We now come to some of the most important issues to consider when setting up a new sandwich-coffee bar: the actual products you and your staff will sell to the public. This is what it’s all about. And things have moved on rather a lot since the Earl of Sandwich put some cheese between a couple of slices of bread so that he could stay at the gaming table without having to waste time going for lunch.

It’s easy to get carried away by the interesting – even glamourous – aspects of giving your new business a sexy image. These are important and people will see part of the ‘brand value’ of your place as being the general feelgood factor of the surroundings and the ambience of the place. However, you will only build up a strong customer base if the products you sell are of a consistently good standard and priced at a level people regard as giving them value for money.

Creating your sandwich list

In Chapter One I talked about the kind of initial research you should carry out. Part of this involved visiting and trying out as many comparable businesses as possible. While doing this, try to get hold of lots of menus or sandwich lists to pore over at home. You should then gradually compile your initial list from the following:

• particular sandwiches that during your research you found especially appealing
• other people’s menus or lists
• the Internet – quite a lot of sandwich bars have web sites, including a lot in America
• your own ideas – however off the wall at this stage
• ideas taken from magazines, including the trade magazine Sandwich and Snack News which regularly publishes recipes dreamt up by finalists in best sandwich competitions
• recipe books – you will see a few specific sandwich ideas in general recipe books plus countless other concoctions not intended as sandwich ingredients which might just give you the basis for an unusual sandwich. A lot of people nowadays are looking for new ideas to stimulate their jaded palates and this kind of lateral thinking could give you a competitive edge.

Before we opened our first shop I looked through numerous general recipe books. One recipe I came across that particularly appealed to me was for aubergine caviare. It’s a kind of vegetarian pâté I liked the idea of something with aubergines (which we hadn’t thought of) and I was taken by the unusual name. It was slow to catch on at first but when it did it soon became an established favourite with some of our regular customers. It still is.

New ideas and old favourites

Clearly you have to be aware of people’s tastes in your neighbourhood; but wherever that may be, it’s important to strike a balance between well-known favourites (however dull they may seem) and more exotic creations.

If you don’t have cheese, egg mayonnaise and tuna mayonnaise on your menu you will undoubtedly lose customers. You could, of course, introduce some variety by having one plain tuna mayonnaise and another with red and orange peppers or red onions added to the mix.

You should also ensure that you have some more interesting and unusual items on offer. I’ve come across emu and ostrich sandwiches; really the possibilities are unlimited. It’s all about offering a large and interesting choice. Your business will probably rely heavily on regulars and your selection should allow them to be a bit daring now and then.

Festivals and seasonal changes can provide reasons for advertising the introduction of new ideas. For instance, every December we do a Christmas sandwich with turkey and stuffing. It always sells well.

Introducing new ideas in this way doesn’t necessarily increase the number of customers you have. The main thing is that it will help to maintain the interest and loyalty of the ones you’ve already got.

Responding to unexpected events

Not long after we opened our first shop, the BSE crisis hit the headlines. We suddenly found that the demand for certain meat sandwiches, especially beef and horseradish, plummeted. We could simply have stopped selling the ones which ceased to be popular and waited for demand to recover. However, this would have significantly reduced our selection. As soon as I realised the scale of the problem I spoke to our butcher. He pointed out that the problem with beef had arisen because of the kind of feed the animals had been given. He also pointed out that deer simply grazed in fields and that BSE should not be an issue in their case. Within days we were selling venison accompanied by either mint jelly or cranberry sauce. Although not big sellers they are still on our menu six years on.

In those difficult days one place even resorted to selling alligator sandwiches! I never did find out who their supplier was. I do hope it wasn’t Edinburgh Zoo.

Made to order or made in advance?

By this stage you should have observed a considerable number of sandwich-coffee bars in action. You should therefore be forming a view about whether your sandwiches will be made to order or made in advance.

I suggest you also put yourself in the place of the customer and ask yourself the question: which would I prefer?

Made to order means exactly what it says. You don’t start making the sandwich until the customer has explained what they want. A lot of customers prefer this. Not only can they get exactly what they want, they can watch the sandwich being made before their very eyes and satisfy themselves that it’s all being done properly.

Advantages of made to order

• Flexibility and choice for the customer. You can offer unlimited permutations.
• Less waste. If you have a quieter day then you don’t use up lots of ingredients making up sandwiches for the shelf which nobody buys. You just get left with a pile of bread – much less costly.
• You save time in the first part of the day. You don’t have to make up lots of sandwiches for the shelves.
• Your internal signs can be shorter. They simply need to give an indication of the breads and main ingredients available and a formula for working out prices depending on the combination chosen. You probably won’t need to change them very often.
• Quite a lot of customers prefer it and are prepared to put up with a wait.

Disadvantages of made to order

• 1.The time factor. You might save time in the morning but you will find that serving customers at the busy times takes considerably longer – especially if you have someone who needs time to agonise over every single option. And you really can’t avoid this. Customers must be offered a choice of everything from type of bread to butter, margarine or nothing. If you go for this choice your staff must be trained to go through a checklist. It can be tedious but it’s all part of the service
• 2.Extra staff costs. As a result of the extra time involved you may need to have more staff on at lunchtime.
• 3.Lack of flexibility. If you have a very busy day, even if you have extra help at lunchtime, you can’t really speed things up and customers don’t have the option of grabbing a ready-made sandwich off the shelf.
• 4.Quite a lot customers are in a hurry at lunchtime. They’re not bothered about having things made up for them. They don’t want to hang around for long and may be deterred by lengthy queues.
• 5.A lot more mental arithmetic. If somebody buys a sandwich off the shelf it is already priced. If their sandwich is made to order you have to work out what it all costs: type of bread, ingredients, plus extras.

Your decision

So what’s best? You must make your own decisions, but in my view the best course for a small independent operation is to have a mixture of the two options – and thus offer your valued customers the best of both worlds. Unfortunately you will also take on some disadvantages – but it is part of your challenge to manage and mitigate them.

You will need to :

• Become an expert on isobars, high pressure and weather fronts. Most sandwich-coffee bars are affected by the weather. If you know the weather will be bad, make up less for the shelves and order less bread. This way you will have less unwanted sandwiches at the end of the day and save money.
• Become familiar with the patterns of your customers – for example, student holidays, busy tourist times, whatever factors are likely to affect your business – and make up sandwiches and order bread accordingly. In addition, keep notes of unusual trading conditions so that you are ready for them in the following year.

Take one example from my own experience: Saturdays are usually 30% to 40% quieter than weekdays. However, during our first year we were completely overwhelmed on one particular Saturday. Unbeknown to us there was a local festival near our shop which attracted thousands of people – and which had not been well advertised. We were completely unprepared. We were queued out all day and kept on having to go out and buy more bread from wherever we could get it. Good business you may say, but I’m sure to the customers it all looked really amateurish – and for the staff it was hell. We made a note of this in our financial record of the day – a good place to note these things because one way or another you have to look at your books quite often – and we were not caught out again the following year.

I think it’s also a good idea to keep a note of extreme weather conditions. Figures from the previous year which might appear surprisingly poor can sometimes be explained by the fact that there was unseasonably bad weather at the time.

It will take a full year’s trading to gain an insight into the general pattern.

• If a queue builds up because sandwiches are being made to order, train your staff to fast-track people who just want to pay for a sandwich they have picked up off the shelf. It might well be a good idea to operate two tills at busy times or one express till for those who don’t want a sandwich made up. So long as this is all done in a transparent and sensible way other customers will not see it as queue-jumping but rather sensible management – they too might just want a quick sandwich on occasion and will like the idea that they won’t have to wait for ages, even when the shop is busy.
• Be well organised in the early part of the day. Have a list of sandwiches to be made up for the shelf (variable in light of weather conditions, etc.) which should be ready by a certain time. It is vital that you have finished preparing these sandwiches before the customers start arriving in numbers. If you do this you will be properly prepared for the lunchtime rush and will be better able to meet the needs of all customers.
• Consider the possibility of customers faxing or e-mailing their orders in during the morning. You can then make the orders up and have them ready and waiting at lunchtime. If you do this, have a deadline when orders must be in by – probably 11.00 am. Don’t encourage orders by phone. This takes up a lot of valuable time and there is too much scope for errors. Harness technology to work for you by easing the pressure at busy times.

Two final points about sandwiches made up for the shelf:

• 1.You’ll save a lot of time and effort if, rather than labelling each sandwich individually, you allocate spaces on your refrigerated display shelves for piles of particular sandwiches. All you need to do is insert labels in the plastic pockets running along the front edge of the shelves with the name of the sandwich.
• 2.Aim for the average taste. If a customer wants to have a sandwich made to order with enough mustard to inflict third degree burns on the roof of his mouth that’s his privilege. Sandwiches on the shelf must be made such as to appeal to and not offend a wide variety of tastes. I think it’s probably best not to put on salt or pepper at all – have free sachets available near the till.

Buying in pre-prepared sandwiches

You can, of course, save yourself a huge amount of work and reduce your wage bill by buying in mass-produced stuff from one of the big sandwich manufacturing factories. This would mean that you would be selling the same kind of sandwiches as you see in motorway service stations and some supermarkets. This may be appropriate if you want to be freed up to concentrate on the coffee/tea/juice and cakes side of things or if, for instance, you want to have an Internet cafe. However, if you are serious about delivering quality sandwiches with individual character, buying in sandwiches is not an option.

A word about mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is used widely in sandwiches. It tastes good, is great for binding things together and, to be honest, can help to pad the sandwich out a bit. However, not everyone likes mayonnaise. If you make sandwiches up to order this is not a problem, but if you don’t I suggest you always have a few sandwiches on the shelf which don’t contain mayonnaise.

Other food and drinks

To say that sandwich-coffee bars only sell sandwiches and coffee would be a bit like saying fish and chip shops only sell fish and chips. It might have been true once but it certainly isn’t now. In general, even the small independent has to be prepared to sell a variety of, for want of a better expression, food products.

The customer base is bigger, but customers have a larger and more varied spectrum of outlets to choose from. Although you will always hope to have a good base of regulars, many people don’t have any strong allegiance. I suppose you could call them floating voters. It’s your job to hook as many of them as you can by having an appealing and varied selection on offer.

Are you starting to feel overwhelmed and dismayed at the idea of having to become a purveyor of lots of things beyond the simple sandwich? Well the good news is that it’s not nearly as complicated as you might think. In fact, it’s surprisingly easy to give the impression of selling lots of interesting things without having to make a lot of changes from the basic concept.

Shortly after we opened our second shop, an outlet selling tortilla wraps opened about a hundred yards away from us amidst a fanfare of publicity. Wraps had become rather trendy and we were a bit concerned at this development – especially since students make up a large proportion of our customer base and tend to like fashionable new ideas. I decided we had to start selling wraps. All that was actually involved was finding a supplier for wraps (cash and carry), putting a sign up inside the shop detailing our range of wraps together with their prices, ordering some clear plastic boxes from our suppliers, having a mini awareness-raising campaign (good publicity for us) and that was it.

The key was the serve-over (or delicatessen unit). This was stocked with our range of sandwich ingredients and all we needed to do was put them in wraps instead of sandwiches.

When introducing something new like this it’s a good idea to think of some new combinations and of course you can make them up to order as well. The quantities you serve in sandwiches should be roughly the same for wraps (or indeed salads) so that the prices should be comparable.

Toasted sandwiches

Similarly, you can offer a range of toasted sandwiches. For this you will need a contact grill (which you will sometimes hear referred to as a Panini grill) – i.e. one which has two halves, both heated, with the sandwich being pressed between them for a few minutes. Cheese is particularly popular in toasted sandwiches because it melts. In fact, some places refer to toasted sandwiches as ‘melts’.

Pre-cooked meals

Another possibility is pre-cooked meals, e.g. chilli con carne or vegetable lasagne. There are plenty of suppliers of such convenience meals which usually come in sealed plastic containers. One basic microwave should be well up to heating them. The disadvantages are that they sometimes take quite a long time to cook (up to ten minutes) and they don’t always cook evenly.

Soups

Soup is popular in all but the warmest months. You can now buy in quite interesting soups from specialist suppliers which are really not bad. I’m not talking about well-known brands of tinned soups. However, if you are going to use a home kitchen then home-made will be best – cheaper and tastier. Just use recipes featuring whatever vegetables are in season at a particular time and this will keep the cost down. To keep things simple use vegetable stock. Vegetarians wouldn’t accept anything else and carnivores won’t mind. (I shall discuss issues relating to preparing food at home in Chapters Six and Nine.)

Salads

Salads can be served in clear plastic boxes and based around sandwich ingredients displayed on a bed of lettuce – possibly just made to order. They are popular in these weight-conscious times.

Ice-creams and ice lollies

Some of the large suppliers will sell you freezers at favourable prices in the hope that you will sell their products. Not surprisingly such freezers come with advertisements for their products, but you are free to stock whatever you like. And in a further effort to get you into the habit of buying from them they will probably give you a stock voucher for an amount similar to the cost of the freezer – so you could say it doesn’t really cost you anything at all. You should check with the ice-cream companies to see what deals are on the go at any particular time.

Don’t have too many varieties. Pick a reasonable cross section of the bigger names. For something a little bit different you can also get individual tubs of sorbets.

Scoop ice cream sold in cones and wafers is very appealing, but you must be very careful to maintain correct temperatures in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Bear in mind that the season in Britain is fairly short, the unit takes up a fair bit of space and is not cheap to buy. It’s important to capitalise on this by means of street or very obvious window advertising.

Ethnic foods

Foods which might appeal to particular ethnic or other groups in your area can be successful. Where we are located items such as pakoras and samosas are particularly popular. They can be heated in a microwave.

Vegetarian/vegan foods

You could offer special lines which would appeal to vegans, i.e., which contain no animal produce whatever (no dairy products, eggs, etc.). It would be quite straightforward to allot an area of the refrigerated display unit to such items. As a general rule, for the ease of customers, it is a good idea to have your pre-prepared sandwiches in clearly identified sections: meat, fish, vegetarian (and possibly vegan).

The healthy angle

Have particular sandwiches and low calorie, sweet-tasting things specifically aimed at those trying to lose weight and advertise the fact. You should also have sachets of sweetener available.

Cakes, patisserie, croissants and gateaux

All of these can be attractive additions to what you offer to the public. They look good and are generally popular. You will, however, need to have space (ideally refrigerated) set aside for them which is both visible to your customers and easily accessible by you. This should not be the main serve-over unit containing your meats and other sandwich ingredients. It might mean a new refrigerated unit – a considerable extra cost for a comparatively marginal item. In addition, there might be space problems in smaller units. Whatever, all such items should be kept under cover.

From the start we have sold home-made cakes and tray-bakes. I think good home-made items are best though there are now some specialist cake manufacturers whose standards are quite high.

The only thing to watch out for is that some items have a short shelf life. Since they can be quite expensive if bought in, there is the possibility of considerable waste if demand tails off – there are only so many you can take home.

Fresh fruit salads

These will keep for three or four days in a sealed plastic container in a refrigerated display unit. Avoid bananas. A tin or two of tropical fruit cocktail added to some more mundane fruits makes for a very pleasing and refreshing snack or sweet.

Iced teas and cold chocolate drinks

Obviously these will probably only sell in the summer. In addition there are frozen coffee drinks known as ‘frappaccinos.’

Floats

These are cream sodas with a scoop of ice-cream floating on the top. You can have a variety of flavours by the addition of different syrups.

Salads made with pasta, rice or chopped potatoes

These would probably be made up in advance and displayed in your refrigerated unit. Salads like this (and fruit salads) might only be viable during the warmer months.

Sushi

Sushi is quite commonplace now. The difficulty here is that the unit cost to you is reasonably high, so if it doesn’t sell you could lose a fair bit of money. Trial it for a couple of weeks and advertise heavily to see if it will take off where you are.

Fruit smoothies and milkshakes

You can buy fruit smoothies in plastic bottles from your cash and carry – but they’re never as good as ones you have made fresh. Look in recipe books to give you ideas for flavours. Similarly with milkshakes, you can buy powder or syrup which you mix with milk, but real milk mixed with real ice-cream is best.

Individual pies or pizzas

Make sure they are good quality. Try them yourself and order a selection.

Fruit

And don’t forget a selection of fresh fruit – increasingly popular in these health-conscious times. Don’t have Golden Delicious apples – they’re utterly tasteless. Granny Smith’s are always popular, as are Braeburn and Cox’s Pippins. Bananas are also very popular. Make sure old tired-looking fruit is removed. Do what they do in New York delis: polish the apples, especially the big red ones. It’s those little touches.…