even the great patio isn't better than my own at home. Lastly this is not a laramie staple. keep that out of your food review."

                                                                                    -True Chef, October 1st, 2012

"Good food, extremely over priced and the owner is a jerk"

                                                                                    -wyo_resident, September 8th, 2010

"Over priced!"

                                                                                   -Chelsea Heck, March 31st, 2011

But overall, it really isn't that terrible of a place. Just make sure you ask what comes on your sandwich if it really matters to you.

Finally, I want to add a small blurb about baking soda and urinary tract infections. On my way home from lunch, I started to feel the beginning symptoms of a UTI. Ladies, if you ever feel a UTI coming on, mix 1/2 tsp. of baking soda in roughly 8-oz of water, and it will really help combat the UTI. Cranberry juice is another option, but avoid juices with a lot of added sugar.