Restaurants

We’d Like to Introduce You to the Best Sandwich in Vancouver

It's the meatball hoagie from the new Say Hey Cafe and it's a thing of beauty.

By Neal McLennan / June 13, 2017

It’s the meatball hoagie from the new Say Hey Cafe and it’s a thing of beauty.

Objectively, Chinatown didn’t need another lunch spot (see Bestie, Fat Mao, Hey Dumplings!, Juke, Ramen Butcher, etc.) But like all things of greatness, it’s only when the small-minded (that’s me in this parable) are actually presented with proof of beatitude that they understand. And for me that proof was a $10.50 butcher paper-wrapped tube of salvation that is the meatball hoagie from the new Say Hey Cafe.It’s a melange of hormone free beef shoulder, pork belly and bacon on a hoagie roll toasted with provolone and topped with house-pickled serrano peppers, handfuls of arugula and a splash of chili aioli. It’s just a wonderful sandwich.And it’s not alone. They day I went I added a wedge salad (the king of all salads) for $5 and it was a small meal in itself, drizzled with a warm vinaigrette and topped with chunks of bacon and blue cheese.And to top it off, it appears to be run by a phalanx of down-to-earth, genuinely nice people led by Zachary Zimmerman and his business partner Graham Marceau, who wisely enlisted the up-and-coming design firm of Knauf and Brown to design a low-key, non-fancy-pants spot—and then proceeded to roll up their sleeves and along with friends and family do a tonne of the work themselves.Ok, fawning time is over.