Sarni flips the script with its after-dark menu of snacks, sips and stellar sangers
Did you know that Ascot’s sensational neighbourhood sandwich joint Sarni also doubles as a wine bar? The Racecourse Road haunt absolutely heaves on Friday and Saturday nights, with folks flocking from far and wide to enjoy Sarni’s smash-hit sangers after dark. But that’s not all the Sarni crew is slinging – snacks, flame-licked flatbreads and a killer menu of wines and house libations are also on offer. Come and take a closer look …
When Sarni added nighttime trade to its operations, the crew behind the venue had a vision for its evening spread. Wine was a no brainer. Beer too. But instead of sandwiches – the stacked two-handers that made Sarni one of the most popular openings of 2024 – the crew fashioned a special menu filled with snacks and small plates.
Though the fare was undeniably delectable, the Sarni squad quickly realised that its post-dusk patronage craved something different or, as it turns out, something familiar.
“People just wanted sandwiches,” says co-owner Hugo Hirst. “Everyone wanted to eat sandwiches at night. Our whole mantra is ‘feed the people’, so we just went, ‘Sure, that’s okay by us’.”
“We’d already established really great sandwiches that we were really proud of and had put everything into,” adds fellow co-owner Marty Coard. “We just realised that we were getting in our own way a little bit by trying to do a completely different menu for dinner.”
So the team changed tack, retooling the evening menu to lead with its popular range of sandwiches, backed by a more streamlined selection of nibbles.
Pop in on Friday or Saturday night and you’ll find the full list of Sarni sambos up for grabs, including its best-selling Jamaican jerk fried-chicken sandwich (with spring onion sauce and aji amarillo), a salivation-worthy sambal brisket sandwich, classic mortadella sandwich (with stracciatella, pesto and rocket), and roast-pork sandwich (with ginger scallion sauce and hoisin wombok slaw). Though condensed, the small plate selection is still finely considered, with Marty and Hugo curating the tight offering to mesh with the sambos.
“The idea was based on those really nice pizzerias that are very pizza focused, but also serve something to start or sides to go along with it,” Marty explains. “So the pizza is still your main, but you can have a little something to snack on, on the side, with a completely different flavour.”
“We started looking at the flavours that we were putting out as sandwiches – there’s Middle Eastern, Greek and a lot of Asian influences in those sandwiches. So we just picked a few different side dishes from those cuisines to show them off,” Hugo adds.
Leading the snacky side of the menu are warmed olives, brisket croquettes with salsa macha and aji amarillo, merguez kofta with pickles and labneh, a smashed cucumber salad with gochujang and sesame oil, and a range of flame-licked flatbreads. These doughy discs come piping hot out of Sarni’s Gozney oven, topped with the likes of confit garlic, anchovies and smoked mozzarella, mortadella, roasted capsicum and blue cheese, and pesto, artichokes and parmesan.
On the drinks front, the team has devised an impressive beverage menu led by a selection of house drinks – lower ABV beverages that sit somewhere between basic spirit with mixer and full-on cocktail (“They’re fun, tasty drinks that aren’t served in your traditional cocktail glass and maybe not with multiple different layers,” Hugo explains).
Sarni might be spearheading a mini movement when it comes to wine pairings, curating its ever-changing list to complement the sandwiches on offer. Right now, you’ll find Sarni’s fried-chicken sandwich matched up with a riesling from Duke’s Vineyard, an orange from Hoi Polloi is paired with the roast-lamb sandwich, while a chilled red from Paper Mache comes recommended with the crispy eggplant.
Recently, the Sarni team gave the space a small reno, adding a new bar closer to the kitchen, which will give those seated at the counter a closer look at the culinary engine room and also allow Hugo and Marty to pop out and interact with guests from time to time.
“We want to be able to step out of the kitchen and serve people at the bar – bring them their sandwich, bring them their wine and have a chat with them,” says Hugo.
While the past six months have been a whirlwind for the Sarni crew, the gang isn’t eager to ease off the accelerator. On Sunday March 9, Sarni will open from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm to serve a limited breakfast-oriented menu featuring a bacon-and-egg roll, a couple of English muffins and a fried-chicken sandwich. If the reception is anything like Sarni’s weekday or wine bar trade, expect a crowd.
“It has definitely exceeded expectations,” says Marty of the public response to date. “I think we set some goals that we wanted to see within the first 12 months and we got smashed pretty quickly and exceeded those within the first month or two. And it’s still building, which is great.”
“We’ve got so many awesome sandwiches we want to make this year and it’s great that people seem as excited as we are,” adds Hugo.
Read more about Sarni in The Directory.