The Dish: Liberty Kitchen's viral Kale Caesar Cutlet sandwich
FISHTOWN (WPVI) -- There's a seemingly simple, classic kind of hoagie at Liberty Kitchen that somehow became an instant, viral sandwich.
It's their Kale Caesar Chicken Cutlet on a nice, seeded roll.
And while they hoped people would love this combination of popular flavors, they never expected it to become the social media superstar that has people coming from far and wide to find out what the hype is all about.
Even the staff shirts at the Fishtown location read: "This sandwich changed my life."
Scan the socials and you'll see, the Kale Caesar, or the "KC," is a hoagie influencer.
"It just caught momentum and then the power of the internet," says co-owner Beau Neidhardt.
Neidhardt took us behind the scenes at Liberty Kitchen's Fishtown location, where the KCs are coming out by the hundreds.
"I didn't really ever think I was going to be a kale politician," he laughs about the popularity of the sandwich. "But it just happened to be that way."
Fact: it's all about the cutlet.
"It's a nice thin cutlet," he says, sliced thin and not pounded. "We believe in thin cutlets here."
And he spilled to us some other secrets of this viral sandwich.
"The cutlets sit in a mixture overnight that consists of buttermilk flour and our herb jawn," he says. "It's just essentially a multitude of herbs: parsley, dill, garlic. We also have a little bit of basil snuck in there."
It then gets breaded again, dipped in egg and dredged in Italian style breadcrumbs AND panko.
Then, they fry them until they are golden brown. Each sandwich gets THREE cutlets.
The first step in the build is a shmear of Caesar dressing onto a seeded roll.
They make their dressing.
"Our Caesar dressing consists of Duke's mayo, Locatelli brand Pecorino, heavy anchovy, a lot of black pepper, and a lot of fresh lemon juice," Neidhardt says.
Now, add the cutlets and the kale, which has been marinating in that Caesar dressing.
"Even from touching or feeling the kale, you can sense that we massage the kale roughly enough that it breaks it down," Neidhardt says. It has to be soft. "It sort of mimics a sauteed green."
Now, hit it with more Locatelli cheese on top and they garnish with fried shallots.
"If you go outside on a busy day, you can just see the people taking the videos of themselves eating the sandwich in their car," he laughs. "That's just one of those instances where we realize how viral it is. This is lightening in a bottle!"
Liberty Kitchen opened five years ago, and they now have three locations: West Philadelphia, Chestnut Hill and Fishtown.
There's a little locally sourced market up front, and other fan favorites coming out of the kitchen.
"Our tomato pie is one of the things we get a lot of recognition for," Neidhardt says.
And they hope this is just the beginning.
"There are hopes and aspirations to maybe one day be selling our pies and sandwiches down the shore, or maybe at the Philly stadium," Neidhardt says. "You never know!"
