How would you pay homage to legendary Atlanta hip-hop group Outkast in the form of a sandwich?
A new pop-up’s answer is to top burger patties made from alligator and pork meat with melted cheese and Old Bay Thousand Island dressing, then call it Gatorbelts and Patty Melts, a nod to the famous line from the duo’s hit song “So Fresh, So Clean.”
It’s this kind of tongue-in-cheek wordplay and creative mashup of seasonal ingredients that have come to define Samwitch (instagram.com/samwitchshop), which has made weekend appearances inside a shipping container at the Halfway Crooks beer garden in Summerhill since mid-January.
Samwitch is the brainchild of Mykel Burkhart, former chef de cuisine at lauded Atlanta restaurant Miller Union, along with his wife, Sam, and his colleague Tyler Oliver.
Credit: Courtesy of Samwitch
Credit: Courtesy of Samwitch
“It’s one of many concepts that I’ve been wanting to do for a number of years, and it coincided with this space opening up,” Burkhart said. “So we’re just making silly sandwiches in a little box.”
Although Samwitch is a pop-up that doesn’t take itself too seriously, Burkhart leans heavily on his fine dining roots for the techniques and sourcing he uses to create the sandwiches and other items on the menu.
The team makes as much from scratch as possible, and proteins and produce come from local purveyors and growers that he’s worked with for years. The menu changes weekly depending on the availability of ingredients, and Burkhart hopes to begin baking his own bread once he has a larger space (he currently sources it from Sarah Dodge’s Colette Bread & Bakeshop).
“I think it’s fun, coming from a fine dining background, to take a bit of a breather but still apply the same intricacies and techniques and methods to do everything from scratch, but in more of a laid-back environment,” he said.
Credit: Courtesy of Samwitch
Credit: Courtesy of Samwitch
Other recent favorites are the Seven Layer Country Captain Crunchwrap Superb, a nod to the Country Captain, an Indian-Anglo fusion dish with chicken and garlic ginger basmati rice that can be made vegetarian at Samwitch by swapping in tofu, and the Cold Cut No. 1 with fennel salami, bologna and provolone.
The team is also currently mulling deboning a box of frog legs to make a frog bologna Croak Madame (get it?) and have talked about doing a Low-Country boil version with sausage made with emulsified shrimp.
Credit: Courtesy of Samwitch
Credit: Courtesy of Samwitch
“We have such a varied culinary toolkit to pull from,” Burkhart said. “It’s about what, at the time, seems reasonable to do and what we have the ability to do in the space that we have and the equipment we have to make it work.”
In addition to at least one vegetarian option, some sandwiches can be made gluten-free by using lettuce as a wrapper in place of bread.
Burkhart is also having fun with the rotating sides, including deep-fried Alabama crab claws with cacio e pepe and nduja espuma and gochugaru. Fries are a menu staple “because if we’ve learned anything about customers at breweries, it’s that they really like fried potatoes,” he said.
Popping up at Halfway Crooks through at least the end of February, Samwitch will continue in its current state until he can open a brick-and-mortar.
“I am hopelessly and utterly passionate about sandwiches,” said Burkhart, who travels to Philadelphia annually in large part just to eat sandwiches. “Who doesn’t like delicious things put between two slices of bread?”
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