This is not first-date food.

This is not business meeting food.

This is not diet food.

This is roll up your sleeves, grab a couple extra napkins and go for it food.

My brother (Scotty) introduced me to the Staggering Ox about a year ago, before they moved down the street to their larger location on East Sprague. You’ve probably driven past the place without noticing it. It’s not much to look at, inside or out, but you get over the lack of ambiance as soon as they set down that red basket filled with one of the most interestingly shaped sandwiches you’ve ever set eyes on.

They call them Clubfoot sandwiches – which are basically small loaves of bread that are baked in some sort of vertical can-shaped baking device, then hollowed out, crammed with some very interesting flavor combinations and served upright. You can ask them to slice the bread and serve your sandwich in a more conventional manner, but where’s the fun in that?

Last Friday Scotty and I both had the Mount St. Helens … ham, turkey, beef, pepperoni, pastrami, Swiss, provolone, cheddar, Monterey Jack, mozzarella, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, black olives, sunflower seeds lettuce and sauce. We went with the Bleu Horsies (bleu cheese/horseradish) and it was awesome, but you can choose from any one of their 10 sauces.

They’re simple and tasty. They’re huge. And, they’re messy. Every bite I took landed a slather of sauce across my cheek. Scotty, however, managed to keep his face squeaky clean. As I reached for napkin #3, I asked him his secret. “It’s simple. I’ve got a really big mouth.”

You’ll find The Staggering Ox at 14415 E. Sprague, in the Spokane Valley. Click here to check out their menu.