Good bread defines a good grilled sandwich. Too thick of bread, and the sandwich can become unwieldy, overpowering the filling. Too thin and the bread can annoyingly self destruct just when you get three bites deep. You know a good grilled sandwich when you bite into it: Crunchy bread with a touch of softness; layers of meat glued together with cheese; a smear of a flavorful condiment.

Two new Tacoma sandwich shops have opened in the last several months that get the bread, the fillings, and grilling right. One is Rain City Café, which opened two months ago across from the Tacoma Municipal Building. The other is Leila’s Deli, which opened in July just steps away from the Tacoma Dome in the same building as Crystal Voyage (check back tomorrow for a report on Leila’s).

Rain City Café is the Tacoma outpost of Seattle’s Mike’s East Coast Panini sandwiches, a wholesaler that supplies hospitals and coffee shops in Seattle with ready-to-grill sandwiches. Read more »