
Photo by Steve Rice/Star Tribune.
Goodbye, pastrami.
Be'wiched Deli, the first-rate North Loop sandwich destination – and maker of the metro area's most swoon-inducing pastrami – quietly closed earlier this week.
"It was a good run," said chef/co-owner Mike Ryan. "Restaurants have life spans, and they close all the time. You have to evolve with the market. I'm a nine-dollar sandwich joint, not a twelve-dollar cocktail place."
Unfortunately, both Be'wiched locations – the North Loop original, and its short-lived sibling in Plymouth – have called it quits. The North Loop location opened on Sept. 10, 2007.
"I sold a scone and a cup of coffee to a guy in a grey polo shirt as a first sale," said Ryan.
The closure is a major loss. When they opened their revolutionary counter-service outfit, Ryan and co-owner Matthew Bickford introduced a smart, seemingly recession-proof business plan: to channel the high-end culinary practices that they'd amassed in high-end kitchens (Restaurant Alma, La Belle Vie, D'Amico Cucina) into elevating the humble, taken-for-granted sandwich. It was fine-dining-meets-Subway.
By scrutinizing every detail in the sandwich-making process, from technique to ingredients, Be'wiched transformed an everyday staple into an occasion. The kitchen's output radiated craftsmanship, and elegance, rarities in today's Jimmy John's/Potbelly universe.