There are many different stories about how the hoagie and the sub sandwiches evolved. Both trace their histories back to the Italian immigrants in the late 19th century who helped build the great cities of the United States. For lunch they brought scraps of meat, cheese and roasted peppers, along with a slab of bread, and combined the ingredients into a meal. Basic, but tasty.

These days, most towns have a few places dedicated to making sandwiches, and Bowling Green is no exception. Baker Bros is a franchise deli. It offers a wide variety of food, from sandwiches to pizza, soups, salads and potatoes. There is a kids’ menu as well. I tried a few different sandwiches and one of the potato dishes on my visit.

If one thing united the sandwiches, it was their size. I ordered the “Cafe” versions, which are a bit smaller than the “Large.” I also ordered them without the soup or salad that comes with the “Combo.” Each sandwich was enough for a small lunch, and at a pretty reasonable price.

Let me say that a Reuben sandwich is pretty standard the world over. There’s not a lot of room for creativity. The Broadway Reuben at Baker’s is thick, with a good portion of meat. The Thousand Island dressing-style sauce, which combines mayonnaise and ketchup and a spice such as Tabasco, was good, and there was enough of it to wet down the already-moist corned beef. The slathering of sauerkraut gave the sandwich a pleasant tang. The meat on the Reuben is folded in and among the Swiss cheese, the sharpness of which added to the dish. Although this was a basic Reuben – nothing fancy – the proportions of the ingredients were well-managed, resulting in a very nice sandwich.

I really enjoyed the L.A. Veggie sandwich, although I will say that the faux-regional naming of dishes is usually pretty annoying. Just because you slap “L.A.” or “Santa Fe” or “Southern Style” on a dish doesn’t automatically confer authenticity. Pouring BBQ sauce on meat doesn’t make it “Texas.” Baker’s particular veggie sandwich is loaded with portabella mushrooms, red onions, peppers, carrots, and then topped with cheese and a tapenade. I’m a sucker for these kinds of sandwiches, and I loved this one. The spiciness of the veggies was very good, and the weight of vegetables was more than enough to balance out the big slices of bread that many eateries use to cheaply puff up their sandwiches.

The Napa Valley sandwich (no wine on it) is a standard turkey sandwich jazzed up with sun-dried tomato pesto and provolone cheese. The taste was interesting, and I very much enjoyed it. The sun-dried tomatoes and sun-dried tomato dressing made the sandwich spicy and tangy. The dish has a great deal of flavor and makes for a nice midday meal.

On the other hand, the Texas Star sandwich was not all that good. This is a roast beef sandwich with bacon, melted cheddar and barbecue sauce on top.

Nothing about this particular dish stood out – the flavors of each component were pretty plain, and the chipped roast beef made for a strange mouthfeel overall. It’s not that the sandwich was necessarily bad. There was just nothing remarkable about it, especially given how much I enjoyed the other dishes.

At the low end, the Pueblo Chicken potato was a nearly tasteless muddle of ingredients. This is a monstrous doorstop of a potato, drowning in black beans, tomatoes, scallions, cheese and spicy chicken. As much as I like loaded potatoes, this one was disappointing. Even though I arrived early in the day, my potato was nonetheless overcooked and mushy, and the watery sauce of the black beans turned the dish into a saturated mess.

Aside from the chicken, there wasn’t a great deal of flavor to this, and the wetness of the potato made it impossible to separate out the ingredients to at least enjoy some portions of it. It was a big disappointment.

My visit to Baker Bros was a mixed bag. A couple of good sandwiches, and one bad, and a potato wasn’t very good at all.

There are some other eateries with more consistent sandwiches in town – Griff’s, for example. I’ll likely direct my lunch traffic in that direction.

— Our anonymous food reviewer gives new restaurants a six-week grace period before reviewing. To comment, contact Managing Editor Mike Alexieff at 783-3235 or via e-mail at malexieff@bgdailynews.com.

BAKER BROS

1945 Scottsville Road, Suite 300

• 904-4630

Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily

Price range: $4.29 to $7.39

Libation situation: None

Smoking: No