The hierarchy of Anchorage fish sandwiches

Notes on: Catholic girls, hot honey sheet pan salmon, the bones of old Taco Bells, chocolate Guinness cupcakes, Biscuit Club and treating yo' self to a fancy old fashioned

Being in one place long enough to notice how time folds in on itself means you can see almost invisible things, like the bones of an old Taco Bell in a 20-year-old sushi restaurant on Muldoon. The new REI never eclipses the old Carrs Quality Center because, standing among the kayaks, you still taste fresh orange juice you had for the first time at the very novel grocery juice bar in the ‘80s. Every face at the airport baggage claim looks a little bit familiar. Because it is.

Take best friend Meg, who I met while we were baristas at Kaladi Brothers on Tudor in 1998, when I was 19. I am now 46. I talk to her every single morning while I am making coffee. (We plan to live together and have too many small terriers in our dotage.) We grew up in Chester Valley but went to different schools and thought we met at Kaladi. Then I came across a photo of my first communion at St. Pat’s. Guess who is standing behind me receiving the Body of Christ? I could spot her ‘80s lady mullet anywhere. Even …