Across and… um, no

Question

Across

1. Where one eats chiefly men and women (3)
2. Bulldog's run backward, endless miles (3)
3. Ferrari with rear end replaced by young mechanic? I'm concerned, principally, of perhaps causing a breakdown (7)
4. Old soldier sounds crazy (3)
5. Like Sir Winston, call out Nineteen Eighty-Four (5)
6. Head of 19 Across metabolizes from time to time (3)
7. The best exercise is winning against antelopes by seconds: you get a barnstar (3,4)
8. Hiring department ripped up welfare check (3)
9. Hobson's Choice network? (3)
10. Paavo Berglund accepted this (3)
11. Police runner in Poland returns to confront initial belief (5)
12. A place for an old pet, perhaps, to be run around (3)
13. Chinese leader's detained by Mr. Howard for some Go (5)
14. Choice of Deusovi for moderator is like… a human head (7)
15. Explosive took this in Havana at last (5)
16. Something essential inside (5)
17. Cycle around a German mustard manufacturer (5)
18. Country of crummy, crummy men found wanting (5)
19. Regular subarea of Gulf destination (3)
20. Animal performer follows around bro (3)
21. Beaufort 4 and on mean something moving through the air (3)
22. Some sausage is stomachable, but malodorous salami with protozoa puts my belly at sixes and sevens (7)
23. Dolma stuffing: animal from the former Yugoslavia (3)
24. "Italian"? What? He was an Argentine who moved to Cuba. (3)
25. Anything naked is gross (3)
26. Produce sound in the evening (5)
27. Amazing role-playing game (3)
28. SE base, heart of preterpluperfect? (3)

Notes:

• I recommend you print this out and solve it by hand.
• There are five &lit clues. Contrary to my usual practice, I didn't mark these with exclamation points.

Answer 1

FINISHED GRID

The Secret Sauce

Even though the clues are rotated, the letters are NOT! (Super cool, BTW...amazing this works.) So an E can be an M or a W from another direction, O and X are the same either way, H/I and N/Z pair upon rotation by 90 degrees, and C can rotate to U, and vice versa, with the appropriate rotation. So the grid above has hand-drawn characters at intersections to try to capture this.

ACROSS

1. MAW (Where one eats) = M_ A_ W_
2. ELI (Bulldog, as in member of Yale community) = (-m)ILE(-s)<
3. ENZYMIC (perhaps causing a breakdown) = ENZ(-o) + Y (young) + M_ I_ C_
4. WAC (old soldier) = "WHACK"
5. NEIGH (Like Sir Winston call) = _N EIGH_
6. MBZ (head of 19-across) = MetaBoliZes
7. HEX SIGN (barnstar) = tH_ bE_ eX_ ...
8. HRU (welfare check, [how are you]) = HR (hiring department) + U (ripped up)
9. HBO (&lit) = HoBsOn (choice network from "Hobson"), and network where Hobson's Choice could be shown
10. OBE (&lit) = _O BE_
11. CREDO (belief) = C (confront initial) + ODER ("runner" [river] in Police, Poland)
12. URN (place for an old pet) = RUN*
13. MOXIE (some go) = XI + MOE
14. OVIFORM (like a human head) = _OVI FOR M_
15. MAINE (&lit) = MINE + _A
16. HINGE (&lit) = _HING E_
17. HEINZ (mustard manufacturer) = HZ (cycle, abbr for Hertz) + EIN
18. CYMRU (country) = CRUM(-m)Y*
19. UAE (Gulf destination) = sUbArEa
20. COZ (bro) = C (around, circa) + OZ (Animal performer)
21. UFO (something flying through the air) = beaUFO_ (4 and on...clever!)
22. CHORIZO (some sausage) = stomaCH_ + malodOR_ + salamI + protoZO_ (sixth and seventh letters of remaining words...clever!)
23. OLM (animal from the former Yugoslavia) = (-d)OLM(-a)
24. CHE (ddef. Italian what, he moved...)
25. UGH (gross) = aUGHt
26. EVOKE (produce) = OK (sound, as in firm) + EVE
27. WOW (ddef. Amazing and World of Warcraft)
28. ELU (&lit, abbr for English language and usage) = _E + _LU_

Hat Tips

To Gareth McCaughan for tips to get full understanding of 11 and 28

To msh210 for fixing up #20