Sandy's SF

A huge thank you to Food and Wine and Sharron McDonnell for the great write up this morning. Sharron has been following our journey ever since we were a pop up in the liquor store in what feels like forever ago. We came up with the mushroom m**fuletta because we felt like it would be a necessary compliment to the meat version, especially in San Francisco. I know that there can be some pretty bland and lackluster vegetarian sandwiches out there and that is what we were trying to avoid. This thing needed to stand on its own, and the only way to “replace” the meat was with mushrooms. I think we honestly got pretty lucky because I think we got the recipe down on the 2nd or third try.

The mushrooms are roasted with garlic oil, cajun seasoning and scallions. They pack punch on their own and inside the m**fin they sing. I tell most people that these days, I’m eating the shroom m**fin more than the meat, it’s a delicious ass sandy. Also, I am getting older and have to watch my sodium intake, hahaha.

Please take the time to read the article, the link is in the bio and let us know what you think. Also, if you haven’t tried the shroom m**fin yet, then you know what to do!

Do you like the meat or shroom more?

I’ve been having issues with my sciatic nerve in my right leg for about a year. Surfing or working out would trigger sharp pain from my hip to my knee. Being stubborn, I pushed through the pain, thinking it would go away, but it just got worse. I finally went to my doctor. At first, they chalked it up to aging, but I knew something more was going on. After an X-ray showed nothing, I pushed for an MRI. That’s when things got real—the MRI revealed a tumor on my L5 spine, pressing against the nerve and causing the pain.

At first, I was relieved to know I wasn’t imagining it. Then it hit me—there’s a tumor in my spine, and something has to be done. After meeting with a neurosurgeon, I was faced with two options: live with the pain as the tumor possibly grows or have surgery. The surgery could be risky, with the chance of nerve damage, but it’s my best shot at getting back to normal. I’ve decided to go for the surgery, which is scheduled for November 22nd, right before Thanksgiving. Recovery should take 2-6 weeks, but I plan on being back at the shop as soon as I can—maybe on a stool at the counter!

What’s been really freaking me out, though, is my mom passed away from a tumor at 41 (hers was in the brain), so the thoughts linger. Plus, I joked about getting hit by a car last year, and now it feels like karma’s catching up with me. Guess I should’ve kept my mouth shut!

I’ve been reaching out to friends and family and feel really fortunate to have such an amazing support system. Thank you all for being part of my community—it means the world to me!

It’s that time of year again, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival () starts this Friday!!! You can find our booth out by the arrow stage, take a look at the map and come find us. We will be selling our M**fulettas, Cookies and our festival exclusive Hushpuppy Corndogs with Red Remoulade sauce. Entrance is free, so come enjoy the beautiful weekend with us.

The shop on Haight will also be open this weekend so feel from to come on by if you can’t make it out to Golden Gate Park. We will be a little short staffed at the shop so your patience would be much appreciated when it gets busy.

It looks like the days of summer are finally fading and with that, the watermelon salad is gone, until next year. The tomato sandwich is still on the menu, for now, but will probably be saying bon voyage in the next week or two. So if thats your sandwich, make sure to get your ass over to the shop and get you one before they are gone…also, until next year.

New Fall Salad
We are excited to announce our new fall salad. Jackson and I went back and forth on this idea for a fall salad. Originally we were thinking about doing just a brussels sprout salad and somehow it morphed into what it is now. Introducing our Sandy’s Kale Caesar. Here is a list of ingredients, and you juts have to trust me that this all works so well together, honestly, every time Jackson put one up to test, I found myself not being able to put my fork down.

Kale
Shaved Brussel Sprouts
Parmesan
Toasted Almond Slivers
Pepper Jelly Dressing
Provolone Frico

With everything we do at Sandy’s, we try and find a way to make it our own or on brand. Originally we were thinking something with bacon and brussels sprouts but were having some difficulty figuring out what our Sandy’s mark would be. Then Jackson had the idea for a kale Caesar and we just happened to have some pepper jelly on hand and have wanted to use it on our menu for quite some time now. So Jackson worked his magic and came up with and incredibly creamy salad dressing with the pepper jelly which adds a bit of spice, sweetens and saltines. There are no anchovies in the dressing so not technically a Caesar but come at me, see if I care, hahahaha. I hope that we have built up your trust so far with our creations so come on by and give this thing a shot. We will have the salad available starting today. $14 a salad.

This is something that I have been struggling with lately because I am so hesitant to raise our prices. The problem is, our cost of goods have gone up so much the past year and we haven’t adjusted our prices to reflect that increase. I’ve been doing my best to source the same quality ingredients that we use for a lessor price and it has not been an easy task. It will not be a major increase, I’m talking $0.50 on each m**fuletta, but I would not be comfortable just raising the prices without letting y’all know. I think our transparency is what keeps us connected to our community. The price changes will go into effect Wednesday September 25th. Thank you for your understanding and I hope we continue to see y’all in the shop.

🌟 Join Our Team at Sandy’s! 🌟
We’re on the lookout for a part-time cashier to join our vibrant crew at Sandy’s, right in the heart of Haight Ashbury! If you’re passionate about connecting with an amazing community of guests and want to work in a fun, lively environment, we want to hear from you!
Come be a part of our sandwich-loving family and help create delicious experiences every day. If you’re friendly, enthusiastic, and ready to bring some positive energy, DM if you are interested or forward to someone that is!!! Or shoot us an email at [email protected]

📍 Location: Sandy’s, 1457 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
🕒 Position: Part-time Cashier

This weeks shop notes:

Haight Street Fair September 15th
This Sunday is the 45th Annual Haigh Street Fair and we are so thrilled. Last year was obviously our first year being a part of the festivities and it was a wild day. It is definitely the busiest day of the year for us and we are so thankful to everyone for coming by and supporting. This year, we will have to turn off any delivery services we offer because the street is closed in front of the shop and there is no way for delivery drivers to pick up. Also, if you are planing on placing an online order for pickup, know in advance that there is no street parking so be prepared to walk over from afar.

Fall Menu Testing
I’m not sure how much longer we will have the tomato sandwich and watermelon salad on the menu so we are starting to do some R&D for our fall menu. Jackson is planning on putting together a few ideas this week to see what we think is delicious AF and on brand for Sandy’s. No spoilers or teasers at this point so just sit tight and wait.

Opening More Days
We were originally looking at expanding to 7 days a week but I think we have settled on opening 6 days first to test the waters then eventually going to 7. As of now, we are looking at opening Mondays from 11-4pm and I will have a set date for y’all by next week.

🌟 Meet our new chef at Sandy’s, Jackson! 🌟

Originally from Madison, WI, Jackson has spent the last few years mastering the art of fine dining. After cutting his teeth at the L’Etoile, he became the opening sous chef at , working alongside my culinary school buddy, and James Beard award winning chef . His journey then took him across the Atlantic to Dublin, Ireland, where he honed his skills at the two Michelin-starred Chapter One. In 2023, Jackson landed in San Francisco, bringing his expertise to the three Michelin-starred Benu.
But after all that fine dining, he realized what he really wanted was to ride his bike around the bay and make delicious ass sandwiches! 🍞🚴‍♂️Honestly, he’s been such an integral part of Sandy’s for even the short amount of time that he’s been here.

We couldn’t be more thrilled to have him crafting the best sandwiches in the city at Sandy’s. Come on by, introduce yourself and taste the passion in every bite!

Headshots by Peterson😂😂😂

I’m still trying to wrap my head around this past weekend and still trying to get some energy back. Every year after Outside Lands, I need at least a full week to recover, but in the meantime, my heart is full. From my staff kicking ass and taking names while prepping and keeping the shop open, to the volunteers that show up year after year to help with the booth and to all the other chefs that attend OSL, the connection is real and the love is infinite. More recaps to come soon.

Outside Lands is just a few days away and I’m already exhausted!!! J/k, sorta. I wanted to share with y’all a special menu item that we will have available for the festival, a lobster roll inspired seafood roll with roasted shrimp, jumbo lump blue crab meat and a spicy, tangy red remoulade sauce. There will only be 10 portions a day at $32 each. So, if you’re at the festival and are there early, come on by and be one of the few that get to try this gem.

Full menu for Outside Lands:
🥪Meat M**fuletta
🥪Roasted Mushroom M**fuletta
🌽Hushpuppy Corndog
🍪Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie
🍤Seafood roll - only 10 a day

We will also be open at the shop all week so if you aren’t in the mood to fest but still want a delicious m**fin, you know where to find us. Thank you for the great write up and shout out and

Congratulations to & , you are the winners of the ticket giveaway!!!

I still can’t believe that is just a week away. We are so thrilled that this is our 3rd year at the festival and am looking forward to this years lineup. Come by and say hello if y’all are there and don’t forget, we will have our hushpuppy corndogs again this year. They are the perfect fest food.

It’s that time of year and the tomato Sandy’s is back baby!!! Here’s a list of what’s inside this gorgeous sandy:

Heirloom Tomato, cut thick
Sourdough deli bread, toasted
Dukes mayo, of course, and we go heavy on it
Maldon salt
Salsa Macha, adds a nice kick

Like most things we do around here, we try and keep it simple and delicious. The tomato sandy will not be available for delivery as it does not travel well.

🔥OSL 3 DAY GA PASS GIVEAWAY🔥

Guess what, OSL is almost here and we are so stoked that this will be our third year at the festival. This year, OSL is offering up something pretty special, a chance to win a pair of 3 day general admission passes 🤯!!!!

In order to qualify of the chance to win, follow and **fs and tag your m**f loving friend in the comments by July 19th. The winners will be selected at random and contacted via DM on July 20th. Don’t sleep on this opportunity to, the lineup this year is fire🔥🧨

LFG & can’t wait to see y’all out there!!!

**fs

What an amazing time we are living in, I still have to slap myself in the face every now and then to make sure I’m not dreaming. We woke up a few days ago to find our names listed on Eaters updated The 38 Essential Restaurants in San Francisco. Just like when I graduated from high school and had to do a double take to make sure my diploma was actually in there, I had to refresh my browser to make sure it wasn’t a glitch in the system, haha. Thank you so so much by , and for recognizing our hard work and dedication to making delicious ass sandwiches.

Article link in bio

Happy 4th of July!!! We are open from 11-2pm today and will be serving up some pimento hot dogs topped with our herby slaw for $6. Come on by if you’re in town and grab some m**fs for your holiday festivities ✌🏼

Summer seems to officially be here in SF and we are so stoked to welcome it. We are introducing our summer seasonal salad. As a kid I grew up eating so much watermelon on our porch in New Orleans, I fondly remember my brothers and I have watermelon seed spitting competitions, seeing who had the lungs and technique to go the distance. I’m pretty sure I never won but I was the Rudy of watermelon seed spitting, all heart but just didn’t have the size to really make it. Ok, I digress, here’s a little bit about that salad.

Watermelon Salad
The whole idea around this salad is to keep it fresh and summer inspired. It’s loaded with delicious watermelon, fresh mint and cilantro, queso fresco, toasted pepitas for the savory crunch, thin thin slices of jalapeño and a jalpeno dressing. The dressing is made from fresh and pickled jalapeños, the pickling liquid which honestly would be amazing in a spicy marg, garlic oil, sugar and salt. It is not really on the spicy side but loaded with flavor and really compliments everything going into this salad. It will be available as long as watermelons are in season and still tasting delicious. We will have limited quantities daily.

Happy Father’s Day to all you M**f Daddy’s out there and especially to my dad, Sandy. I love you enough to name my sandwich shop after you but not enough to enjoy being called Sandy accidentally, hahahaha. Love you pops. Hope all you Daddy’s out there have a great day and get pampered like the queens you are!!!

Well, I knew this day would eventually come but I tried to fight back the emotions for as long as I possibly could. Today is Charles last day at Sandy’s. He is moving back to France with his family and abandoning me here.

I first got to know Charles, well, because he moved in above me. He started working at whole foods in the cheese department because of course he did. We would return home most days with cheese on our dinning room table, honestly one of the greatest things to return home to after a long day. There was an immediate friendship blossoming through our love of wine, cheese and food in general.

Charles would also take his scooter over to our popup to get his m**fulettas and come support. He doesn’t really care for spicy food all that much so his first few m**fs were not easy to take down. But over time, I’ve worked on his spice tolerance. I even have him adding Tabasco into his rotation everyday cooking seasonings.

There came a point where he was done working at Whole Foods and he was taking some time in between looking for a new job. Around that time, we got the keys to the shop. Charles was a carpenter at one point in time in France and offered up his services for the new shop while he looked for a new job. So, we started building up the shop one week, then another week, then another week and another week until finally Charles had completed all the construction he could and the shop was ready to open. He didn’t have a job lined up yet so I asked him, with the biggest puppy dog eyes I could muster, if he wanted to come work with me at Sandy’s.

I’m not sure why he said yes but he did and the rest was history. The thing was, when he said yes, that included the whole family package. The first few weeks we were open, the whole family would be down helping to ball up cookies, build meat pies and just help us get out before we had to sleep there. He was so instrumental in the Sandy’s that you know and see today.

When we make our olive salad, we make a ton of it at a time. This recipe took awhile to get dialed in, not only because we wanted to have the right balance of saltiness and spice but scaling it up was not an easy task. The first batch we ever made was a quarts worth, now we make 50+ quarts at a time.

Let’s go through everything thats in there, well I can’t tell y’all everything🤫😉

First we pickle carrots, cauliflower and onions. The carrots and onions are small diced so when you bite into them, they have a nice crunch to them and we call them little acid bombs. Next up, we chop the kalamata olives and cherry peppers together. If you’re ever in the shop when this is being done, you’ll know, because it feels like you’re being lightly pepper sprayed🔥, haha. We mix all of these ingredients together while adding our house blended cajun spices, garlic confit, olive oil and capers.

And thats it, thats our olive salad in a nutshell. We put it on all of our m**fs, add it to our m**f salads and sell it by the cup for $6. I love eating it on its own, adding it to red sauce or use it in tuna salad. But you can do whatever you want with it.

Ice Cream Cookie Sandy $7 each

We are trying out something new for those “hot” San Francisco days. Two of my favorite things have been combined, our brown butter chocolate chip cookies and ice cream. The cookies have been baked at a slightly lower temperature so they spread out and are slightly underbaked. This makes them so much easier to bite into when frozen and a much more enjoyable experience for your teeth, trust me, we tried the regular bake and I almost chipped a tooth, hahahaha. This week’s flavor will be vanilla ice cream but we hope to rotate the flavors every now and then. There will be limited availability today and we will most likely only sell them on days that are supposed to be over 65 degrees. Similar to the bread pudding, we will post on instagram when we have them available and have a sign up in the shop. Come on by and give them a try.

I’m not really sure where to start with this post but I wanted to share with all of you. This isn’t something I really enjoy brining up but most of y’all know I had an altercation out front of the store last July. The whole situation was pretty chaotic but I felt very fortunate to have an amazing community come out to support me personally and Sandy’s.

Well, everything has come full circle and Irvin stopped by the shop today. At first I was pretty hesitant when I saw him, honestly not knowing what to expect. I went outside to greet him and we had a chance to talk through the whole situation. He gave me a better understanding of where he was coming from and how hard everything was for him at the time. I’m generally a very empathetic person so hearing his background story gave me a little bit more clarity and understanding of his actions. Irvin is now back in school and seems to be in a much better headspace and I’m so happy for him. I gave him my phone number and told him that I am here to support him in anyway I possibly can. The idea of harboring ill will towards someone just doesn’t sit right with me. I also really appreciate him reaching out, I think it shows a lot of character to face a challenge like that and asking for forgiveness. So thank you Irvin for coming by the shop and welcome to the Sandy’s community.

🇺🇸✨ Happy Memorial Day Weekend ✨🇺🇸
As we honor and remember those who have served our country, we also celebrate the unofficial start of summer! ☀️ Whether you’re hitting the beach or firing up the grill, make sure to fuel your festivities with our mouthwatering m**fs! Don’t forget our m**fs hold well so if you have a party tomorrow, come on by and grab a m**f for tomorrows festivities!

This is 40

Mother’s day is a very strange day for me and one that is full of emotions. Some of you may already know the story, so please bear with me but for those of you that do not, also please bear with me. I named Sandy’s after my father for a few reasons. The first, we sell sandwiches and it had a great ring to it, I’m always sandy from surfing and my dad’s nickname is Sandy. So that’s how we came up with the name of the shop. But the reason I’m even living this life in the hospitality industry is because of my mother, Bettina Lee Barnes. Lee, as she went by, grew up in the kitchen at a young age.

When she graduated from Newcomb College in New Orleans, my grandparents gifted her with the opportunity to fine tune her craft at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. After graduating, she returned home to teach children how to cook then eventually opened her own cooking school. The crazy thing about this part, is that there are still people to this day that either took cooking classes from her or knew about the school. We have a poster in the shop from the school that gets recognized to this day.

We moved to Virginia in 1989 because Sandy was in the Army and we moved around a lot as a kid. She had to leave her school behind but continued working with food in a few different facets. I was the youngest of 3 boys, so I was always by her side, a mommas boy if you will and I wear it with pride. Unfortunately she passed away in 1992 from a brain tumor. I was so young that it was pretty difficult to process the reality of what had happened. She was my connection to this food world that I knew so little about.

This is why mothers day can be such a difficult day for me, I am so eternally grateful that I had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with my mom on this earth and for her looking out for me all of these years wherever she is now. But f**k do I really miss her, or the version of her that I can barely remember these days.

So with that being said, Happy Mothers Day to all you m**f mommas out there, I hope you have a very special day!

Today is the day, it’s official, we’ve been open for 1 whole year. I’m going to save the stories for next week when I have time to reminisce about everything that has happened and everything to come. We love all of you so much for supporting us and look forward to our next chapter.

We will be selling our cookies for $4.20 today if you’re into that kind of thing.