At KC restaurant, you can’t eat this Mexican sandwich without making a delicious mess
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Let’s Dish, Kansas City
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For Kansas Citian Victoria Pickering, the vegan pambazo at Corner Mexican Food in Grandview is like the first album that made you fall in love with your favorite band.
It was the first thing she ordered at The Corner, which now is her go-to for vegan and meat-loving dining companions alike.
Last week, that dining companion was me, a relatively new Kansas Citian who has flirted with veganism but hasn’t quite been able to commit. (Giving up meat in a city known for its barbecue feels like taking a nap in a movie theater.)
But this sandwich is one of those foods that make me think I could maybe take the leap to cut out all animal products, including meat, cheese and eggs.
I was drawn to try the pambazo by the first words of Pickering’s submission to our Let’s Dish suggestion form: “It’s basically a mashed-potato sandwich.” What more did I need to hear?
More specifically, the pambazo ($8.32) combines soy chorizo, mashed potatoes, lettuce, vegan cheese and vegan sour cream, served on what I’d consider the star of the show, a fluffy, slightly sweet telera bread covered in guajillo sauce — a thick red sauce made from a type of dried chile.
The filling becomes much greater than the sum of its parts. It’s hearty and satisfying, with an unforgettable flavor, but not too much spice, even for my fairly basic palate.
It leaves you with a trademark sign of having truly enjoyed the saucy sandwich: orange stains on your fingers that don’t easily wash away.
Even as Pickering and I tried to stick to our forks and knives, I still found orange underneath my fingernails.
“The pambazo does not respect the bounds of time and space,” she joked.
It’s perhaps not the best sandwich to eat if you’re trying to make a good first impression, like on a first date or a professional dinner. But I had no regrets.
Delicious as it is, it’s not the pambazo alone that’s made The Corner a “destination restaurant” for Pickering, who lives in Waldo and works at Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault.
The Corner, 720 Main St. in Grandview, offers an extensive vegan menu, with more than two dozen dishes, including appetizers, sides and desserts. Of those, we also had a half-order of the guacamole ($5.19), and pupusa, a type of flatbread filled with soy pastor ($3), which might have been my favorite thing.
And there’s a traditional menu of Mexican food, with meat, cheese and the works.
Pickering, who’s been a vegan for roughly a decade, said she often takes groups who have all sorts of dietary restrictions and preferences to the restaurant.
That’s part of The Corner’s goal, said owner Alicia Guillen.
“The vegan menu derives from us wanting to eat like a family,” she said in Spanish to Star photographer Emily Curiel, who translated. “So we wanted people to come and enjoy eating together.”
Friendly staff, down-to-earth digs and affordable prices are certainly part of The Corner’s appeal, and Pickering said it’s widely recommended by vegans and vegetarians on social media.
“The vegan community has sort of become ambassadors for this place,” she said.
And you can consider me their latest convert.
This story was originally published March 9, 2023 at 6:30 AM.
