The co-owner of a new drive-thru sandwich shop in Northwest Spokane claims demand has been stronger than he had expected.

Isaac Houger says Sandos, which opened Jan. 26 at a stand at 1602 N. Ash, sold more than 4,450 sandwiches in its first four weeks.

“It’s been intense,” Houger says. “You expect it to be hard to get momentum, but it wasn’t.”

Houger says he’s branding Sandos as an eatery that caters to people suffering from a hangover. In addition to drip coffee brewed with Doma Coffee beans, cold brew coffee, fruit juice, soda, and energy drinks, Sandos also offers Liquid IV and Pedialyte for customers seeking hydration the morning after a night of drinking.

“I want you to come in feeling your worst. I fix you, and then every time you’re hungover, you think of me,” Houger says.

The drive-thru stand is open 6 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Sandos offers a menu that includes breakfast sandwiches featuring fillings such as scrambled eggs, sausage patties, bacon, cheddar cheese, and arugula. Lunch sandwich options include chicken salad, egg salad, ham and brie, and Italian. A rotating pastry menu changes daily.

All Sandos sandwiches are served on garlic knot bread that’s baked at Houger’s other business, Peace Pie restaurant, located in the Saranac Commons building downtown.

Houger says breakfast sandwiches on garlic knots helped to keep Peace Pie open. The pizza restaurant opened in December 2019, and was staffed for about a year by Houger and one employee. In late 2020, Houger was opening the kitchen at Peace Pie when he decided to make a breakfast sandwich for himself. The next day, he started selling breakfast sandwiches.

Because they’re an easy meal to eat on the go, breakfast sandwiches were ideal to sell amid restrictions connected to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was so hard to convince people to come down to a restaurant,” Houger says. “These things saved my business at Peace Pie.”

Most of the prep work for Sandos’ food is done at the Peace Pie kitchen, because the 400-square-foot building that Sandos occupies is too small to accommodate space for preparing ingredients. Sandos employs a total of five people, two of whom work out of the Peace Pie kitchen. Houger says he’s looking to hire two or three additional employees.

Houger says he’s planning many specials in the coming months, as well as a monthly event called Sandos After Dark, at which one sandwich option—no substitutions, no add-ons—will be offered 10 p.m.-2 a.m.

“I want the bar crowd, and I want them to be safe about it,” Houger says. “Have your (designated driver) come through with you and your crew.”

Houger hopes to open two additional Sandos locations; he says he’s currently looking for the next Sandos space.

He co-owns Sandos with business partner Krew Cunnington, owner of Krew’s Vape Shop. Houger says the two have known each other for more than a decade and share a passion for breakfast sandwiches. 

The Sandos building previously was occupied by TacoVado. Owner Mark Sherman approached Houger about taking over the space last summer, Houger says, after Sherman decided to convert TacoVado’s from a taco stand to a sit-down restaurant. TacoVado recently reopened at 1327 W. Northwest Blvd., just under a mile north of the stand site.

Small Bites

Uprise Brewing Co., of Spokane, is introducing its line of canned beers. The brewery is releasing four-packs of 16-ounce cans of its Bright Side IPA, Pilsner, Guava Gose, and Static Glow Hazy IPA beers. The Static Glow brew is a new addition to Uprise’s offerings. Uprise opened its brewery last year at 617 N. Ash.