Love and Sandwiches

Question

I'm from the Bay Area, but if I forget my order number when I make whichever one... then I'll be very rile-y!

$$ \begin{array}{|c|} \hline \\ \bbox[purple]{\begin{array}{c}\\\quad\quad\huge\mathbb{Daily \ Specials}\quad\quad\\\\\end{array}} \\ \\ \begin{array}{ll} \large\star \ \textbf{Anti Italian} & \small\text{Hamburger, cheddar cheese, lettuce} \\ \large\star \ \textbf{Denver Nugget} & \small \text{Grass-fed beef, Weed from the Sea, Viper sauce} \\ \large\star \ \textbf{Deadly Gyro} & \small\text{Discolored lamb, bitter almonds, apple seeds} \\ \large\star \ \textbf{Urban Reuben} & \small\text{Roast beef, fresh cabbage, ten-grain bread} \\ \large\star \ \textbf{Puzzler's Slider} & \small\text{Smoked herring, Jigsaw Farms goat cheese, Nikoli secret sauce} \\\end{array} \\ \\ \bbox[gold]{\begin{array}{c}\\ \quad\quad\huge\mathbb{Create \ Your \ Own}\quad\quad\\ \\ \end{array}} \\ \tiny\textit{Choose from a wide variety of toppings, meats, and finishes!}\\ \begin{array}{l|l|l} \text{Aldehyde group} & \text{Famous constant} & \text{Recent} \\ \text{Artillery weapon} & \text{Formal dance} & \text{Robin Williams's daughter} \\ \text{"Back to Back," for instance (var.)} & \text{Fried potato item} & \text{Robot from the Axiom} \\ \text{Banner in the comics?} & \text{Ger. broadcasting group} & \text{Rolling in dough} \\ \text{Barren} & \text{Greens, colloquially} & \text{SE site, shortly} \\ \text{Bygone musical genre of the 1970s} & \text{"I } \heartsuit \text{" followers} & \text{Tallow} \\ \text{Common contraction} & \text{Kind of opportunity} & \text{Toilet, in America} \\ \text{Coughed up the ball, on stat sheets} & \text{Lad} & \text{Top pick, slangly} \\ \text{Course beginner?} & \text{Measure of economic growth, perhaps} & \text{Type of sauce} \\ \text{Crow that's racist?} & \text{Methodology} & \text{UFC sport} \\ \text{Direction on a compass} & \text{NBA indiv. statistics} & \text{Unix documentation command} \\ \text{Egyptian goddess of protection} & \text{Not provided (abbr.)} & \text{US Representative Schiff} \\ \text{Enoch, to Cain} & \text{Organization, briefly} & \text{UV preceders?} \\ \text{Equitable} & \text{Patriots, on scoreboards} & \text{Video game rip} \\ \text{Essential part of a map} & \text{Popular NBC sitcom} & \text{Wrestler Orton} \end{array} \\ \\ \hline \end{array} $$

Answer is a thematic phrase.

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Text transcript of the menu items (for copy-paste purposes)

| Anti Italian     | Hamburger, cheddar cheese, lettuce                |
| Denver Nugget    | Grass-fed beef, Weed from the Sea, Viper sauce    |
| Deadly Gyro      | Discolored lamb, bitter almonds, apple seeds      |
| Urban Reuben     | Roast beef, fresh cabbage, ten-grain bread        |
| Puzzler's Slider | Smoked herring, Jigsaw Farms cheese, Nikoli sauce |


| Aldehyde group                      | Famous constant                       | Recent                     |
| Artillery weapon                    | Formal dance                          | Robin Williams's daughter  |
| "Back to Back," for instance (var.) | Fried potato item                     | Robot from the Axiom       |
| Banner in the comics?               | Ger. broadcasting group               | Rolling in dough           |
| Barren                              | Greens, colloquially                  | SE site, shortly           |
| Bygone musical genre of the 1970s   | "I ♥" followers                       | Tallow                     |
| Common contraction                  | Kind of opportunity                   | Toilet, in America         |
| Coughed up the ball, on stat sheets | Lad                                   | Top pick, slangly          |
| Course beginner?                    | Measure of economic growth, perhaps   | Type of sauce              |
| Crow that's racist?                 | Methodology                           | UFC sport                  |
| Direction on a compass              | NBA indiv. statistics                 | Unix documentation command |
| Egyptian goddess of protection      | Not provided (abbr.)                  | US Representative Schiff   |
| Enoch, to Cain                      | Organization, briefly                 | UV preceders?              |
| Equitable                           | Patriots, on scoreboards              | Video game rip             |
| Essential part of a map             | Popular NBC sitcom                    | Wrestler Orton             |

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Hint 1 (minor spoiler):

The sandwiches you can create on your own come from a real-life shop clued by the title of this puzzle. It may also help to know that the puzzle creator is indeed from the Bay Area in California.

Answer 1

The first step is to realize:

This puzzle is a reference to Ike's Love and Sandwiches, a sandwich chain in the western US with a very large menu.

The clues are ambiguous, but with the above they can be answered in a way that

allows you to form sandwich names from the Ike's menu, by combining three ingredients together (as hinted by "[...] toppings, meats, and finishes!"). I used the nutritional menu for this (warning: NSFW text, both there and in one clue answer below).

The clue answers:

The numbers in the left column of the above image are the menu numbers of the formed sandwiches.

The next step:

The "daily specials" sandwiches in the puzzle have strange names: if you read the first letter of the first word of each, and then the first letter of the second word of each, you get the cluephrase "ADD UP INGRS".

The ingredients of the "daily specials" each start with a different letter: conveniently, each of these letters is also the initial letter of one of the sandwiches created from the clues.

Finishing off the puzzle:

Adding up the menu numbers of each of the triplets gives another valid menu number.


Taking the first letters of these resulting sandwiches gives the thematic phrase I LIKE -- appropriate both because of the creator's enjoyment of these sandwiches, and as a reference to the famous "I Like Ike" political slogan!