Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcus & Kelsey Brandt
Hi Marcus & Kelsey, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My Name is Marcus Brandt, I have been cooking since my family bought a small deli in Bettendorf, IA when I was 15yo. I am from Davenport, IA originally.
I worked a few kitchen jobs in Iowa before deciding to attend culinary school at The Art Institutes minneapolis in 2009.
I found Minneapolis to be the perfect place for a homesick boy from Iowa to focus and learn about food, not just cooking all of the skills that make a great chef.
I am 33 years old and have been cooking in restaurants for 18 years. The industry has been both brutal and unforgiving while also giving me some of the best moments of my life I wouldn’t trade for anything.
I love the random groups of strangers, misfits really, that come together to feed other strangers dinner and in the process somehow become family.
This idea of “hospitality” was first taught to me by my grandmother, who is a great cook in her own right, her talents in the kitchen brought the family together. I have been blessed to have worked for many “top” chefs over years (Ann Kim, Paul Berglund, Seth Bixby Daugherty, Don Saunders) and also countless great chefs whose names will not be features in magazines.
I met my wife, Kelsey Brandt working at a restaurant called “The Kenwood” in Minneapolis. This place changed our lives. I was a brunch sous chef and she was a server. Fun fact: The mail carrier of the Kenwood unknowingly sold us his house two years ago. He was one of very few witnesses to watch us fall in love while working at that restaurant many years ago. Our real estate agent from that home purchase also worked at the Kenwood, as well as the FOh manager who became ordained to perform our wedding. That was a long tangent but what I wanted to convey is that we truly love the restaurant industry.
Kelsey was a founding member or Utepils Brewery in Minneapolis. She oversaw millions if dollars in sales in the taproom and designed many parts of the bar program as well as hiring a lot of the staff that is still there today.
In 2019 we were “burned out”. Kelsey had decided to quit drinking, a decision that was not easy while being an owner at a brewery. I was also dealing with stress and anxiety issues while working at a short-lived handmade pasta restaurant in wayzata.
We decided to sell everything and buy an RV. We traveled 28 states in search of a new home and new jobs. We used an app called “harvest host” and dry camped in parking lots across the country. We stayed at farms, museums, hobby shops, strangers driveways, BLM land, campgrounds, Cracker Barrel parking lots.
We eventually found ourselves in Winkleman, AZ living in our RV and working at a resort in the Sonoran Desert. They had a full orchard, Oranges, grapefruit, apricots, lemons, Meyer lemons, a full year-round garden. We foraged the dessert for nopales, seeds, beans, chiles and avoided rattlesnakes and scorpions daily until eventually the pandemic forced us to find a more permanent place to live.
We moved back to Saint Cloud, MN with Kelsey’s parents as we needed to figure out what was next. At this point I had decided I definitely didn’t want to cook anymore. Kelsey wanted to get into real estate, we planned on finding a small town to settle down in after the pandemic. Kelsey’s pregnancy when we returned to MN changed all of our plans. I went from “not wanting anything to do with food” to accepting a position at the nicest resort I could find pretty quickly.
I worked at Canoe Bay in Chetek, Wi pretty quickly becoming executive chef and living “on property” with our young family. We lived in a beautiful house in a private Forrest overlooking water and nature, and ate from a 1 acre garden tended to by a master Gardner.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road to where we are has not been smooth. We decided to stay parked in our neighborhood rather than “chase the money” at breweries and downtown. We want to build a restaurant for the families of our neighbors or good to celebrate at, commiserate at and watch our children grow old. We live in the fifth largest food dessert in the nation, but we aren’t letting that get in our way, in fact, that’s what helps us lean in harder. We want to grow our community the only way we know how: through food. It will be a challenge, but we are up for it.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I recently made friends with Houston white, local entrepreneur. We (Kelsey and I) have been working together for about 2 years on opening his first restaurant “Bruce leroys” a 80’s black king fu pizzeria to build on his resume of hip-hop coffee, skin care, housing, books and clothes.
While waiting in Bruce Leroy to open we found ourselves wondering what to do next… Kelsey floated the idea of renting a food truck to get a “feel” for running our own business.
We opened “Sandwich Club” last month after just 10 weeks of planning. The concept is pretty simple. Hot and Cold sandwiches rotating seasonally, healthy and unhealthy (vegan options available) made to order by someone who really cares.
We park the truck at 45th ave north and victory memorial parkway in Minneapolis. We live just six blocks away.
The amount of neighborhood support has been outstanding but we’d really love to see more people coming to visit the north side and all it has to offer. The point of the Sandwich Club is to raise funds to open a restaurant down the street from where we park the truck.
Our “cheesy beef” is my combination of a Chicago Italian beef and a Philly cheesesteak. I cook real thin-shaved ribeye on the griddle with a beautiful aged cheddar cheese sauce, provolone and fresh chopped giardiniera.
Our Banh boi was inspired by a Louisiana. The Po boy shops have a banh mi and the banh mi shops have a po boy, both are served on French bread. I thought why can’t I just mix them together? America is a melting pot right?
We park along Victory memorial parkway which is multiple monuments of fallen soldiers of war. We have customers that come from Vietnam, Louisiana, France, they all eat this cultural mashup sandwich side by side without even thinking of the history that made this sandwich possible.
I want to be the Ken Burns of food history and my medium is sandwiches.
Our vegan wraps are currently featuring perfectly seasoned heirloom tomatoes.
My potato salad has a long story behind it, it’s certainly become my most talked about recipe. If you check out our instagram @sandwichclubmpls you’ll find more.
We specialize in fun food. We draw inspiration from culinary anthropology, storytelling and nostalgia to create unique thought-provoking food. I like to draw a fun line between what I like to eat at home, what I’ve eaten while traveling and add a touch of my fine dining experience to set me apart from other food trucks.
Our family is at least 6th generation Northside in mpls. Kelsey can track her family back to 1880, to a house about 3 blocks from Houston Whites coffee shop.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
We moved back to Saint Cloud, MN with Kelsey’s parents as we needed to figure out what was next. At this point I had decided I definitely didn’t want to cook anymore. Kelsey wanted to get into real estate, we planned on finding a small town to settle down in after the pandemic. Kelsey’s pregnancy when we returned to MN changed all of our plans. I went from “not wanting anything to do with food” to accepting a position at the nicest resort I could find pretty quickly.
I worked at Canoe Bay in Chetek, Wi pretty quickly becoming executive chef and living “on property” with our young family. We lived in a beautiful house in a private Forest overlooking water and nature, and ate from a 1 acre garden tended to by a master Gardner.
We missed minneapolis, though, and we wanted to be back home. We watched the George Floyd protests and both felt like we needed to return to “our city”. The pandemic/george Floyd/presidential election time was when it fully “clicked” that we had to return to Minneapolis and pick up where we left off. When the homesickness was hitting us the hardest, I received a call from a chef/friend about a job opening a distillery called Earl Giles. All of the sudden we were back in minneapolis! Our new home is on the border of Victory and Camden neighborhoods in north minneapolis. 30 blocks north from where we left.
Pricing:
- Sandwiches and sides range from $2-20/each
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sandwichclubmpls.com
- Instagram: @sandwichclubmpls
- Facebook: @sandwichclubmpls
