Evolution of the Fast Fresh Sandwich

Take 2 minutes and think about how the humble sandwich has evolved within our food courts. Years ago, a sandwich meant ham ‘n cheese with mayo on white bread. Mr. Sub started making enormous sandwiches with a variety of cold cuts. And then Subway came on the scene with slightly higher quality ingredients and freshly baked bread. Quiznos took the sub one notch higher with the toasted concept. And added an astronomically high price tag to boot.

A couple years ago, all of the above was automatically kicked down to a lower league when the “gourmet sandwich” craze took over. Fast Fresh Foods opened up in a food court. What? A small sandwich with a half handful of lightly dressed spring mix salad for $7.50? No way, that can’t be worth it. And then Sandwich Box came along. Eventually, everyone started offering “grilled” or “pressed” or some sort of value added feature to allow them to charge and extra $1.50. And ultimately, Petite Thuet offered up their super-ultra-over-the-top-gourmet sandwiches. So reads the blog post below. And so begins my review of Fast Fresh Foods (FFF) in Commerce Court.

First, let us examine whether the name serves it justice. Fast? When the spot first opened, long lines were the norm. But now, the honeymoon is over and the crowds have moved on. A few short minutes in line and a couple minutes waiting for the sandwich to be grilled is relatively fast. Fresh? Sure. The varieties of bread are mostly from Ace Bakery and are consistently fresh – nice crispy outside and soft chewy inside, stepped up a level once it’s grilled. Meats and cheese are consistently fresh as well. The veggie toppings, however, have lost some of their glamour over the years. What used to be a beautiful and flavourful arugula option is now just dull and slightly limp lettuce. The peppers don’t have the fresh and vibrant colours that they used to. And the side salad has become mediocre at best, just something there to add perceived healthfulness for those concerned. But relative to food court standards, this is absolutely fresh. Food? By Michael Pollan’s own standards, definitely. The chicken is sliced off an actual chicken breast, not an overly manufactured and artificially flavoured Subway-style patty that is identical in size to the last 4,000 served. And the cheese is actual cheese, not modified with plastics and chemicals to have a shelf life of 64 weeks. And the vegetables are made from produce that has been grilled, sautéed, caramelized or otherwise had its flavour enhanced naturally.

I like that you can custom create your own sandwich. Although at times that can get confusing to the point where an inexperienced sandwicher may potentially create a Frankenstein-like monster whose parts taste a whole lot better eaten separately than combined. The sandwich I ate today was good. Frances roll with garlic aioli, chicken, brie, hot peppers and tomatoes. It is fairly consistently very good, at times excellent. Rarely just ok, although this particular experience happened to be that rare case. For $8.48 (tax-in), that compares favourably to, say, a large “gourmet” Subway sandwich at $8.99. It’s not as big, but it’s certainly big enough for a complete lunch. I always had a hard time understanding how one could digest an entire 12” monster loaf for lunch, forget about all the toppings that go inside. And the quality of ingredients more than makes up for any lack of size. FFF compares less favourably to an “ultra-gourmet” sandwich at Petite Thuet for $7-8 (tax-in, but no side salad). These comparisons are all value-based. Thing is, all of this is like comparing last week’s economic numbers to the political environment in South Africa. The sub shops are in a lower league of processed food. And Thuet is in a higher league of gourmet excellence. For what it is, FFF is very good. It’s certainly no Thuet, but many layers of shoulders above the old-fashioned, traditional ham ‘n cheese sandwich.