Convenience at Its Best

No matter the foodservice format, sandwiches play a role in steering profits at lunchtime.

Perhaps the greatest thing since sliced bread is what goes between sliced bread. It defines the person and the eating establishment that poises itself to gain the midday moolah.

Consumers are pretty crazy about their sandwiches—from the college student who grills up a chocolate sandwich to the pregnant woman who assembles a folic acid sandwich with collard greens and kale. Even the French Laundry’s Thomas Keller developed a sandwich for actor Adam Sandler to whip up in the movie Spanglish that had viewers begging for the recipe.

All ingredients and all food outlets are prospects for sandwich success, especially if the finger fare falls within the trends of unique breads, flavorful ingredients, and a fresh aura.

Deli meat slapped on two pieces of Wonder bread and wrapped in plastic wrap won’t cut it anymore when consumers can buy a better sandwich anywhere. Quick-serve and fast-casual outlets have plenty of competition from convenience stores, grocery store prepared-meal sections, and school and business cafeterias. Leaders rise from each service segment with their renditions of sandwiches that satisfy—with equally amazing service.

Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), said in National Lampoon’s Vacation movie, “I’m so hungry, I could eat a sandwich from a gas station.” That was hilarious back in 1983. “But I’m not so sure a 15 year-old kid gets that joke today to the level it inspired laughs 25 years ago,” says Jeff Lenard, vice president of communications for The Association for Convenience & Petroleum Retailing in Alexandria, Virginia.

Sandwich-serving convenience stores garner an annual average of $8,100 per store from the fare. It helps add to the bottom line when the outlets make 80 percent of their sales from gas and cigarettes, Lenard says. And it brings in a wider variety of customers.

“The challenge for c-stores is that there is an absolute quantum difference between being a retailer and being a restaurant, and if you’re selling sandwiches, you’re a restaurant. There’s a different mindset,” he says.

For that reason, some convenience stores partner with a chef or foodservice operator to take over the sandwiches.

Four of the 35 NOCO Express convenience stores with headquarters in Tonawanda, New York, partner with a local New York restaurateur, Charlie Roesch, who is known as Charlie the Butcher. Roesch taught NOCO how to assemble his signature sandwich, a carved roast beef on a kummelweck roll, or “beef on a weck.” The same sandwich is also served at Wegmans Food Markets, headquartered in Rochester, New York.

But that’s not all that NOCO does with sandwiches. From a central commissary, NOCO started a fresh sandwich program last April. The program is in 20 of the c-store chain’s units with plans to expand to all the locations this year. NOCO’s program is in line with national convenience-store trends. Ninety-four percent of convenience stores have commissary-prepared foods.

NOCO chooses to prepare its own sandwiches rather than buy from a wholesaler because consumers are looking for fresher food “with the perceived healthiness of freshly made sandwiches versus packaged stuff from the wholesaler that’s shrink-wrapped and good for 30 days. We’re trying to get away from that,” says Terry Messmer, NOCO’s merchandise manager.
Brentwood, Tennessee–based c-store chain MAPCO Express Inc. is in its infancy with its Grille Marx concept. Eleven of the 500 units offer the new made-to-order food brand. “The majority of what we sell is ordered from the touchscreen order machines and is made to order,” says Paul Pierce, vice president of marketing. The units offer BLTs, grilled or fried chicken sandwiches, chicken or beef cheesesteak sandwiches, burgers and subs. All sandwiches can be made on a kaiser roll, sliced white or wheat bread, ciabatta, focaccia, pita, or made into a wrap.

Sixty percent of consumers sometimes eat lunch at their desks, according to Mintel Menu Insights lunchtime eating report. This puts increased pressure on contract management companies to keep up with customer desires, food trends, and the latest equipment to ensure they are providing what desk-bound customers want.

Sodexho Inc., based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, operates 26 Pandini’s fast-casual restaurant concepts throughout its campus, corporate, and government services accounts. Its signature Labretti sandwiches are served on freshly baked and folded 8-inch pizza dough.

Sandwich-serving convenience stores garner an annual average of $8,100 per store from the fare.

One popular version is a peppercorn and mushroom sauce, says Rob D’Orsi, director of product development for Sodexho’s Retail Brand Group. After baking, a Labretti may be topped with a small salad or fresh greens, with dressing allowing for a hot and cold component. Fifteen flavors are available. “It’s more popular than our regular sandwiches rotating through the menu,” D’Orsi says.

Artisan and made-to-order sandwiches rule at Philadelphia-based Aramark’s Bleeker Street Café and Soluna Café and Bakery. “Fresh is foremost, which lends well to the ingredients that are ever changing,” says Scott Zahren, Aramark’s director of culinary development.

While customers at both concepts rave over paninis, the most recent spin on the toasted sandwich is the mini panini served at Bleeker Street Café units. Two small sandwiches make up a full order, allowing for more flavor variety, Zahren says. The most popular is the Southwest chicken with chipotle mayonnaise, grilled chicken breast, tomatoes, caramelized onion, and pepper jack cheese on the sour-dough batard. Flavorful crusty breads like wheat berry and ciabatta are also popular. As for cheese, asiago is a hit, he says.

Sixty percent of consumers sometimes eat lunch at their desks, according to Mintel Menu Insights lunchtime eating report. This puts increased pressure on contract management companies to keep up with customer desires, food trends, and the latest equipment to ensure they are providing what desk-bound customers want.

Sodexho Inc., based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, operates 26 Pandini’s fast-casual restaurant concepts throughout its campus, corporate, and government services accounts. Its signature Labretti sandwiches are served on freshly baked and folded 8-inch pizza dough.

Sandwich-serving convenience stores garner an annual average of $8,100 per store from the fare.

One popular version is a peppercorn and mushroom sauce, says Rob D’Orsi, director of product development for Sodexho’s Retail Brand Group. After baking, a Labretti may be topped with a small salad or fresh greens, with dressing allowing for a hot and cold component. Fifteen flavors are available. “It’s more popular than our regular sandwiches rotating through the menu,” D’Orsi says.

Artisan and made-to-order sandwiches rule at Philadelphia-based Aramark’s Bleeker Street Café and Soluna Café and Bakery. “Fresh is foremost, which lends well to the ingredients that are ever changing,” says Scott Zahren, Aramark’s director of culinary development.

While customers at both concepts rave over paninis, the most recent spin on the toasted sandwich is the mini panini served at Bleeker Street Café units. Two small sandwiches make up a full order, allowing for more flavor variety, Zahren says. The most popular is the Southwest chicken with chipotle mayonnaise, grilled chicken breast, tomatoes, caramelized onion, and pepper jack cheese on the sour-dough batard. Flavorful crusty breads like wheat berry and ciabatta are also popular. As for cheese, asiago is a hit, he says.

Pret A Manger stores make their own mayonnaise with high butter fat content, which does two things: provides a sensational mouth feel and protects the bread from moisture migration of the other ingredients, Ches says.

The store’s seven-grain bread is a proprietary recipe developed in the U.K. Pret contracts with a New York bakery to bake the bread fresh daily. In fact, Pret contracts with suppliers for nearly all the fresh ingredients. They all deliver their preparations to Pret’s depot, from where it all is delivered to the shops by 5 a.m. Shop associates assemble the sandwiches throughout the day. The chain hopes to avoid any food-safety issues by outsourcing the preparations.

Wichcraft, a New York chain of 12 sandwich shops, also develops its sandwich lineup with a gourmet eye using only fresh, preservative-free, and unprocessed ingredients, says Sisha Ortuzar, partner and chef. All the ingredients are prepared in its commissary kitchen. Customers order at the counter from a menuboard, and the various locations offer different sandwiches, depending on what’s popular at that location, he says.

Artisan bread, variety cheeses, freshly roasted turkey, and unique condiments all work together to bring outstanding flavor, Ortuzar says. “We think of them as compositions. ‘What condiment works well with this to create a nice, well-balanced dish?’ It doesn’t matter that it’s handheld.”

For example Wichcraft combines the house mayonnaise with garlic and chili flakes to make it a little spicy. Another popular sandwich topping is a jam-like balsamic onion relish. It gets its deep sweet flavor from onions cooked with balsamic vinegar.

For 2008, Atlanta Bread Co. International Inc., based in Smyrna, Georgia, plans to bring out a new menu that focuses more on the 135-unit chain’s signature sandwiches like the California avocado, bistro chicken, and caprese. That’s because customers prefer a little twist to the basic sandwich, which the chain accomplishes by using artisan breads and flavorful spreads, says Jennifer Madison, senior brand and communications manager.

Each Atlanta Bread Co. bakes its own bread daily, and that includes ciabatta and French baguettes. “Our focus is more toward handmade and crusty breads,” Madison says.

Food trends related to international flavors led the chain to create its Cubano sandwich, which combines Cuban-flavored pork, ham, Swiss cheese, spicy mustard, mayonnaise, and diced pickles served hot and grilled on fresh-baked focaccia bread.

And in keeping with the fresh trend, the chain just finished testing a new sandwich plate presentation where sandwiches arrive open faced so customers can see the stack of beautiful produce and meat. That new prep style will roll out systemwide this year.