Get the first look at Sarni, Ascot’s stellar new neighbourhood bar and sandwich joint from the Ach crew
If fist-sized serves of sliced smoked mortadella, katsu curry chicken and lamb souvlaki are some of your dream sandwich fillings, allow us to introduce you to Sarni. The brand-new sambo spot from the crew behind Hamilton’s Ach Wine Bar is serving some seriously stacked options from its home on Racecourse Road, which will soon also open at night for drinks and small plates. Take a peek inside …
It can be hard to measure a good sandwich. Sure, you know one when you’re eating one, but not all sandwiches are made the same. In fact, the metrics by which a good sanga is judged vary so wildly that the near-limitless combinations of bread and filling means that each sandwich-eating experience is, in and of itself, unique. The same can be said for sandwich shops. Though most sandwich slingers fit within a particular archetype (a deli-style dispensary versus a quick-service toastie joint, for example), the creative whims of those at the helm have a role to play on everything, from the menu to the vibe. At Sarni, the newly minted neighbourhood sambo shop now open in Ascot, there are four sets of hands at the wheel.
Sarni is the brainchild of Marty Coard, Noam Lissner and Mat Drummond, who might be familiar to some as the owners and operators of one of the year’s best new restaurants – Hamilton’s Middle Eastern-inspired wine bar and bistro, Ach. They’re joined in this new venture by good friend Hugo Hirst, a former brewer at Ipswich’s 4 Hearts Brewing who has long pestered his buds to apply their hospitality talents to a sandwich-centric concept. While four sets of ideas might seem like a sure-fire recipe for creative clashes, Hugo likens the process of building Sarni to, appropriately, making a stellar sambo – it’s all about mixing the right ingredients in complementary ways.
“Sarni is just like a good sandwich, there’s lots of different components,” says Hugo Hirst. “It’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of conversations but, to be honest, we didn’t really disagree about much. I think that’s what works about the four of us – Matt, Noam, Marty and I – we all had a common plan.”
The foursome’s vision for Sarni was relatively straightforward – Noam describes the neighbourhood bar as a “New York diner meets European deli”, offering sandwiches and coffee by day, and small plates and booze at night. The fit-out of Sarni’s Racecourse Road home (formerly Frigg Cafe) was a DIY affair, with Hugo constructing the venue’s bar front, kitchen pass and tables from Australian hardwoods. Sarni’s timber-heavy bones are offset by a two-tone colour palette of cobalt blue and burnt orange, a bold aesthetic choice that lends Sarni a sense of Pop art vividness.
“We took a couple of risks with the colour and maybe being a little bit more ‘out there’ than others on the street, but I think it’s come together,” says Hugo. “I really think the wood with the blue and the orange has come out really nicely.”
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The gang is taking a freewheeling approach to sandwich construction, with Marty and Noam instilling a bit of chef-y creativity into the range. Sarni is drawing upon Ach’s larder of hyper-seasonal ingredients (many of which fill a number of pickle jars above the kitchen) and is sourcing, dry ageing, curing and smoking primo protein from the likes of Margra Lamb, 2GR wagyu and Saison Small Goods. A deli fridge is stocked with sliced-to-order cheese from the likes of Fino Foods and Section28 Artisan Cheeses, while sauces are being made in house.
“It’s like taking some of the things that you would see at ACH, taking that and putting it in a sandwich,” says Hugo. “We’ll definitely have some classics, but there will be a lot of fun stuff – fun flavours that really work together and stuff that we think tastes and looks cool.”
“We don’t want to be pretentious in any way,” adds Marty. “We’re just taking food that we’ve been cooking for the last 10 years and putting it in a more approachable sphere and making it so everyone can have some. Anything can go on a sandwich and that’s what we really like about them – you can do anything with them. It’s a blank slate or a canvas.”
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Sarni is softly opening this week while a few final bits and pieces are installed in the kitchen, offering an edited version of the menu. Six of an eventual nine options are available right now, including a smoked-mortadella sandwich with ‘nduja cream cheese, pistachio and trapanese pesto, a katsu curry sando with chicken schnitzel, Japanese curry sauce, fukujinzuke and pickles, a lamb souvlaki sambo with tzatziki, peppers, balsamic onions and rocket, and a bacon sarnie with soft-boiled egg, mayo and habanero mustard. Coffee is also on deck from Melbourne roaster Reverence Coffee.
All sandwiches are currently served on house-made focaccia, but soon the team will be mixing and serving sandwiches on a variety of carb-y foundations.
“We’ll do a white bread that’s kind of like a mix between white bread and chocopan,” says Marty. “Then we’ll be doing focaccia and ciabatta, and there might be some specials down the line – some baguettes, a rye and bits like that.”
In a few months time, Sarni will open a few nights a week for an evening service, serving small plates and a concise wine list weighing in at around 20 bottles, with the overall selection expected to rotate frequently. There will also be a couple of taps pouring batched cocktails and craft beers, plus talk of Sarni dispensing a brew of its own making down the line.
With Brisbane’s sandwich scene in the midst of a golden age, the Sarni squad are jazzed to be adding a bit of their own tastes and ideas into the mix.
“Everyone’s great and everyone stands by themselves,” says Hugo. “We’re definitely going to have some cool takes and some things that others probably won’t offer, because they’ve got influences that are totally different to us.
“We want to add our bit to the sandwich scene of Brisbane. There’s no reason that Brisbane can’t have as good of a sandwich scene as the UK – we’re all doing our part to lift it up and make it something worthwhile for people to come for.”
Sarni is now open to the public – head to the Stumble Guide for operating hours and other important details.