This is about sandwiches. Yep, sandwiches.
A good sandwich is a work of art — where the meat is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe. Any place that makes a good sandwich is worthy of a repeat visit, especially if I can make it there and back during lunch.
When I go to a sandwich shop for the first time, I check the menu. What kind of sandwiches do they offer? What kind of toppings?
What kind of bread?
“We have sourdough roll, multi-grain roll, and dutch crunch.”
Unless they make their own bread, all the sandwich shops in the bay area serve the same breads. All of them. And they all answer that question in the exact same order: sourdough, multi-grain, and dutch crunch.
What can you learn from this? First, be a bread maker; it’s a good business to be in. In San Francisco, if you’re eating a sandwich, you’re probably eating Wedemeyer Bakery bread. And remember — there’s room for more than one breadmaker in a town.
Second, if you’re not a skilled breadmaker, make a better sandwich. Mr. Pickles is good for the speed and cost, but Bonne Sante‘s chicken and prosciutto is a sandwich that I would drive for miles to get.
And there ya go. Make bread or make a better sandwich.
It’s amazing what sandwiches have to teach us.