Counter Service

Vegan Food and Robots Failed: Now, the Chipotle Founder Is On to Counter Service | Eater NY

"Operating since the beginning of the year and selling stacked sandwiches mostly by delivery, this lunch-focused storefront on 54 West 14th Street (near Sixth Avenue) presents visible prep through its window—during a weekday lunch hour you'll see a worker preparing food on what looks like a stage. The wall menu lists a collection of sandwiches: a banh mi made with liver pate; roast beef with cheddar, horseradish, and watercress; roast pork with broccoli rabe, provolone, and salsa verde; a fried egg sandwich; and a green goddess chicken club — and the site’s positioning is summed up on the website as "Sandwiches, mostly." The sandwiches were designed by Andrew Black, former chef at Eleven Madison Park, with an emphasis on sourcing good bread, roasting meats in-house, and making house sauces; prices run roughly $9 to $22 (the $16 Cortese starts with a light, crisp roll layered with thin-sliced pork loin, pairs broccoli rabe with roasted garlic and chile flakes and provolone for a salty-creamy factor, and is finished with salsa verde). Going from the prior concept to this new format has been described as a "humbling and expensive pivot," and the operation is testing an efficiency-minded model driven by the question “How do we make a restaurant more efficient?” At launch the approach mirrors the prior labor strategy of running lean teams (three employees per store), focusing on lunch and delivery while attempting to use better-quality ingredients and reduce waste." - Melissa McCart