The Gramophone (4243 Manchester Avenue; 314-531-5700) has turned into a music must in the Grove in just over five years, with great beers, cocktails and stylistically diverse music acts. Though it has been quietly serving Dogtown Pizza, the Gramophone debuted a sandwich menu two weeks ago with seven subs dreamed up by its employees.
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"Basically we're not trying to be fancy, we're just trying to let people hang out a little bit longer or enjoy a nice sandwich with a craft beer," the club's booking manager, Andrew "Roo" Yawitz tells us. "We just wanted something pretty quick and have it be easy to eat -- a lot of times we don't have a ton of tables out, which is part of being a music venue."
Yawitz says the Gramophone staff has been thinking about adding food for a while. It was key to come up with something that was portable, so patrons could eat standing if they had to.
The menu was devised via an employee cookoff, where sandwich creations went head-to-head and trickled down to seven. Yawitz says the menu will change periodically -- "nothing's set in stone" -- and will have things like a monthly sandwich special.
"The bestseller so far is from our head sound engineer, Dan. He named it after himself," Yawitz says. "'The Danimal' happens to be the first item on the menu, so that might have something to do with it!" Yawitz also says another hit is its take on the classic Elvis sandwich of PB&J and banana. The Gramophone's version adds bacon and honey on sourdough. "It's the munchies sandwich, so that's been doing pretty well," he says.
Right now the sandwiches are only available when the Gramophone is open for shows, but who knows, it may add hours in the future. "It'll allow people to get some food when they come in for a show or after a few beers, you might get hungry!" Yawitz laughs. Hey, at least the Gramophone knows its audience!
Continue for the full sandwich menu.
