PITTSBURGH — After over two years of operating Gari Shoyu Sandwich Co. as a pop-up, Gary Marshall has a new set of wheels.
With support from caterer Blue Sparrow, Marshall has started operating his Japanese sandwich pop-up as a food truck, touring breweries around the city. The sandwiches are inspired by those found in konbinis, or Japanese convenience stores, albeit elevated.
“I had been out west and in New York and D.C. and Baltimore has a couple and I just saw that it wasn’t in Pittsburgh,” Marshall said. “I’ve always been a student first and I always try to keep the mentality that I’m a student. I have books and books of Japanese cooking books, and I mostly lean towards late night eats, like Izakaya pub food. What I’m doing is called konbini, like convenience fast food, but I’m doing it fresh. I make the bread fresh every morning, one of the things that keeps me fulfilled as a cook.”
Marshall runs both sandwich pop-ups and more traditional Japanese dinner pop-ups. While he originally expected to use the sandwiches to draw attention to the dinner pop-ups, he said they drew more attention than he expected, becoming his main business effort.
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