Can a sandwich bread be transcendent? At a modest St. Paul sandwich shop, it certainly is. The team behind my current favorite restaurant in town, Estelle, opened Mario’s and brought in one of the masters of dough to oversee the kitchen.

Evan Vranian toured sandwich shops in New York to home in on the perfect Italian white sesame seed bread. It’s crispy outside, airy inside, and dense enough to hold up a series of impressive sandwiches ($14).