Artisanal Italian Sandwiches Have Arrived in the Castro

© Heroic Italian
Heroic Italian’s OMG

All San Francisco Would like is a Huge Sandwich, proclaimed this incredibly publication in September. But David Bullitt, the person behind the San Francisco iteration of Heroic Deli, is hopeful that San Francisco wishes a lot more than that — so hopeful that even with the pandemic, he’s opening a new place specializing in smaller, artisanal sandwiches in the Castro District.

Bullitt wasn’t usually a sandwich man: Along with his brother, Jeffrey Merrihue, he experienced a full profession in Silicon Valley, working at tech firms like Intel and Samsung. A pair of several years in the past, Merrihue still left the tech planet and opened a Santa Monica restaurant identified as Heroic Italian. When Bullitt, an SF resident, headed down south to assistance his brother get began, he begun thinking that he could possibly want to open up a restaurant, way too.

“I was burnt out on international travel” as a advertising director for Nvidia, Bullitt states, so functioning with his brother was a welcome alter. And just after factors went very well in LA, the brothers agreed that it was time for Heroic to open an outpost in San Francisco. The plan was to open Heroic Italian SF, with a tightly-edited menu of sandwiches and salads, in the Current market, that hybrid foods corridor and grocery shop on the ground flooring of the Twitter setting up. But the pandemic stalled that program (as it did for other people), so Bullitt started casting about for other approaches to open an SF location.

“So I walked down to the Castro,” Bullitt states. “The initially human being I talked to was a wine bar proprietor who also owns developing.” That was Sabeen Minns, who considering the fact that 2016 has owned Swirl Wine Bar, a bustling bottle shop on a fast paced block of Castro Avenue. Minns was intrigued by the plan of bringing a sandwich store into Swirl, and the two struck a deal: as an alternative of lease, Bullitt would pay back Minns a proportion of Heroic’s income. The much more productive the sandwich shop, the improved for the equally of them — and that way, Bullitt claims, he wouldn’t be saddled with the lease concerns that have plagued so many restauranteurs throughout the coronavirus crisis.

According to Bullitt, his sandwiches are a diverse value proposition than the common SF sub or hoagie. “They will not be the least expensive sandwiches in the metropolis,” he states, and “they will not be the biggest in the town.” But, he adds, they will be produced with excruciating care: All the meats are imported from Italian makers so exceptional that he declined to name names. Their rolls are from SF’s own Montesacro Pinseria, and are built with a soy, rice, and wheat flour blend which is also imported, this time straight from Rome. But every little thing else, from the make to the chips on the facet, is regional. Jointly, Bullitt states, the substances are “lovingly cared for and lovingly crafted” into a sandwich that’s a “little smaller” than the level of competition, one particular from which you won’t “walk away bloated.”

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“The Vegan”

Also a “little smaller” is the menu of items (you can see it in entire, below) Bullitt explains it is an intentional distinction from the “build your own” places that pepper San Francisco. Heroic, he suggests, “is all about the artisanal working experience,” which is why there are only four sandwiches and four salads on offer. Of individual be aware on the sandwich roster is the OMG: prosciutto, salami, capocollo, mortadella, porchetta, smoked mozzarella, artichokes, tomatoes, housemade giardiniera, mustard, and black truffle mayo. Of the salads, the Mount Etna (roasted farro, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, carrots, and fennel on arugula) is Bullitt’s favourite, as “it’s not your conventional deli salad,” he states.

For now, Heroic Italian will be takeout only. Though Bullitt was to begin with wondering about launching shipping by way of the standard apps, that’s not in the playing cards for now: in between the commissions these organizations cost and his concerns about excellent command — “I want our meals to be as contemporary as attainable,” he suggests — he resolved to hold off. And the comments he’s gotten so significantly from neighbors has been optimistic ample that he’s now pondering if “we could possibly not require delivery” immediately after all.

© Heroic Italian
The Mount Etna salad

Heroic has been serving stroll-up shoppers with confined hours due to the fact previous 7 days, but nowadays marks their formal, grand opening, comprehensive with an on line buying system. Several hours for now are Thursdays-Sundays from noon until eventually 6 p.m., Bullitt states — “and soon after we open up, we’ll see.”

Heroic Italian is open up for takeout inside of Swirl Wine Bar from 12-6 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays. Walk-up orders are high-quality, and orders can be put on-line listed here.