He sold his fine dining restaurant to make sandwiches instead

Nick Kleiner ran a London wine bar from 1994 to 1999, moved to Bristol, and opened a fine dining restaurant in 2000 that he ran for twelve years. That is where he learned to balance flavour, texture and presentation.

The idea that became the business came from a small empty shop next to the restaurant. He wanted to do really nice, interesting sandwiches. That unit became Cotham Sandwich Co.

He ran both for a couple of years, then made the decision most people avoid: he sold the successful fine dining restaurant in 2012 and committed entirely to the lower-status, higher-volume business. The sandwich shop moved into the centre of Bristol.

His argument was that sandwiches had stopped being exciting and that fine dining technique applied between two slices of bread was an obvious opening. He is precise about it: filling ratios, not too much protein, not too much salad, the right sweetness and acidity, and crunch. The business has since expanded from Bristol to London and become a destination in its own right.

“We just felt that sandwiches were not very exciting anymore, and we just wanted to bring out that fine dining knowledge and try to put it between two slices of bread.”

Nick Kleiner, speaking to QuickServe Magazine