Josh McLane — of stand-up comedy, music, and culinary fame — will open a sandwich shop this winter in the upcoming South Point Grocery Store.
Taylor James, son of Cash Saver and High Point Grocery owner Rick James, approached him about opening a sandwich shop, according to McLane, 41. “They’re opening another grocery store downtown, South Point Grocery Store,” he says. “And inside there I’m going to be opening a sandwich shop. They called me. And said they had an idea. They wanted to put a small, no BS, something-different-kind-of-sandwich place in it. And my name got thrown in the hat.”
McLane, who will run the sandwich shop himself, says James knew him from when he worked at the Hi Tone kitchen. “I was running the kitchen at the old location. I had six or seven sandwiches in that. I got known for pulling stuff out of thin air.”
Like vegetarian sandwiches. “My wife is a vegetarian. I got creative after eight weeks of doing that. I wanted to make sure she had a decent variety of things to eat. By proxy, I had a decent vegetarian menu.”
His HEELS sandwich, named after the band consisting of himself and Brennan Whalen, is how he “got known as a sandwich guy.”
The HEELS sandwich is composed of spicy peanut butter, jalapeño strawberry jam, bacon, and provolone cheese. “Something I’ve eaten my whole life. Being a blue collar kid, I’ve eaten PBJ forever. You’d add another fancier element to it. When I was at Fino’s [on the Hill] I started taking provolone home. That’s how that came together.”
McLane began cooking when he was a child. “It was very important for both of my parents that I knew how to cook a meal for myself. They’re both big cooks themselves. My mom was showing me her spaghetti sauce when I was like 5 years old. And, to this day, that’s how I make my spaghetti sauce. My dad is a life-long hunter, so I knew how to do that stuff.
“I went to culinary school instead of college. A place not here any more. It was more like a course. This was like 2005, at a house over on Central and Peabody. I did the usual Domino’s when I was in my twenties. I’ve been cooking my whole life. I cooked when I was at the P&H, Fino’s, and, after I left Fino’s, I opened the Hi Tone kitchen. That was all me. [Brian] Skinny [McCabe] helped me come up with things on the menu, but that was my whole deal, my business to run. And then I was the prep guy at Little Italy Downtown for a year.”
Recently, McLane has been a “stay-at-home dad” to his and his wife, Cara’s, eight-month-old son, Gideon.
McLane describes himself as a “whatever’s in the fridge” type of chef. “A lot of chefs are good at taking an expensive piece of meat and elevating it into something and not messing it up.”
McLane can take whatever he already has around “and make it awesome. I am going to blow your minds with what we have in the fridge.”
As for sandwiches at the upcoming shop, McLane says, “We’ll definitely have a Reuben on it. Plan on having my garlic bread, pesto garlic butter, and mozzarella cheese. I’m sure a club sandwich with deli meats. And a good vegetarian one that I had at the Hi Tone — the Care Package — with olive tapenade, lettuce, tomato, two kinds of cheese, and marinated mushrooms.”
He plans to call the sandwich shop “South Point Kitchen.” “‘Cause I don’t do fancy names. I think they were expecting something clever. That’s what you get when I do music and stand up. When I work-work it’s very easy, simple. I don’t like coming up with wacky titles like people expect.”
McLane named that sandwich HEELS “to market the band at the same time.”
He will have his own “little area at the side of this grocery store. We’ll have a deli counter, too, with all kinds of meats. A little refrigerated section next to the deli with all kinds of local foods.”
McLane usually wears a suit and tie when doing stand up and jeans and T-shirts when he’s doing music.
So, what will he wear at the sandwich shop? “Who knows, man. Probably a chef’s coat. Basketball shorts.”
Stay tuned.
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