i did read what you wrote, but without personal interviews with Alain Passard, the dishwasher at Animal, the flour purveyor of Gjusta and Bill Esparza to help guide me through the Nag Hammadi-like twists and turns, i couldn’t ha ha parse a single response ex post facto culinarily emulsifying.
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Thanks @Aesthete, @kevin and @linus.
I’m even more curious now about the Turkey Butcher Sandwich! LOL. 
Need to try this soon, but so many places to visit.
@Plumeria Thanks. Have you tried Gjusta yet? Curious what you thought of it. 
Have you ever had a roast pork Italian sandwich from someplace like Tony Luke’s back east? This is like the ultimate upscale version of that sandwich. I like the butcher, too, but the melt’s on another level imo.
It’s ironic really. The Gjusta/Gjelina/GTA restaurants are generally considered quintessentially “California.” But they do the best version of East Coast classics like the Italian sandwich, chicken parm, and pizza.
No, I haven’t but it’s on my list when I get up to the LA area.
Looks like my kind of place and their sista Gjelina too!
I think the three eateries are viewed in that light because “quintessentially California” is a term that conjures notions of freshness, whether it be in terms of ingredients, outlook or perspective relative to food. The “quintessentially” part, I think, is a high compliment to the fact that they always aspire to create exemplary food that may or may not resemble dishes traditionally found elsewhere, which also is a very “California” trait. California is the salad bowl in so many ways.
Right… I wasn’t questioning the “California” descriptor.
My point was, if you’re looking for great pizza, Italian sandwiches, and chicken parm, go there.
really ??? why ???
and that ain’t no fucking joke.
chow, it seems like your keep on hitting up fucking Gjusta, but never seem to grab the turkey sandwich.
btw, what’s a turkey sando ??? not saying that you mentioned it.
shit, now i’m really fucking craving that turkey sandwich and thanksgiving is next week.
thanks guys.
This is a seriously intellectually complex turkey sammie.
Looks like I’ll have to get me some soon. Hope I’m up to the task… 
Oscar Meyer’s premium oven roasted deli fresh turkey breast may not cut it anymore after this experience
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The obscure references. The passionate debating. The visual and verbal food porn. Where else can you find this? 
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great point.
Yeah, but that’s almost just incidental in a sense.
They kind of feel more influenced by Italian cuisine in terms of the focus on simplicity. East Coast American stuff thus gets run through that filter almost incidentally, and ends up as version that feel like they harken back to the East Coast because what makes the stuff so great out there is often attention to detail combined with simplicity. Chicken Parm and Pizza were not East Coast-only until Gjusta showed up after all.
Weirdly enough, I haven’t eaten their chicken parm yet though. The one time I had Gjusta’s pizza I almost never returned because it tasted like burnt Domino’s… maybe that was an off day or something.
So who has had both the Turkey “Butcher” AND the Prime Rib “Butcher” and can compare them?
I know it is apples-to-oranges - but so is pretty much everything else we compare around here.
I was discussing Gjusta’s sandwich line-up with chef Travis Lett on my first visit there (when I tried the porchetta which was quite nice but not as nice as the prime rib) and he said to try the prime rib next time; that it (the prime rib) was Gjusta’s centerpiece and most represents what he is going after there, other than his prime focus which is learning to make world class breads. I wish I had fucking asked WTF a '“Butcher” in this context actually is!
damn, for fuck’s sake, you guys keeping talking about Gjusta and now I wanna hit that fucking shit up.
but i’m seriously past my quota for the week here.
and that ain’t no fucking joke.
that turkey sandwich is quite the work of transcendental, epistemological art.
and that’s no fucking joke.
right ???
calorie quota or financial or both???
Red meat that is and financial since I’m perpetually in fucking BK.
Hmmm. Maybe I can just hit up the fucking turkey one and bingo. No fucking red meat.
Yeah, but that might be too complex even still?? So I guess to simplify further:
“It’s a really good fucking sandwich, feels yummy in the tummy, go eat now!”
A butcher in Gjusta’s context focuses on the butchering skills of the meat being highlighted in the sandwiches. It’s most obvious in the turkey sandwich I think actually because of how obvious the differences in white and dark meat are, plus the fact that sections containing specific fat veins are almost never seen in turkey slices. It seems similar in all of the butcher sandwiches. The focus is on displaying how just producing really high quality meat, and cutting it properly to display the various aspects of each meat/cut in the sandwich contrasts with how most sandwiches are typically constructed, which is to form a new gestalt taste phenomenon through a combination of many different ingredients that all work together in the sandwich. The porchetta butcher versus the porchetta melt at Gjusta is perhaps the most direct comparison. The porchetta is essentially the same in each sandwich, but in the butcher, the simple pesto and olive oil garnish serves mainly to highlight the porcine intimacy of the meat itself, whereas in the melt, the intensity of the cheese and cut of the rapini form distinctive counterpoints to the porchetta itself, and culminate in a holstic taste sensation where the porchetta is only one part.