Bread winners: Ireland’s favourite sandwiches

It’s accessible, portable and can be very delicious. What’s not to like about a sandwich? Most of us eat them on a regular basis and many of us have strong feelings about what constitutes a great one.

Watch Irish Times chief video journalist Bryan O’Brien’s incredible five minute film of Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh making the perfect ham sandwich and you will understand its importance in the Irish culinary lexicon. Your day will be immeasurably better for watching it.

When Jamie Dornan introduced United States TV audiences to the delights of the Tayto crisp sandwich on the Jimmy Kimmel show, he fell foul of the food police by using mayonnaise instead of butter. That’s the whole point of a sandwich, though, it is open to interpretation and can be anything you want it to be.

Here, six experts in the art of making a great sandwich share their favourites and reveal how fashions in sandwich making have changed over the years but generosity and great bread are still the cornerstones of what they do.

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The Pepper Pot, Powerscourt Townhouse, Dublin 2

There is a sandwich on the menu in The Pepper Pot, upstairs in the Powerscourt Townhouse in Dublin city centre, that has been on the menu since the cafe opened 13 years ago – with a short break in-between that prompted a Facebook group to petition for its return. It has been enjoyed at a table on the first floor balcony of the Georgian building by at least one president, actor Martin Sheen aka President Bartlett from The West Wing TV drama and is a big hit with Irish comedian, actor and writer Tommy Tiernan.

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“Earlier this year, every day at 4pm, we kept getting orders for five pear and bacon to take away. And then we discovered that Tommy Tiernan was ordering them for his crew up in Vicar Street,” explains Marian Kilcoyne, who opened the cafe in 2010. The sandwich is made with fried bacon from Pigs on the Green, an organic pork producer in Co Offaly; tangy Hegarty’s Cheddar from Co Cork; and poached Conference pears, wedged between doorstoppers of crusty white bread, baked daily on-site.

“That sandwich has put us on the map,” says Kilcoyne, who does most of the baking for the cafe, with her sister Catherine and head baker Natasha Gibson. “About a week before we opened, we literally just came up with that sandwich. It was just something we said we’d experiment with. So many people came in at the beginning and were like, ‘Oh can we have a pear and bacon but no pear.' I’d say, ‘Just have it with the pear and if you really don’t like it, I’ll make you a fresh one, no problem.’ I don’t think one person ever asked for a fresh one.”

In December, the cafe sold 3,000 of the pear and bacon sandwiches. Their sausage sandwich, made with free range pork and tomato and apple chutney, is almost as popular. “You’re either a pear and bacon or a sausage sandwich person,” Kilcoyne says. “They were our two staples on day one and they are still our main bread and butter.”

Now, however, vegetarian options are much in demand and you can order a meat-free version of the pear sandwich with fried halloumi replacing the bacon. “Vegetarian sandwiches have become a lot more interesting. Fermented foods have really made their way into sandwiches. So, we make kimchi, slaws, pickles and hot sauce.” A recent vegetarian sandwich on the specials menu featured aubergine schnitzel. “It was breaded, fried aubergine with some of our hot sauce, a little bit of mayo and we did a lovely minty, lemony, white cabbage slaw and McNally Farm organic leaves.”

Kilcoyne has some suggestions for those who perhaps find white bread – even the good stuff – tough on their digestion. “I’m really interested in gut health and trying to incorporate that into sandwiches. I recently did quite a bit of reading on glucose spikes and how to minimise the glucose spike after a meal.” Adding a fermented food to your sandwich, something as simple as a pickle or a spoonful of kimchi, can help, she says.

In any sandwich, the foundation is good bread. The Pepper Pot’s crusty white is baked daily in the kitchen behind the balcony tables and service counter. “We also make our own bagels, sourdough and focaccia and we have a lovely gluten free bread we make with buckwheat flour and goji berry seed mix. We sell it by the loaf as well, and we have some regulars who get it every week. There is soy milk in it so it is also dairy free.”

The Pepper Pot, with its gigantic sandwiches and billowy Victoria sponge cake, has weathered the anti-carbs diet trend that has been prevalent at times during its 13 years in existence. “I’ve gone through periods where I’ve been trying to cut down on carbs,” Kilcoyne says. “But it doesn’t really work. You have to have a balanced diet. Definitely there was a [no-carb] trend but I think it’s kind of fallen away. Now, I think people are much more into a balanced diet and realising that carbs are good for you and everything in moderation.”

Plámás x Hapi Bakery, Galway city

Remember the clamour for the Buckfast hot sauce that chef Jess Murphy of Kai in Galway city invented for her lockdown pizza collaboration with The Dough Bros? Well, it’s back, only this time you’ll find it spicing up some of the sandwiches coming from her latest venture, Hapi Bakery, along with a cornucopia of interesting home-made condiments such as rosehip hoisin and vegan XO sauce made with lion’s mane mushrooms.

An Bosca Lóin is a collaboration between Hapi Bakery and the Irish language cafe Plámás, also in the city. The sandwiches are made in the bakery, with ingredients sourced locally where possible and the addition of some really unusual condiments made in Kai. “We’re supplying a few places in town but Plámás is our number one customer and we also sell our bread at Ernie’s shop in the West End,” Murphy says

“I opened the bakery probably two and a half years ago but I didn’t advertise the fact because I had to stuff up and burn a lot of bread first, to learn how to make bread. I didn’t want to be that person to come out all guns blazing when I had no clue what I was doing.”

Molly Fitzpatrick is now head baker at Hapi Bakery, creating some really beautiful cakes as well as baking bread, and she and Murphy are coming up with a constantly evolving menu of creative sandwiches. They are mostly based on the bakery’s signature potato focaccia bread. “Every now and then, we will do a wild card, depending on what the fillings are,” Murphy says.

As with Kai, locally sourced seasonal ingredients are what drives the menu. “All the salamis are from Fingal Ferguson at Gubbeen or Lunasa Farm in Co Clare, who also supply our free range pork and chicken. Liam Heffernan from Tribal Foods supplies all the tomatoes, courgettes and aubergines that we use for our chutneys.” The cheeses are Irish farmhouse or artisan produced, including Coolatin, Durrus, St Tola, Killeen and Kylemore. Murphy is particularly proud of a peach chutney, made with Galway-grown fruit, along with muscovado sugar and Mescal.

If you think your lunchtime sambo could do with a bit of a glow-up, take inspiration from Plámás x Hapi Bakery. The current menu hits include Big In Japan, with a roam-free chicken katsu, smashed miso and ginger cucumber, Kewpie Japanese mayo and pink pickled onions, and The Birmingham Line, with locally grown onion baji, brinjal (aubergine) pickle, Geeta’s mango chutney and raita ranch dressing. The John Romero, named after the globally successful video game developer who is currently based in Galway, has coffee and chipotle bacon, roasted pumpkin, goat’s cheese and hot honey.

Eleven Deli, Greystones, Co Wicklow and Killiney, Co Dublin

Five years as front of house manager at The Greenhouse, a fine dining restaurant in Dublin city centre, is an unorthodox prequel to becoming a sandwich shop owner. But Barry Hargadon is also a graduate in culinary entrepreneurship so the combination was a perfect fit when he set about opening the first Eleven Deli in Greystones, Co Wicklow in 2018, followed by another in Killiney three years later.

As followers of the business’s Instagram account will acknowledge, Eleven Deli is known for creative sandwiches with generous, packed to the rafters fillings. “A personal favourite is our Brisket Bourguignon sandwich,” Hargadon says. “We slow cook brisket in wine, stock and loads of herbs and that goes with a balsamic red onion jam, celeriac remoulade and tarragon mayo with rocket.”

There are some classics on the Eleven Deli sandwich menu, as well as more adventurous ones. “We do monthly specials, which gives us a chance to try new ideas. Inspiration comes from eating out, from cookbooks and the countless food related social media accounts that we follow. Our signature sandwich would probably be our chicken chorizo. It has home-made basil pesto, roast chicken breast, chorizo, fior di latte mozzarella, tomato, mixed leaves and a gochujang mayo. It started as a special five years ago but was quickly added to the menu.”

Ingredients don’t have to travel too far to the Eleven Deli kitchen in Greystones, which also prepares food for the Killiney shop. “We try to source from as many local suppliers as we can. We use sourdough from the Firehouse Bakery based in Delgany, our coffee is from Roasted Brown in Delgany, our fruit and veg comes from Nicky’s village market in Killcoole and we have just started sourcing meats from Joe’s Family Butcher, which opened across the road from us in Greystones.”

Hargadon invests creativity in his menu, believing that people will travel for a well made, interesting sandwich. “I think people want something that they can’t easily make themselves at home. Not everyone wants to slow cook brisket for eight hours just for a sandwich.”

Sonny’s Deli, Ballintemple, Cork city

Rachel McCormack has been making sandwiches commercially for more than 20 years so it is safe to say she is an expert in the art. Sonny’s Deli, which has been open since 2016, evolved from market food stalls she ran, originally with her husband, Jack Murphy, who has now returned to work in the tech sector.

The takeaway-only deli is located in a distinctive building in Ballintemple. “We’re lucky to be located in a historic little neighbourhood, which is locally known as Jewtown. It’s a genuine thriving city community where we not only do business but live as well. Our best seller is our Salt Beef Reuben, inspired by our neighbourhood’s Jewish heritage, as well as the similarities in spiced beef curing techniques practised in Ireland and in Jewish Ashkenazi culture.

“Our other signature sandwich is our Banh Mi, inspired by travel and the love of a good spicy sandwich. It’s made with char siu slow roasted pork shoulder, do chua pickle, cucumber, spring onions, chicken liver pate, red chilli, fresh coriander and mayonnaise. This is available on Thursdays and Fridays and is always a sell out.”

Arbutus Bakery in Cork supplies a bespoke baguette to Sonny’s, while the salt beef is prepared by Bresnan’s Butchers in Douglas, using a spice cure mixture developed by Rachel and Jack. The pate comes from On the Pig’s Back in Douglas village and Timo’s Mature Cheddar, which appears in several of the sandwiches, is made in Cork and matured for two years.

“Maybe the fillings have changed but the basics have not. People like it big and tasty. I’ve seen a massive change in people’s tastes and preferences since I’ve started in the business. People are more savvy, more widely travelled and are much more open to more diverse ingredients and trying something new. The trend is definitely towards less meat and more conscious consumption habits, which is a good direction for all of us,” she says.

Oxmantown, 13 Smithfield Terrace and 16 Mary’s Abbey, Dublin 7

It is a full decade plus one month since chef Conor Higgins and fashion retailer Amie Costelloe opened the doors to their deli in Mary’s Abbey, Dublin 7, with five sandwiches on the menu, written on the wall. Standing the test of time, four of those are still the backbone of their offering, with the addition of a daily special. “We rotate the special sandwich everyday from some tried, tested and loved as well as newer ones from time to time. Inspiration comes from many places, previous restaurants, travels and memories from home,” Higgins says.

“I worked in hospitality for almost my entire working life – bussing, waiting, bar, restaurant manager and eventually went into the kitchen full time in l’Gueuleton with a dear friend and great chef, Troy Maguire,” Higgins says. “Amie had been working in Costume. Our daughter, Ruby, was born in 2012 and so I felt the weight of responsibility, saved as much as possible and put it all into Oxmantown.” Amie now runs the couple’s other business, Elliot’s Bakery in Phibsborough.

Higgins finds it difficult to pick a favourite from the sandwiches he has created, before settling on the classic ham and cheese. “We make everything from scratch so that’s braising ham hocks, infusing milk for the béchamel overnight, salting cucumbers overnight before they are pickled, making gallons of aioli. So, yes, it’s a ham and cheese sandwich but it is a great example of what we set out to do, the best quality cooking and ingredients in a very accessible and affordable package.”

147 Deli, Parnell Street, Dublin 1

If you want a carnivore’s feast sandwiched between two slices of bread, 147 Deli on Parnell Street, at the top of O’Connell Street in Dublin 1, is the place to find it. Barry Stephens, the proprietor, is a self-taught cook. “I was a Ready, Steady, Cook aficionado back in the day, after school,” he says. He opened the deli 11 years ago and also has the Just Chubby’s food truck, parked behind Lotts & Co in Clontarf, Dublin 3.

If you ask a chef where the best sandwiches in Dublin are sold, chances are they will direct you to 147 Deli. Stephens has a brilliant palate, an active imagination and sources his ingredients meticulously. He matches each filling to an appropriate bread and uses dark malted rye, sesame subs, Tartine Bakery organic ciabatta and sourdough. The six signature sandwiches, including a Reuben that has been on the menu since the start, all feature meat and the weekly specials tend to follow suit.

His favourite from the current menu is the Korean pork. “It’s a roast loin of pork with some really good cracking, spicy peanut slaw with our own house made Korean spicy mayo, which is delicious, on sourdough.” What makes a really great sandwich, according to Stephens, is down to “good ingredients, good bread and good seasoning”. Proportion is also important, he says. “You see some of those big Katz Deli style sandwiches and they’re the size of your head but that doesn’t appeal to me at all.”

Vegetarians have three choices on the 147 Deli menu, one of which can be made vegan by holding the cheese. “We had a larger vegetarian and vegan offering but, to be honest, the demand really isn’t there on our site. Anytime I put on a vegan or vegetarian special, we go from [selling] 80 to 100 sandwiches, down to about 20,” Stephens says. Customers avoiding gluten have a choice of gluten-free breads. “I know a few people who are gluten intolerant so it means a lot to them.”