‘In service to the sandwich.’ How one local chef perfects the humble meal

While it’s still early at Phoenix’s Uptown Farmers’ Market, lines are already forming at Sandwich Apprentice. There, Alex Schreivogel and his small crew take tickets for today’s handcrafted selection, a made-from-scratch meatball sub cheekily named the “Baller Sando”. 

Hearty homemade meatballs are slathered in a sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes and spicy homemade fermented giardiniera, covered in creamy stracciatella and stuffed into Schreivogel’s fresh-baked chewy sesame semolina. 

The special is lovingly wrapped up in deli paper and bound together with rubber bands to contain the precious cargo. 

It’s barely 9 a.m., and for many, this is the first bite of the day, but you would be hard-pressed to find a better one. The acidity of the tomatoes plays against the savory spice of the meatballs, with the vinegar punch of the veggies balancing out the salty creaminess of the Italian cheese, with the whole experience rounded out with the chewy, nutty finish of the semolina. From first taste to last bite, each element is precisely balanced and expertly executed. 

For Schreivogel, the attention to such details is an exercise in the pursuit of perfection. 

“Every bite has to be the same. A lot of the time, sandwiches aren’t built properly, and so you get different bites everywhere you go on the sandwich. Nothing is coast to coast on the bread,” Schreivogel explains.

When he describes his creative process, Schreivogel sounds more like a mixed-media artist than a simple sandwich maker. Each week, a new sandwich creation is revealed, with Schreivogel crafting most of the ingredients, including the bread, sausage and condiments, by hand. 

“It usually takes about a week to conceptualize. I will go back and forth on an idea, but generally I like to be inspired by what is in season and feels right in the moment,” he says.

Schreivogel has 25 years of cooking experience, and leans on that knowledge to balance sweet, salty, savory and umami flavors in each sandwich. 

The chef sources his ingredients locally from Capital Farms, The Meat Market and farms such as Mortimer, Reyes, Aguiar and J&B, among other local providers.  Schreivogel is also quick to nix any toppings or ingredients that aren’t at peak freshness. Don’t expect tomatoes after the summer, unless you find them preserved or slow-roasted, for instance. 

“I don’t want to put anything on a sandwich that isn’t going to have flavor, and tomatoes out of season just don’t have the same punch,” Schreivogel insists, harkening back to his pop-up’s mantra of a “sucka-free sandwich experience.”

Schreivogel is also fond of preserving the garden, and makes frequent use of pickles and preserves. It’s a time-consuming process, and Schreivogel estimates that each sandwich takes between 10 and 12 hours of hands-on prep time.

“Our only full-time menu item, the Breakfast Sandwich, for example, that takes about 10 hours, from making, proofing and cold-fermenting the English Muffins, to grinding, shaping and smoking the sausages. It takes a while,” the chef says, recognizing that it’s a lot of effort for one menu item.

“I consider myself in service to the sandwich. That’s where the name comes from. I am constantly learning, and I am an apprentice to this greater thing,” he says.

Schreivogel’s pursuit of sandwich perfection began a few years ago. He was working at central Phoenix restaurant Persepshen under the guidance of chefs Jason and Katherine Dwight, when the then-baker took another gig. The organic and local eatery needed someone to step into the role. Not knowing much about baking but infinitely curious, Schreivogel volunteered. 

“I was willing to learn and apprentice, because baking was something that I was just really wanting to do. I thought that eventually I would have a little mom-and-pop lunch spot, and so being able to craft my own bread was a step in that direction,” he recalls. 

Schreivogel threw himself into the learning process, practicing at work and then taking his projects home with him, tweaking different loaves and techniques. Through trial and error, he eventually landed on his signature bakes. 

“I did a ton of research and built on what I was taught at Persepshen, and I’m still working on fine-tuning things. Sometimes it comes out well, and sometimes it still doesn’t,” Schreivogel admits. 

Still, Schreivogel persisted, and three years ago took the leap and left Persepshen to start Sandwich Apprentice. The ever-rotating menu and perpetually fluid locations of the pop-up took time to establish, but Schreivogel is grateful to his regulars who seek him out weekly. 

“We are trying to build people’s trust, and that’s always the hardest thing with a restaurant. But we have built up a pretty good clientele with word of mouth, even with – or perhaps because of – the menu changes. So that is really great,” Schreivogel says. 

Judging by the positive buzz he garners on social media, the approach seems to be working, and the in-person excitement for each weekend’s reveal at the Uptown Market is palpable. 

The volunteer staff at the market send a runner to scope out the menu every Saturday morning and text the rest of the team the precious intel. Indeed, it seems like the mad sandwich scientist’s technique is paying off. 

This isn’t to say that he can’t get a little too obsessive from time to time. Thankfully, he has some trusted confidants to help him keep focused. Leti Sanchez, Schreivogel’s fiancée, is quick to offer a hand, along with some honest feedback. 

“If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Schreivogel says. 

“She helped me when we first got Sandwich Apprentice started, through the first summer with the brutal heat,” he says, noting that she also bakes all of the cookies. 

“I always ask her, when I start to get too ‘chef-y’, just a little too pretentious, and she helps me rein it in and edit myself, to just keep it simple,” Schreivogel explains. 

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Schreivogel is now in his third year of going full-time with Sandwich Apprentice, which includes appearances at the Uptown Market every Saturday and burger-centric pop-ups at Goldwater Brewing Co.’s Longbow location in Mesa from 5 to 8 p.m. every Wednesday.

In Mesa, the chef is gearing up for a collaboration dinner with his former coworker, Marco Antonio Nunez. The chef, known as “Big Marco,” worked with Schreivogel at Persepshen before managing kitchens around the Valley and starting his own pop-up, Adelante.

Nunez looks up to Schreivogel and his approach to cooking. 

“He taught me not to think about it, but to be about it. I can overthink things from time to time, and I look up to him because he just likes the creativity of it,” Nunez says. 

The feeling of creative inspiration is seemingly mutual, and Schreivogel is quick to heap praise on his former co-worker. On Nov. 19 at Goldwater, the duo will serve a three-sandwich flight featuring their take on pork pastor, a jamon torta con lengua and a Sonoran dog. 

“Marco’s food with Adelante has been incredible, so I just wanted to go back and do something that was organic and what sounded good to us, and showcase our influences,” Schreivogel explains.

The offerings, with proteins cooked over Nunez’s signature open-fire grill, seem like an organic reflection of where The Sandwich Apprentice is at this point in his career. 

“Ultimately, I go with whatever sounds good to me, but I am leaning more to the sausages, the spicy, the pickled, those are the flavors I am drawn to. But also, I have to balance that, not leaning too much, because I was born and raised in Arizona, and I always want to be aware of that and reflect that as well,” Schreivogel notes. 

While he may be a few hundred original sandwiches deep at this point, Schreivogel isn’t resting on his laurels. If anything, getting to deep-dive into his passion project has only exacerbated his obsession.

If you get him talking about his white whales, which include a perfect Italian Grinder (his all-time favorite sandwich), Schreivogel’s eyes light up as he describes how hard it is to dial in the charcuterie for a perfect bite. 

“I’m still working on it. For most people, it’s good, and that’s fine. But for me, that’s not enough. It’s got to be – well, I don’t think perfection exists, but if I can improve on something every time and make it just a little bit better, then it’s worth it,” he muses, then pauses, his mind moving on to the next impossible pursuit. 

“Also,” he smiles, “I’ve been working on a hot dog.” 

Sandwich Apprentice

Wednesdays, 5-8 p.m. at Goldwater Brewing Co. Longbow
5942 E. Longbow Pkwy., #105, Mesa

Saturdays, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at Uptown Farmers’ Market
5757 N. Central Ave.