The Return of K Sandwiches

The weekend was upon us.

we missed the Grand Reopening  yesterday so...

We made our way to San Diego's beloved K Sandwiches, which sadly, suffered a tragic fire on August 4, 2015 (see the news article linked at the end). After two and a half years, they reopened yesterday.

The photo above was taken on New Year's Day when Bert and I were out and about. I had to see the new storefront for myself, noting that they would have their grand reopening at the end of the week.

I thought about Bob's Burgers' sign...


Here's an older shot of the storefront, where the "K" was formed by two baguettes; in fact, it still is.

(photo from my "K Sandwiches + Pangea", June 2013)

and this..

(photo from my "Return to Mien Trung and Dessert at K", September 2013)

I didn't take previous shots from when it was still a burnt shell. It was so sad seeing the business that way. Several walls were still up and eventually it was demolished more than a year later.  The build out took a while but delays can happen when rebuilding (permits, designing the space, building codes, etc).

Here is a drive by shot from October 2017. It was still fenced off.

and more recently during the last few days of December with that Grand Reopening sign. The outside patio wasn't quite done yet.

I was excited seeing the sign.

This morning we arrived at 8 am.  There wasn't a line in the front, so we thought, "Hey, all right!", but once we walked in, saw many more folks ahead of as well as those waiting at the tables.  The old set up was two or three lines perpendicular to the counter. Now there is one lone line that snakes parallel to the counter.

As you walk in, you see this on the right wall. Perfect for those folks that love posting on social media.

Their new menu.   In 2007, their sandwiches were $2.55.  Of course, it's gone up over the years. The most expensive sandwich now is  the Dac Biet at $4.45.  Still, overall, not too bad. A hipster banh mi place would be charging way more than that (haha, Baguette Brothers I'm talking to you, oh wait...they no longer exist).



This cold case held many varieties of che (sweet Vietnamese dessert in either drink, soup or pudding form). Some of them had ingredients I didn't recognize but looked interesting. There was even a flower in one (not sure if it was real).



Pretty!

There are two lines. The line you see when you walk in is for sandwiches only.

Around the corner is where you can purchase their baked goods like croissants, baguette loaves, spring rolls, banh cuon, drinks, snacks, and more.  Just not banh mi.  We even bumped into Paul Horn here!  He didn't have to wait too long since he wasn't getting banh mi. He had a mercifully short time in line.

Lots of seating inside, as well as outside.  The interior seems more bright and clean.

It took thirty minutes to get to the front of the line and an additional fifteen minutes to get our drinks. Just the drinks.  Then, ten more minutes for our food. Almost an hour.

Iced mocha and iced Vietnamese coffee.

We had our breakfast outside....

FYI - the wooden tables had chairs that did not match the height of the tables.  They need to replace the chairs with higher stools or something, but hey, not my problem.

Five sandwiches and two drinks.  But we were mistakenly given six. We double checked the numbers on the wraps and Bert surmised that they made the #1 Dac Biet and threw it in after having made the Breakfast sandwich (on a croissant).  So...we ended keeping it.  They would have to toss it if we returned it since they can't sell it to anyone.

By the way, they don't do egg banh mi here. Not sure if they did before.[Edit: Turns out they never did, thanks for the info Cathy!].  They could add an egg to an already existing banh mi (probably with an extra charge).

I chose the K's Breakfast croissant sandwich - ham, cheese, bacon, eggs and mayo.  The croissant was so flaky and fresh.  This is only half because I saved the rest for later. Bert enjoyed his pork banh mi. The others we ordered were  beef (two; the other was for TC's lunch) and chicken (extra for TC). The extra was the Dac Biet.



Look at that crackly bread...The banh mi tasted as good as we remembered them to be.  Balanced well with the meat, mayo, and crunchy pickled vegetables. Delicious!

View of the ginormous mixer in the bakery area. We didn't buy any baked goods this visit. There were a lot of people buying up the baguettes. Prices weren't listed either, at least not yet.

The line as we left after 9. At least it wasn't around the block like yesterday!

I read on some IG posts that they had run out of bread by the early afternoon and that it would be a four hour wait for them to have more bread available.

Here's that Dac Biet that Bert ate later for an afternoon snack.  I'm not a fan of the meats in here but Bert liked it well enough.

and the chicken

TC enjoyed both the beef and the chicken (half)! Their bread is made in house and is that perfect combination of crisp exterior and soft innards but strong enough to not get mushy with the fillings.

I kept these photos under wraps because I didn't want to do a sad post a couple of years ago after K burned down.  Now that K has reopened, here they are. These were from from the  Summer 2015 before it burned down. TC and I were out with Cathy of mmm-yoso and prior to visiting K, had lunch at J & T Thai Street Food.

Wow, I'd forgotten how cluttered it used to look. This was the old front counter. Look at all of the posters for ice cream. There was also a warming case filled with pate chaud (one of my favorite snacks). Do you see the older lady in the back? She's the matriarch of the Tran family. We called her Grandma.  Every time we would see Grandma, she would be holding court, hand making the pandan and coconut waffles.


Can you see the waffles on the counter?  We ordered a few plus the pate chaud.



TC, Cathy and I enjoyed our snacks that afternoon.  A few months later was the tragic fire.  On a happier note, Grandma is still around. Although she wasn't there during our visit, she is mentioned in the SD U-T article below. Yay!

Articles:
From when they had the fire, "K Sandwiches owners promise to rebuild Fox5, Aug. 5, 2015 (the video; it was so sad)
as well as:
"K Sandwiches making triumphant return this November" Eater SD, September 2017 (this didn't happen) plus hot off the press "Rejoice, K Sandwiches reopens today in Linda Vista" Eater SD, Jan. 5, 2018 (this article has pristine interior shots hence my lack of those pix so you can see these instead, eh) and lastly, "K Sandwiches reopens to long lines, eager eaters" SD Union-Tribune, Jan. 6, 2018 (Grandma is even mentioned!)
[Edit - News 8's link shows the late Larry Himmel enjoyed Grandma's famous waffles in 2014, "K Sandwiches back in business after 2015 fire" Jan 5, 2018 - Grandma can also be seen helping close up in the clip]

Previous visits to K Sandwiches:
April 2015 (snacks with Bert)
December 2014 (when I took TC and a friend for sandwiches + dessert at the 2nd location of Up2You)
September 2013 (when TC and I met up with Mr. CoolJerk himself, Paul Horn + the Doctor!)
June 2013 (when I took TC and Sherlock out)
June 2012 (this was the post where I mentioned I was "scolded" for taking photos)
November 2007 (as a throwback, the grilled beef banh mi was only $2.55)
October 2007 (the first time I had a banh mi)

Here are other bloggers' posts about the old K:
Kirk's first post when they opened July 2005 and November 2005 , another from Kirbie from February 2009 plus one from Cathy June 2012 and from Faye, June 2015 who went a few months before the fire. She has great photos of the take out are plus action shots of a girl making spring rolls as well as the crepe waffle contraption. Her pork and beef banh mi sandwiches ranged in price from $3.25 to $3.50.

Their posts are great to look back on, especially comparing how much it's changed from twelve years ago up to the new look. We were really happy to see K Sandwiches open again after such a long hiatus. It was worth the wait.