Un Bien Review - Ballard - Seattle - The Infatuation

"Updated on January 10th, 2022 Familiar with ? You know, the Seattle institution that supposedly has “the best sandwich in the city”? Yeah, you love Paseo. Your friends love Paseo. Your high school trigonometry teacher loves Paseo. Even your dog loves Paseo, because that day a piece of marinated roast pork fell out of your baguette and onto the ground was the best day of Alan’s life. But you and Alan are are done with Paseo. Because Un Bien kicks Paseo’s ass. The story of Un Bien and Paseo is a tale that could feasibly be pitched to Focus Features and debut at Sundance. Let’s set the scene: Paseo used to be owned by a family (the Lorenzos) who created all of the restaurant’s recipes. Then in 2014, due to some complicated legal stuff, the entirety of Paseo’s brand was sold to some entrepreneur named Ryan Santwire (who we’d cast Bradley Cooper to portray in the film adaptation). But what about the confidential arsenal of recipes? Aye, there’s the rub— those weren’t included in the sale. Here’s where there’d be a heated montage of Bradley Cooper’s character with his head in his hands, sweating in a kitchen surrounded by test tubes and Caribbean spices. Finally, Paseo decided to hire some of the original staff to recreate the family-jewel sandwiches from memory. Seems easy enough. But unlike the essay portion of your SAT, this is not something one can just BS and get away with. And keep in mind, this is the Paseo you go to today. Fast-forward to 2016: two brothers from the Lorenzo family decide to open a new restaurant called Un Bien, which is nearly a carbon copy of Paseo’s shack and Caribbean menu, but with the original recipes they made at Paseo. Eating Paseo is like being trapped in a black-and-white television, whereas Eating Un Bien is living amongst a technicolor world. The marinated roast pork has a more vibrant tang, the charred caramelized onions are at peak sweetness, and the spicy aioli is zippier than ever. Now, cut to you and your Mustang convertible, driving into the sunset on a windswept Seattle street, with one hand gripping the wheel and the other shoving an Un Bien sandwich into your face. Somewhere, a pair of rose-colored glasses is left in the dust." - Aimee Rizzo