Bay Space sandwich store shutters, mocked for insane prices

The proprietor of an artisanal Bay Space sandwich store stated she has been compelled to shut her doorways after critics ruthlessly mocked the price of her sandwiches, together with $22 for one thing so simple as a grilled cheese and salad.

Kendra Kolling, the proprietor of expensive cafe The Farmer’s Spouse, has formally closed each her areas at Level Reyes adopted by the closure of her different cafe at Sebastopol’s The Barlow Market late final 12 months, SF Gate reported.

Kolling stated she made the choice to close up store as a result of cooling economic system and a viral Reddit thread the place hundreds mocked her pricey sandwiches. She stated the viral publish then led to folks assessment bombing her place, bringing down her scores on Yelp and Google.

“They had been calling me essentially the most vile issues, that it was past sandwiches,” Kolling instructed the outlet of the thread that went viral in early 2025. “It was so hurtful and private.”

“When everybody was feeling the financial pains, somebody’s bought to be the goal,” she added. “Somebody must be the poster baby for every thing costing a lot. “I didn’t make the cash that I used to be used to creating within the summertime, and it could have been lots more durable.”

Kolling stated her excessive costs had been based mostly on the price of the high-caliber substances in her sandwiches “like house-made toasted fennel pork sausage, and hyper-local objects like Level Reyes Farmstead’s Toma cheese and Wild West Ferments sauerkraut,” per the report.

Whereas she admitted she might’ve minimize down on parts or used much less expensive substances to make it work, she stated “that doesn’t get me off the bed within the morning.”

“My model and my identification grew to become brutally attacked, and it crushed my spirit,” Kolling stated, however admitted that she would “entertain partnering with somebody for the Spouse to experience once more. However proper now, I’m simply type of licking my wounds and getting my power again.”

Kolling’s spot was all the time a short lived place holder till the Tradition Store Cafe opened its personal spot. Operated by Wild West Ferments homeowners Luke Regalbuto and Maggie Beth Levinger, the brand new homeowners have clearly realized the lesson of the earlier cafe and provide sandwiches at a decrease price.

“Affordability and approachability are completely a giant a part of what we’re attempting to do right here,” Regalbuto instructed the outlet.

And their menu provides a notable drop in prices, with three of the 4 sandwiches working between $14 and $15 and the priciest merchandise on the menu costing $22 for a roasted pork stomach baguette with leek-thyme kraut.

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