Sandwich Savants

Meet the chefs making magic happen between two slices of bread.

- Raphael Brion

WE’RE LIVING in a golden age of sandwiches. At a new wave of shops and delis opening across the country, chefs are using high-quality and seasonal ingredients to build wildly creative and deeply delicious spins on the classics. Here are five buzzy shops that are changing the lunch landscape.

TROUBADOUR

Healdsburg, California

Troubadour is constantly shapeshifting. At dinner, it’s a French-California bistro with a seven-course tasting menu. In the morning, it’s a bustling café with coffee and breakfast pastries, and during the day, the pastries are traded out for stacks of grab-and-go sandwiches made by chefs and co-owners Melissa and Sean McGaughey. You can’t go wrong with their chicken salad sandwich with pumpkin seed dukka or their simple jambon au beurre, but our favorite is their sumac-roasted carrot sandwich, with pesto, ricotta, and pickled onions. All of their sandwiches are served on long-fermented sourdough bread, made in-house.

KNUCKLE SANDWICH

Austin