SXSW loves to cross-pollinate. Any combination of music, movies, and technology will do, and recently comedy and food have come onto the scene. These two newcomers did a dance at Joe DeRosa’s Sandwich Summit: Breaking Bread Over Culinary’s Greatest Creation.
Created by DeRosa, the panel featured both comedians and culinarians discussing their favorite food. Local chefs Mo Pittle (JewBoy Burgers), Derrick Smith (Otherside Deli), and Brian Batch (Bird Bird Biscuit) joined comedians DeRosa, Eddie Pepitone, and Blair Socci on stage.
The chefs began by sharing the origin story for each of their joints. Pittle simply wanted to showcase a burger he would eat if it was the only one he could ever have. That means no tomatoes (sorry, don’t ask for them) and no toasted buns with butter (that’s where the greasy feel comes from.) Batch is all about collaboration and went on a quest both for his end product, the biscuit, as well as how to make it. He credits collaboration with all of the success of Bird Bird Biscuit. Smith just wants to make sandwiches the best way he knows how, and doesn’t claim anything more.
Owning a restaurant means lots of crazy stories. Smith said he’ll often get confrontational customers who claim to be from some city that does sandwiches “right.” They seem to want him to prove the worthiness of Otherside’s great reviews. “I’ll be the judge of that!” gets uttered a lot. Just enjoy the sandwich!
Pittle took the cake with crazy stories. One weekend, while he was at a different location, a group of Nazis came into the shop looking for conflict. When told he wasn’t there, they thought it was because it was Saturday and his religion would prevent it. Lots of knowledge of Judaism for Nazis, Pittle said. Then they noticed the menu showed cheese on the burgers and were perplexed about this seeming violation of kosher law. Flummoxed, they ultimately ordered a bunch of burgers, ate on the patio, and then cleaned up after themselves. Tricky Nazis!
The funniest part of the event came from everyone giving Pepitone a hard time for being vegan. The lack of cheese was the big problem for Pittle for a meatless sandwich, but no one was willing to give Pep an inch when claiming there were good vegan options for butter and cheese.
DeRosa flew in a boatload of sandwiches from his own NYC shop, Joey Roses. When food started getting shared, the event sort of went off the rails as the audience was invited to join in on the noshing. What do you expect when free food is literally on the table? A chaotic ending to a fun celebration of a great culinary invention.
This article appears in Guide to SXSW 2022.