Is that this store that provides one kilo sandwiches the brand new Pret?

Pretthe once-reliable sanctuary of harried workplace employees in want of noon sustenance now appears like a parody of itself. Soggy sandwiches with worth tags that make you surprise if there’s gold leaf hidden between the slices. A compulsory “eating in” surcharge that smacks of nickel-and-dime ways.

O enrollmenta revolutionary lifeline through the pandemic, now looks as if a sick joke. They lured us with 5 “free” coffees a day for £25 a month, solely to provide us a 20 p.c low cost price increase. Now they minimize to £10 per month in alternate for 50 per cent off those self same uninspiring beers, which, for those who max out the advantages, makes every drink 10 occasions costlier within the new mannequin. No thanks. You would be higher off going for the filter espresso, which they’ve simply diminished to 99p.

Like most manufacturers, its ubiquity, as soon as its energy, turned its downfall. It was so ubiquitous within the capital that the joke was that you would throw a cheese and pickle baguette from one store and it could land on the doorstep of one other.

Effectively, now he can get to a competitor’s door.

“Our objective for brand spanking new places is to search out the closest Pret and open throughout the street,” says Josh Kleiner, a sprightly 24-year-old son of Nick, who, together with his spouse and two youngsters, has simply opened Sandwich Sandwich on Gresham Road, close to St Paul’s. There are about eight Prets close by, though you’ll want a powerful arm to throw one in all Nick and Josh’s sandwiches by their doorways. They will weigh as much as two kilos.

They’re of the “doorstop” sort and have grow to be a cult favourite in Bristolthe place the primary Sandwich Store opened in 2012, subsequent to Nick’s wonderful eating restaurant Juniper, which he offered in 2015. There at the moment are 5 throughout town and one in London (funded partly by the £100k they pocketed after they had been appointed Uber eats Restaurant of the 12 months 2023). “He’s taken his experience in restaurant-quality meals and put it between the bread, which you’ll be able to’t get anyplace else,” says Josh. His “fancy ham and cheese,” that includes pulled pork, grated mature cheddar, garlicky Parmesan mushy cheese, recent parsley and selfmade piccalilli—all sourced domestically from unbiased, family-run suppliers—actually offers Pret a run for its cash.

Which raises an fascinating level. Final 12 months, Pret was accused of rampant profiteering following will increase throughout its 450 UK shops, with the corporate defending its value choices merely with: “It’s a extremely robust market.” Which, in a approach, it’s, however issues got here to a head when the lunchtime juggernaut went viral for hitting a coronary heart £7.15 “dine-in” price ticket on their cheese baguette. The backlash was swift and fierce.

If punters aren’t ready to pay for that, why would they pay for the £7.95 Posh Ham and Cheese Sandwich? “The sandwich sizes, as I’m certain you understand, will not be small,” says Josh in that confident approach that makes me surprise if he’s practiced this reply in entrance of the mirror. “If anybody within the metropolis can end one in all our sandwiches, I’d be very impressed. But in addition, all the pieces is traceable. Every little thing is domestically sourced. We take nice delight within the elements we use.”

“In case you put a Pret sandwich subsequent to our sandwich, you’d snicker, I believe.” A scroll by their Instagram confirms that you just’re not less than getting extra to your cash. I couldn’t maintain one in all their sandwiches in a single hand.

Whereas Josh’s confidence appears boundless (“There’s completely no purpose or justification why we are able to’t be greater than Pret someday”), he’s spot on about why that may occur – energy – work. “Whereas Pret has crammed a vital comfort hole, we imagine that lunchtimes generally have grow to be boring. Individuals at the moment are consuming for comfort fairly than pleasure, enjoyable and pleasure.”

Sandwich Sandwich is “bringing one thing to London that’s handy (they’ve a spread of takeaway choices and in addition dine-in choices) but additionally one thing that may get individuals excited once more”. Their plan is formidable: one other department within the Metropolis by the top of the 12 months, and 4 or 5 extra in London subsequent 12 months. They’re even contemplating a nationwide growth. It echoes Pret’s personal progress trajectory in 1986, however with one essential distinction: an unrelenting dedication to high quality. They’re down-to-earth, family-run and devoted, a stark distinction to Pret’s faceless company machine.

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They even moved to London to make it potential. “Purely as a result of we care a lot about this enterprise. We’re so family-run that we couldn’t be a type of companies that might arrange someplace and attempt to run it from the surface. I’ll be making sandwiches, I guarantee you,” Josh says. Though presumably they’ll’t be in two, 5 or extra locations directly.

If final week’s mushy launch is something to go by, there’s nonetheless an urge for food for costly, high quality sandwiches that Pret can not fulfill. “We had been doing a little testing and we will need to have turned away about 250 individuals within the area of about 10 minutes,” says Josh. “The police had been known as. They contacted us to say, ‘It’s essential put measures in place as a result of we all know how busy it’s going to be.’”

They hope to supply hundreds of recent sandwiches a day. For this primary location alone, they’ve employed 65 individuals, with 38 working at anybody time. To place that into context, Pret employs about 18 individuals per location. “It’s so scary, however so thrilling,” says Josh, who doesn’t appear in the least fazed by these numbers. It’s what they got down to do, in spite of everything. “We’re anticipating queues of a whole bunch of individuals daily. It’s going to be not possible to maintain up with the demand. However our plan was all the time to set London on fireplace.”

It sounds a bit like a David and Goliath state of affairs. Solely this time, David is wielding a door-to-door sandwich that may double as a free weight filled with domestically sourced, artisanal elements. Josh and his household’s dedication to high quality, their virtually comically massive choices, and their daring growth plans might sign a refreshing change in a market that’s changing into stale. Whether or not this daring enterprise will gentle up (actually, in keeping with them) the lunchtime hustle or fizzle below the strain stays to be seen.

One factor’s for certain: In a panorama dominated by comfort, there’s a brand new competitor on the town. With somewhat luck and loads of ham, the Sandwich Sandwich might reignite our love of lunch—one colossal chew at a time.