In 2018, sisters Jules Karagiannis and Tracy Calabro opened Espresso Yourself Coffee & Café (5351 Devonshire), an inviting coffeeshop on a busy corner in the Southampton neighborhood. When the adjacent space recently became available, they decided to double down on Devonshire and open a sandwich shop.
Courtesy Espresso Yourself Coffee & Cafe
Sisters Sandwich Shoppe owners Tracy Calabro and Jules Karagiannis
“When the Macklind Avenue Deli was destroyed in that terrible Fourth of July fire, the neighborhood lost a great little sandwich place,” Karagiannis says. “Since we opened Espresso Yourself, this neighborhood’s become our second home. We feel blessed, grateful, and humbled by all the support we have received, especially during these tough times. So when the space next store to us opened up, Tracy and I thought, 'Why not us? Let’s be that sandwich place.'"
The resulting Sisters Sandwich Shoppe (5353 Devonshire) is slated to open in March. The adjacent bay, a former antique store, is the same compact size as the coffee shop, with 1,200-square-feet, enough for 20 seats. Just as the sisters decorated the coffee shop with such playful signs and items from their childhood home, the sandwich shop will extend a similar feel-good vibe, albeit with different food offerings. The Sisters Sammie, for instance, is a fried bologna and American cheese sandwich on toasted white bread that the sisters remember from their childhood.
The inaugural menu is a nine-item romp into popular sandwich territory, “made with care but without getting too fancy,” Karagiannis says. The Celine Dijon features chicken salad with a kick. The I’m Not Even a Member sandwich is a fun riff on the classic triple-decker club sandwich. An ode to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the You Don’t Eat No Meat sandwich, gets the nod for a vegetarian offering, and there’s a Cheese Louise. The Italian hoagie is called the Gabagool, a Sopranos reference and a slang name for capicola, ”but gabagool is so much more fun to say,” says Karagiannis. But perhaps our favorite (in name, anyway) is the Au Jus Shouldn’t Have, hot roast beef and Provolone with mushroom au jus served on toasted white bread. The bread is supplied by Bridge Bread, a local altrusitic bakery, the chips come from Billy Goat Chip Company, and the sandwich names come courtesy of Karagiannis’ daughter, Eleni.
Two salads (Greek and Caesar) and several soups round out the menu. A former chef from The Tenderloin Room (which Karagiannis owned with her husband, Dino) has been retained for her homemade soup-making prowess.
The two businesses will be joined by a pass-through window, so pairing a sandwich with a cookie, muffin, or cup of coffee is encouraged. The patios converge in front of the building to create plenty of outdoor seating. The business’ hours mostly overlap, from 8 a.m.–1 p.m. for the coffee shop and 10 a.m.–3 p.m. for the sandwich shop. And when the weather grows warmer, Karagiannis hopes to secure a golf cart for neighborhood delivery of both coffee drinks and sandwiches.
