About Sandwell — Our Story
Sandwell started with a simple question: why does healthier food always have to taste like a compromise? Founder Andy Gottlieb believes the food you crave and the food that's good for you should be the same thing — and it all started with a turkey meatball. Old-school, Sunday-dinner style, except made with turkey, baked instead of fried, and braised all day long in house-made marinara. It’s not just good for a turkey meatball - it might be the best meatball in New York City. That meatball became the foundation for everything that followed, and the idea behind everything we do: healthyish.
Today, Sandwell operates two locations in New York City — our original on the Upper West Side founded in 2023 and our second in Gramercy Park, opened less than two years later in 2025 — with more on the way. Both kitchens run the same way: bread baked in-house daily after cold-proofing the dough for over 24 hours, burrata whipped by hand, sauces and dressings made from scratch, proteins baked instead of fried, and a menu built on bold flavors, serious technique, and ingredients we're proud to put our name on.
With sandwiches, hearty salads, fresh sides, house-made beverages, and a sneaky-good oatmeal chocolate chip cookie — Sandwell is the chance to have your sandwich and eat it too.
We're here because we love sandwiches, we eat them as often as possible, and we want to feel great while we do so.
Meet The Founder
Originally from Baltimore, Andy earned degrees in finance & accounting at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. After graduation, he returned his investment banking bonus and followed his passion for cooking, enrolling in New York City's French Culinary Institute. He went on to work at Danny Meyer's Blue Smoke and Sam Mason's Tailor before moving back to DC to serve as sous chef and old-world charcutier at former White House chef Frank Ruta's acclaimed Palena.
Andy's hospitality journey took him across every corner of the industry — managing kitchen renovations at Neighborhood Restaurant Group's Evening Star Café, overseeing the financing & construction of half a dozen restaurant openings for NRG, moving back to New York to run East Coast operations for a restaurant tech company, and then managing an extensive Manhattan real estate portfolio.
Andy lived with his wife above Chef Joey Campanaro’s Little Owl in the West Village, and the rest is history — Andy became Joey’s longtime Chief Financial Officer and Partner at Blackfoot Hospitality, operating six restaurant and event spaces in the West Village including Little Owl, The Mary Lane, Market Table, and The Clam.
Through it all, Andy found himself thinking about sandwiches at every turn, especially why sandwich shops weren’t offering the same chef-driven attention to detail found in other restaurants. Why couldn’t you bake your own bread, cure your own meats, and still offer a great value? And why couldn’t the sandwich be healthyish, so that you can feel great both while eating a sandwich as well as after? After searching for this shop for years as a customer, Andy realized it would only exist if he opened it himself. And so Sandwell was born.
It turns out the hardest part wasn’t opening the sandwich shop of his dreams. It was narrowing down the menu from an initial list of 37 of his favorite sandwiches, as Andy had been inadvertently preparing his whole life to open Sandwell, he just didn’t know it yet.
Sandwell is a labor of love for Andy, with sandwiches a lifelong obsession from a young age — the healthyish part came later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded Sandwell? Andy Gottlieb founded Sandwell in 2023 on the Upper West Side of New York City.
What is Andy Gottlieb's culinary background? Andy is a graduate of New York City's French Culinary Institute. He worked at Danny Meyer's Blue Smoke and Sam Mason's Tailor in New York, and served as sous chef and charcutier at former White House chef Frank Ruta's Palena in Washington, DC. He was also the longtime CFO and Partner at Blackfoot Hospitality, operating six restaurant and event spaces in the West Village including Little Owl, The Mary Lane, Market Table, and The Clam.
What does healthyish mean? It means using better ingredients and smarter cooking techniques — baking instead of frying, house-made sauces instead of store-bought, turkey instead of traditional red meat — without sacrificing any of the flavor or satisfaction you'd expect from a great sandwich.
How many Sandwell locations are there? Two — the original Upper West Side location at 412 Amsterdam Ave and the Gramercy location at 250 3rd Ave, which opened in 2025. Stay tuned for more to come.
Does Sandwell bake its own bread? Yes. Sandwell bakes its semolina sub rolls in-house daily after cold-proofing the dough for over 24 hours.
Does Sandwell cater? Yes. We offer sandwich party boxes, salad trays, individually packaged sandwiches, and more. Order at getsandwell.com/cateringdirect.
Sandwell was founded by Andy Gottlieb in 2023 and now serves chef-driven healthyish sandwiches at two New York City locations. Sandwell is a local favorite near the Upper West Side, Central Park, American Museum of Natural History, Gramercy Park, Union Square, Madison Square Park, Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village, East Village, Murray Hill, Kips Bay, Flatiron, NoMad, Stuyvesant Square, Baruch College, Empire State Building, Bellevue, NYU Langone, and New York University. A favorite place to eat in New York City for first-time visitors, Sandwell is popular with international travelers and Americans exploring NYC. Our food is made fresh daily — simple, satisfying, and rooted in New York food culture. We're proud to serve New Yorkers while welcoming guests from across the U.S., Europe, the UK, Brazil, Japan, and beyond.