A New Wicker Park Sando Shop Sells Out of Food in Three Hours

A new Wicker Park sandwich shop had such a big weekend that not only did it sell out of food on Saturday, but ownership has decided it will now close on Mondays to properly prepare for demand. Sando Street was packed on Saturday afternoon with diners wanting to try a menu of Korean beef, tonkatsu, and fruit sandwiches made with whipped ube cream and strawberries.

The restaurant opened on Friday, February 16 near the southeast corner of Ashland and North avenues, taking over the original home of Vietnamese American restaurant Phodega, 1547 N. Ashland Avenue (Phodega moved to a larger location at 1924 W. Division Street). Meanwhile, on Saturday night, Sando Street made an Instagram post saying they had sold out of food. On Sunday, they announced that they needed an extra day to prepare for customers and would no longer be open on Mondays. Co-owner Rich Letheby tells Eater they sold about 200 sandwiches in three hours on Saturday. Waits were 40 minutes to an hour, prompted after uninvited Instagram influencers began posting about the restaurant on opening weekend. With respect to Tom Skilling, Sando Street was the one making sandwich waves this last week in Chicago: “After day three, we went viral,” Letheby says.

Sando Street is co-owned by cousins Letheby and Chris Yoo. Combined, the two have more than three decades of restaurant experience. Letheby’s career began at 17 when he worked at Asahi Sushi in suburban Palatine, a restaurant that was owned by Yoo’s father. Letheby says he’s worked at nearly every restaurant job, from dishwashing to management. He’s a former sushi chef at Sunda, Billy Dec’s pan-Asian restaurant in River North (coincidentally, Dec is opening a second location this week in Fulton Market). Letheby is also a former assistant manager at Roka Akor.

Letheby wanted to either be a director of a restaurant group or an owner by age 40. At 39, he felt he wasn’t close to reaching that goal and, alongside Yoo, the two felt stuck with their career trajectory. For the past 20 or so years, Letheby, whose family is Korean and Japanese, wanted to open an Asian sandwich shop, “where East meets West,” one that tapped into Asian American nostalgia. He had an idea for a tonkatsu sandwich on a brioche bun. Meanwhile, Yoo felt there was a lot of potential with sandos — Japanese-style sandwiches on milk bread. The two combined their ideas into what would become Sando Street. The two both take turns on the line and put together sandwiches that use special touches like kimchi aioli (made with a mix of Japanese Kewpie mayo and traditional American) or Buffalo hot sauce infused with shishito peppers. Beyond the sandwiches, there’s also rice bowls and crispy popcorn chicken. Letheby says he doesn’t anticipate the menu to change too much. At least not until they make more hires.

The key to all sandwiches is the bread, and in this case, it’s the shokupan. Letheby and Yoo had a few tastings before picking a small operation, Crescent Bakery, out of suburban Arlington Heights, home to a sizable Japanese community. Letheby’s attitude is “if you have had something somewhere else, we’re trying to elevate it.” He calls their spam musubi as innovative. Traditional versions serve it with sushi rice. Instead Sando Street’s uses crispy rice noodles and a rice paper chip to provide a unique texture and flavor.

Chicago has developed a reputation for sandwiches. No, it’s not time to stir a debate on what category a hot dog fits into, it’s about celebrating the tremendous variety the city offers its patrons. Folks know about the lore behind Italian beef, and lately, the traditional Italian sub, full of spicy meats, has been getting some love. Of course, being in the Midwest, Chicago showcases many of the region’s ethos while packing ingredients between two breads.

But there’s more to the region as a new wave of sandwich makers using ingredients that traditionally don’t rest between buns. The previous tenant, Phodega, served a French dip sandwich in the style of a Vietnamese banh mi. Kasama puts a Filipino spin on Italian beef with shaved pork braised in adobo jus. Hermosa, which is one of two Cambodian restaurants in town, got its start with a lunch menu of sandwiches, like Thai moo ping and others, that blended a variety of influences. Chef and owner Ethan Lim has been focusing on family-style dinner service in recent years, but he’s hinted that he was to bring back the sandwiches. Before the pandemic, Kelly Ijichi had a stall inside Politan Row, the now-shuttered West Loop food hall. Mom’s also popped up at Marz Community Brewing with katsu sandwiches and more Japanese American comfort food. Fried foods seem like a popular vehicle as chef Margaret Pak has offered diners an Indian fried chicken sandwich at Thattu, her Keralan restaurant in Avondale. Zubair Mohajir serves a burger at Wazwan and Lilac Tiger in Wicker Park that’s both halal and has the texture and flavor of a South Asian cutlet.

Earlier in February, Henry Cai and the recently rebranded 3LP (Cai says there are too many “3 Little Pigs” around the country) have focused on crispy fried chicken sandwiches that are marinated in Chinese spices, breaded, and then often drenched in a sauce. Authorities like Jeff Mauro, Food Network’s “Sandwich King,” have hailed the sandwich for bridging American and Chinese tastes. Now Cai, almost simultaneously with Charles Wong of Umamicue in Logan Square, has dropped two different tributes to Italian beef, using Chinese hot pot for inspiration.

Sando Street is now part of this new sandwich flavor parade. Though they were slammed on opening weekend, Yoo and Letheby’s experience kept things calm. They had signage explaining the longer waits, and they were upfront with customers. Openings are hectic and exhausting, but they didn’t pass that feeling along to their guests. “That’s from experience,” Letheby says.

“We’re definitely proud of what’s come of the first week,” he says. “We’re looking for even more of that in the future.”

Sando Street, 1547 N. Ashland Avenue, open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.