Flavor country

You know all that talk about the Midwest being Flyover Country? Catchy, condescending, perfect for how us gat-damned coastal[ish] liberals feel about the heartland. But it’s incredibly unfair. And since a certain sandwich shop named JIMMY JOHN’S set up a franchise in our fair city, we’ve been thinking about asking Patty Murray to draft a non-binding Senate resolution to rename the Midwest “the United States of Jimmy John’s,” after our new favorite import.

After what seemed like an eternity with the space — sandwiched between Thomas Hammer and Chase Bank on the Main Street pedestrian mall and swaddled in unmistakably branded, floor-to-ceiling “Coming Soon” banners — the joint has opened, featuring two levels of eating space and, of course, the sandwiches ($5-$6), filled with Midwestern portions of meat, veggies and cheese, with the thoughtful option to add an “extra load” of meat ($1.50). If you can fit their delicious pickles ($1.15) in your mouth, well, you have an extraordinarily large mouth.

It’s hardly a scientific sample, but every time we walk by the Inland Northwest’s first installment of the Champaign, Illinois-based company, the place seems bustling, and when we go in, it smells and tastes like good old Jimmy John’s.

Naysayers might balk at a chain, but anything that increases choice, draws people to the core and gets them to walk around is cool by us. — LUKE BAUMGARTEN

Jimmy John’s, 601 W. Main Ave., is open Mon-Fri., 10:30 am-9 pm. Call 838-3278.