PARIS — Welcome to Sandwich Land! On the Right Bank of the French capital, a sandwich revolution is underway.
On one side of rue Saint-Maur in the 11th arrondissement, you’ll find a sandwich with bœuf bourguignon (at Sandwichette), and on the other, club sandwiches with risotto or osso buco (at Superposé). Head a little further west, toward the 10th, for a “‘dwich” filled with spinach frittata (Traiteur Mamiche) or topped with fried portobellos (Plan D). Or go north, for another with cervelle de canut, a Lyonnais cheese spread, (Michelle Mabelle).
Then walk south to the Marais, for a sandwich filled with candied carrots, roasted fennel and horseradish (Sain) or lobster (Homer Lobster).
It is impossible not to come across these novel noshes as you wander around Paris. For recently, the sandwich has been welcoming the dishes of real chefs into its arms.
The rise of street food
During COVID, garnishing two slices of bread became a testing ground for chefs, whose restaurants were at a standstill, and a way for them to keep cooking, in a more adapted format. Amandine Chaignot’s sweetbread sandwich, available for takeaway or delivery at Pouliche in the 10th arrondissement, was a sensation. “These creations have won customers over in a booming street-food market where, in my opinion, the burger market is saturated. The sandwich is a product that requires savoir-faire, but is not very Americanized or globalized,” said Alice Tuyet, creator of Plan D, a 100% vegetarian counter that opened in 2021.
For some restaurateurs, selling sandwiches allows them to adapt to a new market reality and break away from the world of traditional restaurants, “where the hours are hard, with few breaks and a salary that doesn’t always keep up,” said chef Axelle Poittevin, co-creator of the Razzia sandwich shop in Marseille, named Best finger-lickin’ good spot in 2024 by the Le Fooding guide. “Restaurants were struggling, and we said to ourselves that people had changed their habits, that they didn’t want to spend too much time sitting down,” said Poittevin.
“Eight out of every 10 new businesses created in the sector are fast food restaurants.”
That thinking is backed up by the figures. In 2023, fast food will account for around 60% of the restaurant sector, said Bernard Boutboul, director of Gira Conseil, a consulting firm specializing in this field. “Eight out of every 10 new businesses created in the sector are fast food restaurants. It’s not that we’re being invaded by fast food joints, it’s that fast food is moving upmarket.”
Sandwiches started going gourmet in the early 2000s, with upscale bakery chains such as Poilâne, Eric Kayser and Frédéric Lalos. These bakeries revived quality bread at a time when sandwich shops were often industrial. “For the past six years, snacks have accounted for almost 50% of bakery sales. The classic jambon-beurre, ham and butter sandwich, is still in the lead, accounting for 63% of sales,” said Boutboul. Bakeries have gradually developed the monopoly on sandwiches, to the detriment of bistros, where workers and artisans used to break bread (for the nostalgic, there’s still Le Petit Bar, in the Halles district, where the owner asks you what “flavor” you’d like, referring to ham or cheese).
Healthier, local, and seasonal
In 2022, the French ate 2.2 billion sandwiches. Between 2019 and 2022, sales grew 7% to 11% each year. And they’re no longer limited to the office lunch break. Plan D sells around a hundred sandwiches each weekday and sometimes more than double that on weekends. “Sandwiches have become a pleasure food. It’s France’s favorite snack, ahead of pizza and burgers,” said Boutboul.
Now, the neo-sandwich is facing off against less-than-perfect bakery offerings, such as endless tomato-mozzarella (even in winter) and often industrial ingredients. “We’re in an era where consumers want more natural, seasonal and local, or at least avoid too many additives,” said food sociologist Eric Birlouez.
“It’s like your mother’s cooking but on bread. Fresher, healthier, less fatty than burgers or kebabs.”
At Traiteur Mamiche in Paris, which opened in July 2023 and is dedicated to sandwiches, the snacks are filled with essentially local and fresh products, prepared on site by a chef. Focaccia with roasted beet and caramelized walnuts; pan-fried mushrooms with Parmesan cream on sliced bread. All the loaves are homemade with quality flour and long fermentation. “It’s like your mother’s cooking, but on bread. Fresher, healthier, less fatty than burgers or kebabs”, said Traiteur Mamiche co-founder Victoria Effantin. Here, 150 sandwiches are sold every day and, just as at Plan D, the menu changes according to the season. “Seasonality has come to street food,” said Alice Tuyet. And vegetarian options are a big hit.
The sandwich is also becoming the fusion food par excellence, mixing flavors from around the world. “Today, new entrepreneurs need to create a new concept: this involves recipes that are often healthier and more plant-based, or that are ethnic,” says Nicolas Nouchi, an expert at the annual Sandwich & Snack Show in Paris.
In Marseille, Limon serves caramelized pork in a brioche bun, while Gazette, a newsstand recently converted to a street food vendor, mixes Italian and American with puccia (a delicious bread from Puglia) topped with beef meatballs. In Paris, it’s easy run across a bánh mì, the most emblematic of Vietnamese sandwiches (a white baguette topped with cooked meat, condiments and crudités), a sando, a Japanese classic (two slices of soft milk bread, topped with pork chop or egg mayonnaise), or American classics such as a pastrami sandwich, from the Yiddish tradition of New York delicatessens, or a lobster roll (cooked lobster in a brioche bun).
On luxury menus
Against this buoyant backdrop, it’s hardly surprising that France’s top chefs have also tried their hands. In a November 12 Instagram video, multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse and his sidekick, the world-renowned pastry chef Cédric Grolet, prepared a double decker vegetarian club sandwich of black truffles, flambéed cabbage and a slice of breaded and fried squash on rye bread. In Marseille, three-star chef Alexandre Mazzia has opened Michel par AM, a food truck dedicated to sandwiches made with homemade bread.
“Luxury hotels are also broadening their offer. They’ve realized that just because their customers pay 1,500 euros for their rooms, doesn’t mean they want to eat a starter, main course and dessert at a table. We don’t eat like that anymore,” said Bernard Boutboul. The club sandwich, the snack’s aristocratic variant, is no longer the only item on the menu of luxury hotels. The Crillon, for example, has opened a counter called Comestibles, where three-star chef Paul Pairet serves a crispy baguette with flank steak and sweet peppers for 26 euros.
A price that divides
Luxury hotels also offer lobster rolls. Those made by Moïse Sfez, founder of the Homer Lobster chain, are served at the Royal Monceau in Paris, the Carlton in Cannes and the Negresco in Nice. In 2023, three-star chef Éric Frechon added a lobster roll to tea time at the Bristol’s Café Antonia. “We’re evolving with the sandwich just as we evolve with our cuisine, taking a slightly contemporary turn, more modern and lighter,” Frechon said, noting that the best-seller remains the traditional 59 euro bacon club sandwich with “85% of sales.” While usually nowhere near as expensive, the price of the neo-sandwich is divisive. This premium option appeals to some — it’s more affordable than a meal in a restaurant and close to the average price of a lunch out, “around 9.50 euros,” according to Gira Conseil. But others say it’s a ripoff, arguing that the average price of a sandwich in France is 3.80 euros (more like 6 euros in the Paris region).
“Many people think that for this price, they can eat a starter and a main course at a brasserie. But a pastrami or lobster sandwich is much more expensive to prepare than a celery remoulade and a saucisse-purée,” said Sfez, whose lobster rolls cost around 15 euros. By just removing the filling from this type of sandwich and putting it on a plate, you’ll see that it’s a dish in its own right.
A dish in its own right
A real dish that is no longer enjoyed standing at a counter, but seated at a table — and eaten on a plate. At the Bilili bistro in Paris, you can choose an egg mayonnaise, Italian sausage or a pulled pork sandwich. “It replaces the burger,” Nouchi said. This trend starting taking off in London’s gastropubs in the early 1990s. In France, the neo-sandwich is also finding its way onto plates in the growing number of independent coffee shops straight from the U.S., such as roasted butternut and smoked scamorza at Café Rhubarbe, or vitello tonnato at Café Sandwich.
In 1924, just as sandwich shops were springing up on the streets of New York City, the Times wrote that “The day of sandwiches has arrived. It is so proclaimed by placards and posters plastered over the business districts. A new type of lunchroom substantiates the announcement — the ‘sandwich house.’ It may offer side lines of hot dishes and pastries, but to sandwiches it owes its existence.” A century later, on French time, this gourmet delicacy is making a name for itself in the land of gastronomy.
