Grain bowls are not a lunch for trying times. No, in years like 2023 we wanted comfort for lunch. We wanted sandwiches. And boy, did we get them.
Sandwiches – the carby little lunch that could – had another bumper year in 2023. Broadsheet isn’t on Big Sanga’s payroll, we just write about new places that open. And this year, it felt like a sizeable portion of those openings nationwide were sandwich places. Putting things between bread has never been bigger, and with these many new spots, we’ve seen some patterns emerge.
Here’s what the sanga scene got up to this year, as well as where it might go next.
Reubens run out of steam
For large parts of the year, this looked like the Reuben’s race to lose. Places like Pretty Boy Floyd’s and Ruben’s Deli opened in Melbourne, and American diners and New York-style delis rolled out at a steady clip: Charc and Lenny Briskets in Sydney, Joe’s Deli in Brisbane, and Fratelli Deli in Adelaide.
The rising tide of American-style sangas – call it The Bear effect – looked set to buoy the Reuben to true ubiquity, but ultimately, it came up just short. Panini muscled in on Reubens’ turf.
Congratulations panino, you were the most popular sandwich of the year
Mid-year, panini started appearing around the country, and they didn’t stop. Maybe the canary in the coal mine (the panino in the press?) was Sydney in January, when Florentine favourites Ino Panino held a pop-up. Then, the paninotecas came flooding in: Dom Panino in Sydney; Aye Frank and Dante’s Deli in Adelaide; porchetta panini at Al Trancio in Perth; Spazio Paradiso, Piccolo Panini Bar, and Stefanino Panino in Melbourne.
Why so many panini shops all of a sudden? Well, sometimes everyone can have the same idea at the same time: in 1998, Antz and A Bug’s Life duked it out at the box office. Coincidence? Maybe.
Or maybe the crazy, filling-stacked sandwiches we’ve been seeing for the last few years were products of a flashy bygone low-interest rate environment, and the humble panino, of simple fillings and modest size, is exactly the kind of austere sandwich the zeitgeist demands. Or maybe it’s just a fun word to say and everyone in this country loves any food even vaguely related to Italy.
Signs of life from club sandwiches; the BLT is still always the bridesmaid
The club sandwich, which for some reason has yet to have its mainstream crossover moment, showed signs of a pulse this year. In Melbourne, the Sporting Club Hotel has the snooty multi-levelled sarnie on as a lunch special. Still a novelty for now, but it might take.
You can’t say the same for BLTs and Philly Cheesesteaks – one can’t quite nail the jump from brunch menu to lunch menu, while the other just hasn’t got that mass-market appeal. Better luck next year, guys.
Bad year for bread-heads
The ideological schism, the eternal struggle, in the sandwich world is between lovers of fillings and lovers of bread. In 2023, fillings had the edge.
For the last couple of years there’s been an explosion of bakeries, each of which, via their sandwiches, spruiked their bread as points of difference. That’s flipped recently with the amount of out-and-out sanga shops that have been opening, who try to outdo one another off the strength of their sauces, fillings and suppliers. Tense stuff.
A consequence of this is that a lot of the bread in sangas this year has tasted samey, with many fierce rivals opting out of baking in-house, and instead using the same bakeries (shout out to whoever works in sales at Sydney’s Fiore Bakery – you’re killing it).
Most exciting sandwich scene: Western Australia
WA likes to keep its cards close to its chest. While the east coast states always seem to be in some kind of cultural tug-of-war, the west likes to sit back, go about its business and not let anyone in on its secrets.
Take the conti roll – Perth’s unofficial sandwich (and arguably a de facto panini) – it’s a crazy-good mix of cold-cuts, pickles, cheese and veggies, yet it’s never cracked the big time anywhere else.
Then there’s Perth’s taste for sandwich innovation: in May, esteemed chef Brendan Pratt (formerly of Vasse Felix) traded fine dining for focaccia with considerable panache, opening Coffee Heads – a drive-through coffee and sandwich shop, peddling an old-school milk-bar-core menu of affordable (like, genuinely affordable) sanga staples and sides. And yes, there’s a conti roll, and you should get it (if you can look past the chook roll we couldn’t stop thinking about).
Who won the year – toasted or fresh?
Whether a toastie is a sandwich or not is a whole can of worms we don’t have time to get to here, so let’s say, for the sake of argument, that they are. This one goes to toasties, hands down. Between Reubens and paninis, fresh bread had a stinker of a 2023.
Chicken remains a vital part of the conversation
Sydney sanga stalwarts such as City Edge and South Dowling are proof that the chicken schnitty’s popularity will never dip. If you’re going fresh over fried, however, look no further than Broadsheet’s own Michael Harry extolling the virtues of a classic “chick’wich” – from the dos and don’ts to the where’s and won’ts.
Where to next?
If I knew that, I wouldn’t tell you – but through deduction and a pinch of gut hunches, I can give you my guess: Central and South American sandwiches. Apart from Melbourne’s flirtation with Mexican tortas, it’s a largely unexplored sanga region here in Aus. And now that we’ve surely found every type of Asian, North American and European sandwich there is, where else do we have to go from here?
In Melbourne, Atlas Dining’s Charlie Carrington is betting big on the Cubano, with the opening of Little Havana. Let’s see if that has legs. I think we can expect a lot of Cubanos (which are essentially dressed up ham and cheese toasties) in 2024.
The lifetime achievement award for Australia’s favourite sandwich
It’s still the banh mi. And it will be every year. Until the end of time.
