SAN RAMON, CALIFORNIA – When you taste peaches, prosciutto, mozzarella, and sweet hot honey, summer is definitely here!
Those are the items featured prominently on Mendocino Farms’ summer menu, which the California-based sandwich chain just debuted at its Bay Area restaurants.
I stopped by the San Ramon, California location at City Center Bishop Ranch to try out the new items.
The cornerstone of the summer menu is a hot honey prosciutto and peach sandwich.
Served on a sesame seed bun that has been lightly toasted, it’s based around big, juicy pieces of peach covered in spicy hot honey and paired with slices of prosciutto, mozzarella cheese, aioli, and greens.
The hot honey prosciutto sandwich is one of my favorite items at Mendocino Farms. It’s not new—it has been out for a couple of summers now. But I always look forward to when it returns to the menu as a seasonal item at this time of year.
I’ve found that the quality of the sandwich depends entirely on how fresh the peaches inside are. Because these are real slices of peach, Mendocino sometimes gets perfectly ripe ones, but occasionally has those that are a little underripe and astringent.
When I visited this time around, the sandwich was perfect—in all of its drippy, sticky, slightly spicy glory.
Mendocino also has a salad with essentially the same ingredients, paired with a sweet balsamic dressing.
Mendocino Farms’ Sweet Peach & Goat Cheese Salad, which the chain describes as “summer in a bowl,” swaps out prosciutto for slices of chicken breast and the mozzarella for a dollop of goat cheese. Otherwise, it’s pretty much the same ingredients as the sandwich.
I felt that it was good, but the slightly bitter greens it’s paired with don’t quite fit with the summery vibe. Frisée lettuce or something else a bit sweeter would’ve worked better. I also felt the balsamic dressing could use a bit more of a summery kick.
Also on the summer menu is a Watermelon “Poke” Salad. This one is vegan, substituting slices of watermelon for the tuna you typically find in Hawaiian poke.
I didn’t have enough room to try that as well, but I’ll certainly be back to give it a shot.
Overall, I really like the fact that Mendocino Farms customizes their menu to the season. It also creates a certain urgency to ordering these items before they go away. You could have a Hot Honey Prosciutto sandwich, walk around the corner, and pair it with one of the summery new offerings from Boba Guys to make a pretty perfect afternoon!
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