Located on Cortland St. in Bernal Heights, Avedano’s is first and foremost a meat shop.  However, they also make delicious panini’s.  Bernal Heights isn’t really known as a popular place around town but there are plenty of fantastic places up on Cortland Street.  Avedano’s is the place to start.

If you can’t read the sign…”Soul is a ham hock in your cornflakes.”

I ordered the Smokey Mo panini.  Smoked chicken, bacon, pepperoncini’s, swiss cheese, jalapeño jelly and mayonnaise on ciabatta bread.  Heaven in your mouth.  The chicken is pulled from the bone and stays moist.  The bacon is crispy and flavorful.  The ciabatta bread in fresh and crunchy.  The jalapeño jelly is what makes this sandwich, though.  A perfect blend of sweet and spicy already created in one simple paste.  Add that to the savory bacon and add a little more spice from the pepperoncini’s and, in my opinion, you have one of the best sandwiches in the city.  I could literally eat this sandwich once a day.

Smokey Mo

Seriously, this place needs to blow up.

The meat wagon is the mobile extension of the Bernal Heights butcher shop Avedano’s Meat Market and it’s stocked with just about any cut of meat you can get from a cow, lamb, pig or chicken. Their offerings will change seasonally, but everything’s hand-butchered at their shop and wrapped day of. You can expect a wide assortment—from chateaubriand and rib-eye to T-bones and lardo burgers, a Tuscan-inspired concoction made with unrendered pork fat.

So if you’re in need of some great meats, head over to the Hayes Valley Proxy (Octavia and Linden) starting on Monday, Oct. 17 and look for the fire-engine-red ’67 Ford that once served as an ambulance (and still has the siren on top). Hey, you never know when you’ll have a meat emergency!

To learn more about Avedano’s, visit their website.