The whole time leading up to our trip my friend kept telling about this place we should eat lunch in the city. I had never heard of this place before and she raved about, so we stepped out of Union station and walked down the street to . . . Potbelly. Potbelly is a sandwich, soup, salad store, similar to Jimmy Johns. Except I didn’t know they were hot sandwiches when I ordered. Maybe they have cold sandwiches too, but the one I received was hot.
Upon entering the store you are immediately entering into the line. A worker comes down the line with a tablet to take your order. I had about 8 seconds to decide what to order in a place I had never been. I was hem hawing between a turkey sandwich (because those are usually a safe bet) and a pizza sandwich (sounded good, but not for a cold sandwich). So I placed my order and after we moved up the line my friends goes “Oh by the way there sandwiches are hot”. Oh . . . honestly if I had known that ahead of time I would have gone with the pizza sandwich. So here I am thinking that this hot turkey sandwich was going to be gross and lamenting the fact I didn’t order the pizza sandwich. Instead I started staring at the décor and realizing how cool and funky it was.
Moving along in line I grabbed my drink ( a bottle of water) and then made my way to the counter. This is the counter of add- on (I wasn’t expecting that). It was hard to hear what the guy was asking me and I could tell he was getting annoyed (it’s very fast paced in Chicago). My friend whispered to me “what do you want on the sandwich”. ” Oh uh mayo”? Like it was a question. One second later I’m in front of the cashier and paying for my sandwich, chips and water. We decided to eat outside because the weather was so nice. I was pleasantly surprised by my sandwich. I had never had a hot turkey sandwich before and it was actually delicious!!
Next time I will have to try the pizza sandwich! This entire lunch (sandwich, chips and bottled water) cost $8.84. We had a fantastic view of the river and skyscrapers from where we sat. The location is great for anyone coming into Union Station around lunch time.
Has anyone ate here or heard of Potbelly’s before?
We discovered Potbelly in DC last December on a particularly cold night when we decided we wanted to eat as close as possible to our hotel. We loved it. Great value for money – perfect for budget travellers as the servings are generous and there are lots of options. I loved their soups – had a delicious broccoli soup that tasted homemade.
We went back a few times and each time was just as good.