Best Sandwich Shops

Iconic chef Rick Bayless uses his wood-burning oven to make sensational Mexican tortas.

Chef Mark Lucas uses his own homegrown vegetables for recipes like the black-bean burger with roasted peppers.

Chef Donald Link's acclaimed Cochon muffuletta, with house meats and olive salad, is always on the menu.

One of the specialties of chef-couple Rachel and Charles Kelsey: The Spuckie, with salami, mortadella and olive-carrot salad.

The specialty here: flavor-packed 4-inch sandwiches. "I get bored eating a big sandwich," chef Michael Voltaggio says.

Pizza genius Chris Bianco takes on sandwiches; his bread is spectacular.

At their food-hall-style market, chefs Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison offer glazed-pork-belly banh mi.

Co-chef Tommy Habetz cooked at NYC's Mesa Grill; partner Nick Wood, at Brennan's in New Orleans—inspiration for their muffuletta.

Chefs Leo Beckerman and Evan Bloom's modern Jewish deli with house-cured pastrami.

Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi (two of F&W's Best New Chefs 2012) have created two of the city's best sandwiches: the meatball parm and the Saratoga Club.

Chef Alex Young uses justly famed Zingerman's ingredients for sandwiches like the pit-smoked Cornish hen.

Chef Brandon Baptiste changes his menu frequently; look for the slow-cooked veal breast.

Chef Tyler Kord has made liverwurst hip at outposts in Brooklyn and Manhattan's groovy Ace Hotel.

Chefs Matthew Bickford and Mike Ryan are alums of the city's best restaurants and collaborate on fillings like tuna confit.

Chef Josef Centeno makes his own chewy version of flatbread and fillings such as beef tongue schnitzel.

Hours are limited (11 a.m. to 3 p.m., 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.); chef Stuart Tracy's sandwiches are unrestrained.

The heritage, all-natural meats in chef Ryan Pera's sandwiches come from the market's own Revival Farms.

On chef-owner Matt Neal's Jewish-Southern menu: grilled pimiento cheese on rye.

Famous fried chicken sandwiches, filled with crispy buttermilk-soaked, cayenne pepper-spiced fried chicken, sell out fast. Bakesale Betty is only open for three hours a day—even less if there aren't enough sweet torpedo rolls to keep making sandwiches.

Roughly 90 percent of the ingredients used at this standing-room-only sandwich shop are locally sourced within a few hundred miles.