Chorney-Booth: Sammie Café reinvents the humble sandwich

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Sandwich making is a tricky business. Few food experiences are more depressing than reaching into a lunch bag to pull out a limp sandwich that consists of little more than a couple of slices of luncheon meat jammed between stale, sliced bread with a smear of mayo for flavour. A sad sandwich is a sad thing. But when sandwiches are done right, they can be truly majestic.

Sammie Café, a new restaurant in Marda Loop, does sandwiches right.

Calgary has already proven that it loves a good sandwich: when Alumni Sandwich and Liquor Bar opened in the Beltline in 2018 it was an instant hit, thanks to its cool atmosphere and slightly upscale take on classic sandwich combinations. Sammie also makes sandwiches the focus of its menu, though with a different but equally delicious approach.

Sammie is the brainchild of Percilla Gutscher, a chef and co-owner of Brekkie, a West Springs breakfast place much heralded for its fresh and flavourful takes on eggs benny and other breakfast dishes. The Brekkie team was looking for a second location closer to the city’s core and came across a sweet little spot in Marda Loop that used to be a ramen shop, but it didn’t seem quite large enough for a bustling brunch joint. So Gutscher came up with the idea of doing chef-driven sandwiches, lending her experience as a fine-dining chef (she spent many years in the kitchen at the Westin Hotel) to a more casual menu. The space was re-decorated with a light and fresh, modern diner aesthetic and Gutscher set to putting together a menu that both tastes great and packs up well, which proved to be wise, given that it opened this past fall just before the second restaurant dine-in shutdown.

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“When people ask what our concept is, I just say sandwiches,” Gutscher says. “Other than that, there isn’t a particular thing that we do, but there are things that we don’t do. We aren’t going to be the place that does a roast beef. We do things that are outside of the definition of the traditional sandwich.”

Sammie serves a breakfast sandwich menu from 7 to 10 a.m., but the hardier all-day sandwiches are really the star of the show. Gutscher and her team spent considerable time on each sandwich, experimenting with construction to maximize the flavour of every bite (one sandwich tasted better upside-down, so they reversed the order of elements). The result of that extra care is clear: the fried chicken sandwich with “Seoul” sauce and lemon mustard mayo ($13) is one of the best in the city, balancing classic fried chicken crunch with some creaminess and a little bit of heat. Other menu highlights include the Korean barbecue beef short rib sandwich with smoked kimchi butter and grilled scallions ($14), a grilled chicken tikka club with smoked bacon and masala spice ($13), and a sous vide pork loin katsu sandwich served on soft white bread with house barbecue sauce ($15). Sammie also does a monthly special (March’s special was honey-roasted duck with miso mustard hoisin on a steam bun) so that Gutscher can offer customers a chance to try different proteins in an approachable way.

Sides are sold separately and in addition to various varieties of fries (including Japa fries topped with pickled ginger and lime aioli and unagi sauce), customers can add on items like gochujang-glazed roasted cauliflower ($8) or sweet potato fritters ($7). And even though Sammie isn’t a late-night kind of place, it does have a selection of craft beers and ciders and a bespoke tea cocktail program that allows guests to design their own combinations of tea, soda, and spirits.

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Sammie Café is located at #113, 2205 33rd Ave. S.W. and can be reached at 403-457-9682 or sammieyyc.ca. The restaurant is open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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As the pandemic continues, a lot of Calgarians are still looking for ways to reduce trips to the grocery store and the latest solution has come from a company closely connected to the restaurant industry. Sysco trucks are a familiar sight in Calgary — the company supplies many restaurants with food, but in response to an uptick in demand from grocery shoppers and the continuing restaurant restrictions around the country, Sysco came up with its Sysco at Home program, which allows people to order food for their own personal use.

The Sysco store is a little different than your typical online grocery store in that it sells meat, pantry items, desserts, baked goods, and other groceries in bulk, which means buying 60 burger patties at a time rather than six. It’s not for everybody, but if you have the freezer space and big plans to hit your own backyard grill this summer, it’s a smart way to get restaurant-quality meat and other ingredients delivered right to your door. For more information or to order, visit syscoathome.com.

Elizabeth Chorney-Booth can be reached at elizabooth@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at @elizaboothy or Instagram at @elizabooth.