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"The original iteration debuted in Lincoln Park in 2022 in a former Subway space next to the founder’s Lebanese-Mexican restaurant and was born of constrained resources and creative improvisation: “I wanted to be super creative, and I really had nothing to lose,” the founder says. From that forced creativity came the shop’s most popular sandwich, the Bombay Chulet, which uses a Bombay chile crunch and fried onions sourced from the restaurant and is finished on schiacciata with prosciutto, garlic mayo, fig jam, stracciatella, and arugula. The concept grew directly from the founder’s family history in butchery and delis — his grandfather was a butcher and his family has worked at Knob Hill meat market in Flint, Michigan since immigrating to the U.S. in the 1970s — and that lineage informs the shop’s deli-forward techniques and ingredient choices. The name references a Taylor Swift song, though the founder clarifies, “It’s not Taylor Swift-themed.”" - Rebecca Roland