4 ms·

> Thing is, people will pay $20 for a good sandwich. Really? Where is that? I live around Paris -- a city where the cost of living isn't considered low by wor

by bambax 5y ago

> Thing is, people will pay $20 for a good sandwich. Really? Where is that? I live around Paris -- a city where the cost of living isn't considered low by world standards. Here the normal price for an excellent sandwich made of fresh bread (1/2 baguette), chicken or beef, lettuce, tomato and sauce is around €4.5; if it's just ham and cheese, and the same wonderful bread, the cost is €4. I consider that expensive because I can make a meal at home for less than €2 (the cost can even go down to 0 if I just eat the leftovers from yesterday's dinner). I don't think I'd ever pay $20 for a sandwich of any quality.

BrandoElFollito 5y ago
I live west of Paris as well and this is what I was thinking too. A decent sandwich in a bakery wild have great bread (which is really important) and wild not be that enormous either (we do not have the kind of sandwiches where there are 20 folds of ham). I wild occasionally have one but if I bring the bread back home what I will make myself won't be different (they have the same ham, cheese and vegs I do, there is not much more to add)
Swizec 5y ago
My first time in Paris, I ordered what amounts to a grilled cheese sandwich and they charged me 20 euro. 10 years ago. Felt outrageous but I gotta admit it was a pretty good sando and it was my bad for eating at a tourist trap. The place from my original comment[1] is in San Francisco. People come from far and wide to have these sandwiches. I’ve seen people in the wild wearing swag from this sandwich place. Calling them sandwiches is almost criminal. Even making it at home you would certainly spend $10 on ingredients. There is no skimping on the meat. I mean just look at the photos on their homepage. The sandwich is unlike anything I’ve seen in a European bakery. They’re typically 2 meals for me. [1] https://www.deliboardsf.com/ https://www.deliboardsf.com/
- bambax 5y ago
  The photos are nice, thanks (however the sandwiches don't look very appetizing to me). That said, if they are so big that they count for 2 meals, then obviously the cost per meal is $10, not $20.
- 121789 5y ago
  Deli board is good but it still feels quite overpriced (as with most things in SF). I’ve had it a bunch (I live close) but it’s never quite worth the $20
cbozeman 5y ago
Get a Reuben from Katz's Delicatessen in New York City and tell me it ain't worth $22. Sometimes I fly from Dallas to New York just to get one. Whenever the price for tickets goes down below $100 for a weekend round-trip flight, I snag a ticket and fly up there just to eat at Katz's.
- helloworld11 5y ago
  If you're the kind of dude who would not only fly across half the country and contribute to burning all that fuel just for the sake of a fucking sandwich, but also brag about it, then you're way outside the normal of people paying for sandwiches. So yeah, a $22 dollar sandwich is expensive and for most folks, not worth the price.
  - cbozeman 5y ago
    Other people are on that plane with me, but your attitude kinda makes me want to start a highly scalable business so I can one day take a private jet to NYC and really contribute to CO2 emissions. But you've touched on a real problem with NYC... There's just nothing to do there besides eat at Katz's! I go up there for my sandwich and then I'm stuck in the hotel for the rest of the weekend because there's never anything going on in NYC!
cafard 5y ago
A restaurant at 16th and I Streets NW in Washington, DC, (a block from Lafayette Square, that is, and two from the White House), made the newspaper a few years ago for offering a ham sandwich for $25. I have never bought one, have never even entered the restaurant. But I assume that some people ordered it, else why have it on the menu? Before the pandemic, good sandwiches ran $8 to $11 from food trucks in DC. This I assume was set by the need of the food truck to make a profit. The result was the sandwiches were sized to make $11 sense for the workers thereabouts--I thought them a bit large for lunch.
- ThunderSizzle 5y ago
  I'm not surprised that the swamp, of all places, has $25 price tags on $5 sandwiches. It's the same place that'll pay $2000 for a $100 toilet. I've seen little indication that DC has a sane cost of living.
nonameiguess 5y ago
I just visited New York for Christmas and my wife wanted to stay in the East Village out of nostalgia because she lived there a while back. We were around the block from a place called Katz's Delicatessen. You can see the menu here: https://localmenu.katzsdelicatessen.com/ https://localmenu.katzsdelicatessen.com/ Looks like the cheapest sandwich is about $25. I never tried to go in to see what the hype is about, but I've never seen a place quite like this before. Every time we walked back to our hotel, the line was backed up at least an entire city block, like a six hour wait to get a sandwich.
- bambax 5y ago
  Yeah, well. I don't understand this personally, and the pictures look really unappetizing to my French eyes -- but I have a lot of respect for a shop that's able to pull this off. Another guy in the thread says he flies from Dallas to NYC to get those sandwiches, which means that they probably should charge even more...

by bambax 5y ago

BrandoElFollito 5y ago

I live west of Paris as well and this is what I was thinking too. A decent sandwich in a bakery wild have great bread (which is really important) and wild not be that enormous either (we do not have the kind of sandwiches where there are 20 folds of ham). I wild occasionally have one but if I bring the bread back home what I will make myself won't be different (they have the same ham, cheese and vegs I do, there is not much more to add)

Swizec 5y ago

My first time in Paris, I ordered what amounts to a grilled cheese sandwich and they charged me 20 euro. 10 years ago. Felt outrageous but I gotta admit it was a pretty good sando and it was my bad for eating at a tourist trap. The place from my original comment[1] is in San Francisco. People come from far and wide to have these sandwiches. I’ve seen people in the wild wearing swag from this sandwich place. Calling them sandwiches is almost criminal. Even making it at home you would certainly spend $10 on ingredients. There is no skimping on the meat. I mean just look at the photos on their homepage. The sandwich is unlike anything I’ve seen in a European bakery. They’re typically 2 meals for me. [1] https://www.deliboardsf.com/ https://www.deliboardsf.com/

bambax 5y ago
The photos are nice, thanks (however the sandwiches don't look very appetizing to me). That said, if they are so big that they count for 2 meals, then obviously the cost per meal is $10, not $20.
121789 5y ago
Deli board is good but it still feels quite overpriced (as with most things in SF). I’ve had it a bunch (I live close) but it’s never quite worth the $20

cbozeman 5y ago

Get a Reuben from Katz's Delicatessen in New York City and tell me it ain't worth $22. Sometimes I fly from Dallas to New York just to get one. Whenever the price for tickets goes down below $100 for a weekend round-trip flight, I snag a ticket and fly up there just to eat at Katz's.

helloworld11 5y ago
If you're the kind of dude who would not only fly across half the country and contribute to burning all that fuel just for the sake of a fucking sandwich, but also brag about it, then you're way outside the normal of people paying for sandwiches. So yeah, a $22 dollar sandwich is expensive and for most folks, not worth the price.
- cbozeman 5y ago
  Other people are on that plane with me, but your attitude kinda makes me want to start a highly scalable business so I can one day take a private jet to NYC and really contribute to CO2 emissions. But you've touched on a real problem with NYC... There's just nothing to do there besides eat at Katz's! I go up there for my sandwich and then I'm stuck in the hotel for the rest of the weekend because there's never anything going on in NYC!

cafard 5y ago

A restaurant at 16th and I Streets NW in Washington, DC, (a block from Lafayette Square, that is, and two from the White House), made the newspaper a few years ago for offering a ham sandwich for $25. I have never bought one, have never even entered the restaurant. But I assume that some people ordered it, else why have it on the menu? Before the pandemic, good sandwiches ran $8 to $11 from food trucks in DC. This I assume was set by the need of the food truck to make a profit. The result was the sandwiches were sized to make $11 sense for the workers thereabouts--I thought them a bit large for lunch.

ThunderSizzle 5y ago
I'm not surprised that the swamp, of all places, has $25 price tags on $5 sandwiches. It's the same place that'll pay $2000 for a $100 toilet. I've seen little indication that DC has a sane cost of living.

nonameiguess 5y ago

I just visited New York for Christmas and my wife wanted to stay in the East Village out of nostalgia because she lived there a while back. We were around the block from a place called Katz's Delicatessen. You can see the menu here: https://localmenu.katzsdelicatessen.com/ https://localmenu.katzsdelicatessen.com/ Looks like the cheapest sandwich is about $25. I never tried to go in to see what the hype is about, but I've never seen a place quite like this before. Every time we walked back to our hotel, the line was backed up at least an entire city block, like a six hour wait to get a sandwich.

bambax 5y ago
Yeah, well. I don't understand this personally, and the pictures look really unappetizing to my French eyes -- but I have a lot of respect for a shop that's able to pull this off. Another guy in the thread says he flies from Dallas to NYC to get those sandwiches, which means that they probably should charge even more...