Specialty Lunch

Posted by Lauren

Currently sitting at the kitchen table enjoying broccoli and brussels sprouts smothered in Sockarooni and hot sauce.

I’ll grab an apple and frozen grapes soon… but I don’t want to talk about dinner, I want to talk about LUNCH!

Thanksgiving is around the corner (as I’m sure all USA readers are aware of) and that means that people start to flock home. That’s good news for me since I’m living in the same area I grew up in. Today, one of my best high school friends, Vanessa, was in town for a little bit before jetting off to New York City. Both Sarah and I took advantage of the fact and met her for lunch at Specialty’s in Santa Clara.

It wouldn’t be a Silicon Valley chain without iPads to order from, am I right?

Specialty’s caters numerous work events, like… too many. Despite all the sandwiches and fabulous cookies I’ve tried since 2008, I have never had one of their salads! Nor have I looked into the history of the company (yes, I do that sort of thing.)

• still family owned and operated
• they’ve got 40 restaurants in California, Washington and Illinois
• originally just a small, standing-room only street shop
• acquired tech company Sandwich Direct in 2005 – allowed online ordering
• super duper tech savvy now

Here are my lunch dates!

Vanessa and Sarah…

And me with Vanessa…

I ordered the Spicy Thai Peanut salad – honey-roasted peanuts, fresh cucumbers, wonton strips and red onion atop an asian salad mix (fresh cabbage, cilantro, green onion and grated carrots) with a spicy thai peanut dressing.

DELICIOUS!! Salty and crunchy salads are my favorite kind.

Notice the square of focaccia? Their focaccia is the BEST. If they had it online I would buy a platter for Thanksgiving!

Here’s a picture of Sarah’s sandwich:

Mostly I just want to point out their kickass cookies. We all shared this chocolate chip cookie, which is nearly the size of her cobb sandwich! I loved catching up with the two of them. Hopefully we’ll have more time together over the Christmas holiday…

I actually saw Sarah last night (Sunday) as well. She was involved in a car accident on Saturday night and I wanted to check in on her. Lucky for all of us, her car kept her safe. We chatted about the accident, work, life, etc over dinner and dessert:

Question: How close to “home” do you live? Any plans to catch up with out-of-town friends over the holidays?

-Lauren