By Daisy Yates, Co-Deputy Features Editor
For over a decade, Sandwich Sandwich has been providing the people of Bristol with incredible lunchtime options. What started as a small side business in 2012 has since grown into a much-loved institution, famed for its hearty portions, fresh ingredients, and loyal customer base. Epigram sat down with Josh Kleiner who helps run the business alongside his family, to discuss their recent London expansion, notable career highlights, and the journey of Sandwich Sandwich.
Speaking of the early days of the business, Josh said ‘It started 12 years ago, my dad started it, he’s always been in the restaurant industry, he’s owned restaurants and wine bars in London, opened a restaurant in Bristol called Juniper, and the restaurant industry, typically, is very difficult. You’ll find a lot of chefs working from 10 in the morning prepping and not finishing until 2:30 the next morning after service.’
‘It was very difficult for him, he had 2 young kids at the time, so he opened a coffee shop next door to the restaurant, it was almost like a cupboard it was such a small space, it used to do sandwiches, quiches, scotch eggs as well, but that was called Cotham Sandwich Company originally’. Josh explained that ‘he enjoyed the customers more, a lot more friendly, a lot less stressful especially, so he opened up another one [...] that was on Baldwin Street, and during this process, he spoke to my grandfather and they talked about a bit of a rebrand and at that point Sandwhich Sandwhich was born.’
‘Our sandwiches were great but they weren’t what they are now, they were smaller, a lot smaller, I’d say 25 per cent of the size. They weren’t as creative, we had no brand image, we only had about 800 followers on Instagram and this stayed for about four or five years’. Like many businesses Sandwich Sandwich took a severe hit from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. After working for ‘two to three years helping the family business’, starting when he was 16, Josh experienced this first hand. ‘A lot of businesses were faced with very difficult times but because we had multiple locations with high rent, we were weeks away from closing - we shut our doors for 18 months’.
‘We realised we needed to change a bit more, we needed to become more exciting, work harder on how our sandwiches taste. The flavour, the profile, the layering, [...] and obviously building a brand and do more for the community’. He explained that ‘when we came back we had a skeleton amount of staff so I took over the social media [and] over time we grew. We are now on about 200,000 followers, which is a great achievement for the business.’
After having such a setback from the pandemic, Sandwich Sandwich has grown phenomenally in the past few years, expanding to three locations in Bristol and recently opening a fourth in London. Josh credits this to the fact that ‘Bristol’s food scene is phenomenal. The support from the people of Bristol is unlike no other for independents’. He also highlighted the impact that Sandwich Sandwich’s community work has had for both the business and the people of Bristol, which he thinks ‘people have never forgotten’.
‘Just after Covid, that first Christmas, we gave away 2,000 Christmas sandwiches to the general public. We delivered sandwiches to the NHS, we delivered sandwiches to schools and charities, the business was struggling and not doing very well but we still wanted to do things for the community’. Josh described what a mammoth job this was, ‘trying to get a team of 30 staff to make 2,000 sandwiches until two in the morning - we put everything into that and people loved it, it was a massive success’. ‘All these little things over time add up to build a community - we’re as family-run as you can get, it's me, my brother, my mum, my dad, and even my girlfriend is involved, and it’s just so lovely to see the support from everyone’.
However, this was just the beginning of the accomplishments for Sandwich Sandwich, when in 2019 they won ‘Best Independent Sandwich Retailer in the UK’. Josh explained that ‘it motivated us so much to be able to achieve an accolade of that merit, it gave us a bit of self-belief in what we are doing and working so incredibly hard to achieve. At the time my Dad was working one in the morning until three in the afternoon every single day and winning an accolade like that makes you realise that what you’re doing is worthwhile’. Since then Sandwich Sandwich has been named ‘Restaurant of the Year’ in the UK and Ireland in 2023, winning £100,000 at the awards ceremony hosted by Uber Eats.
This year marked a huge step for the business as they opened their first location in central London in July. Josh explained that the expansion to London ‘felt like it was an opportunity now or never to prove ourselves in the capital and prove that this business can go as far as our imagination. We want everyone in the country to be able to experience Sandwich Sandwich one day and we are going to try our absolute best to make that happen’. However, new opportunities do not come without new challenges. Josh said that ‘we had police attend our opening purely because they knew how busy it was going to be, but Londoners are incredibly understanding that we are new to the scene and we are trying our absolute best. We have 48 members of staff in this one new site in London [...] but they’re smashing it and they’re doing an amazing job’.
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This is just the beginning for Sandwich Sandwich, Josh explained that ‘we want to open five shops in the next 12 months in the capital, we’re looking at opening some more shops in Bristol as well as potentially closing a few of the smaller sites, but opening larger premises that can have family access on weekends.’ Despite plans for further growth in London, Josh emphasised that ‘Bristol will always be our home, without the people of Bristol we wouldn’t be in the position we are today and we know that very well’.
Featured Image courtesy of Sandwich Sandwich
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