Mangia’s Sandwiches is not trying to reinvent the wheel, and that’s a very good thing

There are certain food establishments that are known for offering something unexpected—something different and a little wild. Mangia’s Sandwiches is not one of those places.

Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel with fancy ingredients and new flavour combinations, the humble sandwich shop’s mission is to serve the Italian classics, done well. And it’s working.

“The idea is to try to find something that works very well every day,” says general manager Kirk Bergez, “and continue to work on the edges to improve the quality in different ways, whether it’s how we’re toasting the bread or how we’re making this spread or that sauce, more so than trying to find super novel ingredient combinations or limited-time this or that.”

Mangia’s opened in late 2023, and is the little sister to Jo’s Italian Deli, which debuted in Chilliwack in 2018, with a second location opening in Kits in 2021. The family-run operation — Jo is Bergez’s mother — was born out of a love for their matriarch’s home cooking. Jo’s actually originally started out as a sandwich shop, but the concept soon evolved.

“We couldn’t start some fancy restaurant, because we didn’t know how to do anything,” jokes Bergez. “So we started with a very small store, which is the one in Chilliwack. And when it first started, it was just sandwiches and salads; it didn’t have any pasta or anything that Jo’s has now.”

It was an early Jo’s customer who, upon tasting the now-legendary meatball sandwich, inspired a broader vision for the deli.

“The very first customer came in and said, ‘Do you guys ever do spaghetti?’” recalls Bergez. “We said, ‘No, but maybe that’s a good idea.’ And then we started building out the menu in that direction.”

Still, the desire for a more pared-back, sandwich-focused shop never left Bergez’s mind. So when a modest-sized South Granville space became available, the Sauder graduate knew it was the perfect place to bring things back to where they all began.

“We really started out to have more of a sandwich shop—just a really small neighborhood spot that was relatively easy to run and very focused,” Bergez explains. “When we started at the beginning, we didn’t really know anything, and we were adding all this stuff to the menu to kind of make up for everything we didn't know. So we thought, ‘What if we take everything we’ve learned now and start a sandwich shop, and all we’ll do is focus on that, and put as much attention and care as we can into just the sandwiches? What would that look like?’”

What that looks like, it turns out, is a concise selection of year-round sandwiches (the menu doesn’t change) that are comforting, filling, and delicious. There’s the Turkey Pesto, which comes with smoked turkey, basil pesto, mozzarella, roasted red peppers, shredded iceberg lettuce, fresh tomatoes, and Italian dressing — a classic flavour combination, done to perfection.

Or the Roast Beef, with the beef roasted in-house and served with provolone, tomatoes, onions, shredded iceberg lettuce, Italian dressing, and fresh tomatoes—a hug of a sandwich if there ever was one.

There’s also the Classic Deli, which comes with mortadella and Genoa salami that are sliced to order — those who love a traditional Italian sub can look no further. All the sandwiches are served on either a chewy, doughy baguette or pillowy toasted focaccia.

“It was all very much like, ‘This is how we make it home,’” Bergez says of the menu development for both Mangia’s and Jo’s. “Our principle around it all is that we try to keep it home quality. The same stuff we use in the store is the same stuff we use at home. And obviously that works to some degree on the quality side: we’re not cheaping out on things. But it also works on the opposite side, too, we’re not doing fancy truffle this or that. And we’re not using San Marzano tomatoes, because that’s not something we’re using every day at home — we just use really good-quality Italian tomatoes.”

That all means the ingredients come from a combination of local and imported sources. Produce most often comes from regional vendors, while specialized meats and olive oils come from Italy. The breads are made locally by La Baguette & L’Echalote, with the final baking happening in-house.

The sandwiches are also very fairly priced, with small sizes hovering in the $11 to $12 range and full sizes clocking in between $13 and $15.

“We want it to be a place that you can eat at multiple times a week,” Bergez explains, “and it’s practically no more expensive than a fast food lunch.” (Considering a footlong from Subway can go for as much as $19.99, Mangia’s is certainly achieving that goal.)

So it’s perhaps no surprise that Bergez says the South Granville neighbourhood has been quick to embrace Mangia’s. Even so, he’s clear that his focus remains on continuing to improve.

“This one is still relatively new, and still the baby,” he says of Mangia’s. “It’s gone very, very well relative to expectations. But the whole idea of this store was to focus as much as we could on the sandwiches, and break that out and see what we could do with that. So I think we’ll continue to look for ways to tweak.”

It might not be fancy, and it might not be out of the box. But sometimes that’s just right.