The Grand Sandwich

Mazel tov Dan on your brilliant Deli and Bar combination!
Try the Hot Pastrami on Rye and check out the specials, especially 2 for 1 drink nights.
Ask about catering and help and sandwich savant make it big.

With a name like the «Reubenator» I guess I expected a little bit more than what I received especially for almost $ 10.00 for a single sandwich.
I was so looking forward to a sandwich loaded with meat. Instead I received a sandwich with an adequate amount of meat and some grill marks. I opted for no thousand island. It came with a fair amount of sauerkraut and pickle slices which made the sandwich a little better.
My pickle spear tasted oddly like baked beans. The cucumber salad was pretty good. It was very refreshing and tasty. The cilantro really added flavor.
Liked the online ordering feature.
The rest of the sandwiches on the menu look tasty. I hope so. More than the reubenator was.
The quest continues for the ultimate Reuben or at least one that comes close to the two pieces of heaven I found in NYC.
Not entirely bad, but a little let down. Perhaps I built it up too much in my mind.

Meh. That’s really the best thing I can say about Grand Sandwich. Good location, better-​than-​ok food, bad service, and insane prices make this place forgettable.
I’ve tried several sandwiches, both hot and cold. They’re pretty good, but it’s hard to justify the $ 7.95 asking price when there’s a subway, Jimmy john’s, and acme deli all within a half mile or so selling sandwiches for $ 5. GS uses good bread, fresh veggies and meats, and they have some creative additions that spruce up the average deli fare (eg fried onions on turkey).
But you’re likely to wait no fewer than 10 – 15 minutes for your sandwich; on my most recent trip it was 20-​plus. And the place was half-​empty. At lunch time. Now I know why, I suppose.
GS recently added some good beer options, and they do have a $ 3 hh. I’d like to see this place succeed, but there’s little reason to believe it’ll happen with these prices, service, and generally boring experience.

Grilled Garlic!
Checked the place out again today for lunch to see if anything has changed. The food was better, but the service is still a bit slower than I would like.
We got there just before noon and there was a very large table to students in the middle, so I think they had just been slammed service wise.
I ordered the Grilled Ham and Garlic with chips and a can of DC. The food took a bit longer than I had hoped, just over 15 minutes.
The sandwich was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a good amount of ham and cheese with an accent of garlic with the tomatoes and lettuce, but I had hoped to be in and out a little quicker. I think at the lunch rush there should be more than 2 people making sandwiches.
All the employees are very friendly and they have great sandwich options, so it’s worth checking out. I like Grand Sandwich, but I have a love for another place that can’t be beat.

Grand Sandwich had a dubious genesis – it was apparently willed into existence as the project of a recent Macalester grad who had no higher ambition than to simply open a restaurant, any restaurant. Or at least it seems that way. But since its grand opening, it has started to grow into itself.
The thing about opening a new restaurant, even if it’s a sandwich shop (or especially if it’s a sandwich shop), is that you’ve got to either find a new niche, or present a truly smashing version of a classic idea. Grand Sandwich does neither, and one glance into the place makes plain a business model revolving around the idea, «how can I start a business for the least possible amount of money?»
So Grand Sandwich existed simply for its own sake, at least for a while. It has no atmosphere, its sandwiches were plain and unimaginative, and the employees were slow and clueless. Recent trips, however, have seen marked improvements in most areas. The menu is both more comprehensive and unique, the hours are generous, delivery runs began and Grand Sandwich began to settle into something resembling an identity. Another sandwich shop in this neighborhood is still unnecessary given the proximity of the Cheese Shop and Cecil’s, but now it seems to at least have some purpose.
As for the sandwiches themselves: I’ve ordered a few different hot sandwiches and a couple cold cuts, complemented by a totally adequate potato salad and some chips. Some combinations have some soul, like the Steve’s Sweet and Spicy rachel or reuben, while others, like the Turkey and Avocado, were passable takes on common standards. I was told at my last visit that they had recently reformulated a sauce or two, and the effort is beginning to show. The last couple of sandwiches I had were more than worth the price, making the late hours no longer the only reason to stop in.
Anyhow, I look forward to Grand Sandwich gaining some swagger and proving cynics like me wrong. Onward and upward, guys.

We went to the Grand Sandwich because we had a Living Social Certificate. Online, the place looked like your average sandwich place but with a little different flare. We went in to order a few sandwiches to go. They were very nice and accommodating as to how you wanted your sandwich prepared. What we ordered was: Turkey Avocado Sandwich and two Veggie Burgers. We had potato salad and cole slaw as our sides.
My turkey sandwich was not anything spectacular, it wasn’t bad but nothing special. I agree with another reviewer that the bread is a little wimpy and should be more of a hearty, more sturdy bread. The ingredients were fresh and flavor was good. The potato salad was really boring, nothing spectacular but nice that you get a side at all.
My friends had veggie burgers which they said were good but again not sure it was anything over the top good and neither of them cared much for the potato salad or cole slaw.
Will I come here again? Probably not but I hope they do succeed because it seems like a nicely run business.

This brand spanking new sandwich shop on Grand was still in it’s first week open when I visited and, perhaps because of this, I don’t think they’ve quite worked out all the kinks. Though the Mac neighborhood has Coffee News for the garlic fries, Shish for the falafel, and Dunn Bros for the coffee, there isn’t a really down-​home traditional deli where you can get a chicken salad or a reuben when you really need it, and this is the gap Grand Sandwich tries to fill.
My to-​go Turkey Avocado sandwich put me back about $ 7 and, for that price, I tend to expect either really fresh, lively ingredients or an interesting combination of flavors. Though my sandwich was by no means bad, it wasn’t that exciting either. Kind of like something I’d make at home with any left-​over produce I could find in my fridge. Plus, the advertised sprouts apparently hadn’t been delivered yet that morning, so I got lettuce instead. Each sandwich comes with a free side and my potato salad was fine but a little heavy on the mayo.
This place is clearly trying hard to appeal to the multitude of students in the area. The owner handed me a September calendar that included buy-​one-​get-​one-​half-​off nights and Twins game night specials. Personally, I think the prices are a little steep and the décor a little drab for the college crowd, but maybe with a few more weeks of settling this place will come into its own and blossom.