Winner: Colorado Cuban
Restaurant: Kentucky Inn, Denver
Units: 1
Price: $13
Food cost: $3.15
Creator: Neel Sahni, partner
Ingredients: House-braised pork, spicy brown mustard, bacon, pickles and pimento cheese made with roasted hatch green chiles and Monterey jack instead of cheddar, spiked with Sriracha, minced red onions and jalapeños.
What makes it special: This year, pimento cheese made an appearance in many sandwich submissions, and the eclectic Colorado-style variation makes this Cuban a winner.
The pimento cheese is mild, despite the spicy elements, and Sahni said the restaurant uses good bacon, rather than ham. But it’s pressed on a flat-top, as a Cuban would be. The Kentucky Inn Cuban is the restaurant’s No. 2 sandwich (the top seller is a vegetarian mushroom sandwich) and it’s been on the menu since October 2018.
