With the annual unveiling of festive offerings from our favourite eateries, it means the official start of the Christmas season, setting the tone for the most wonderful time of the year. But this year, the team behind Manchester’s fast-growing lockdown start-up ‘sndwch’ have created the ultimate, indulgent Christmas butty to end all sandwich wars and these guys “take sandwiches seriously”.
“We have packed our ‘Ultimate Christmas sndwch’ with produce from Northern suppliers we love”, explains sndwch founder, Burnley-born Alex Markham, who gave up his career as a film and TV camera man to follow his passion for food. “Everything is made by hand. It’s labour intensive, but you can certainly taste the difference.”
The hero of any Christmas sandwich is turkey and the meat for this sarnie is sourced from Colley Fold Turkey Farm in Wakefield, a small family-run business that has been rearing turkeys for over five decades. For extra flavour, the turkey is then smoked at Platt Fields Market Garden, a community market garden in Fallowfield.
Next comes the mouth-watering smoked bacon and sausage meat stuffing, both jingling all the way from Grandad’s Sausages in Radcliffe, Bury. sndwch’s cranberry sauce is a secret homemade blend with cranberries, orange and Christmas spices, which is topped with a layer of spinach.
And for the final flourish, the sandwich has the option of being topped with Fiddler’s Lancashire Crisps, with a choice of pigs in blankets or turkey and stuffing flavour. The six merry layers of deliciousness are generously stacked into artisan demi baguettes, which are freshly baked in-house.
With this festive baguette, the founder of sndwch wanted to create a sandwich which “celebrates and supports the brilliant suppliers on our doorstep” and believes “Manchester deserves better” when it comes to Christmas sandwich offerings. The festive launch marks the opening of sndwch’s new coffee shop based on the ground floor of the Tomorrow/Arrive building in MediaCity, which features plush seating and Alex’s chilled electronica soundtrack.
The sandwich spot that prides itself on creating exciting vegan options, including its bestselling ‘NOT a Chicken Tikka & Onion Bhaji sndwch’, has also launched the ‘Ultimate Plant-based Christmas sndwch’. The vegan sandwich features a homemade red onion and fresh sage stuffing, and ‘chicken’ and ‘bacon’ from plant-based brand, THIS™.
Both meat and plant-based editions are now on sale, priced at £4.50. A wider festive line-up also includes a dedicated hot chocolate menu, featuring a luxurious wild cherry flavour, finished with cream and chocolate flakes.
As well as its two sites in MediaCity, sndwch supplies sandwiches to the entire General Store group, which has outlets in Ancoats, Castlefield, Deansgate, Moss Side and Stretford Foodhall. The ‘Ultimate Christmas sndwch’ will be available across the group, meaning even more people can get their hands (or teeth!) on them.