“And I never thought to myself to open up a restaurant back then, by the way. I need to make some money.’” Shehadeh says. and for me, I was like, ‘What do I want? I like food. “I made a list of what were my most important things in life. He eventually left the professional poker world and instead sought out his first legitimate job in an unconventional place: Victoria’s Secret. They were like, ‘you can't play poker’ and with most things that I found out, if you tell people what you want to do, that you are having fun, they're going to try to talk you out of it or think it's a stupid idea - unless you're trying to be a doctor or a lawyer or something like that, people usually tend to think that your idea is stupid.” My parents didn't enjoy that I was playing. “So I was like, ‘Oh, I could totally keep playing these’ and I kept playing and playing and it paid my rent and it put food in my stomach. “I entered my first tournament, it was a $40 buy-in and I had taken first place in that tournament,” Shehadeh recalled. ![]() ![]() Out of money, Shehadeh lived in the back of the store until the landlord evicted him (he wasn’t paying rent at the time), then he started living out of cars or in the back of other people’s businesses, until finding his next money-maker in 2004: professional poker. (It also didn’t hurt that those early sandwiches cost $5, and came with a bag of chips and a drink.)ĭespite the early success (and the advent of his infamous “dirty sauce”), the meager sales that accompanied 40-50 sandwiches a day couldn’t offset what the store itself was making as a market and the store went out of business in 2004. The store was near busy locations of Burger King and McDonald’s, so to compete, Shehadeh put a sign in the store window: “Why eat fast food, when you can have real food fast?” People began dropping in for sandwiches and it became popular enough that the line began winding out the door. The first sandwiches from Shehadeh’s shop had competition, however. To Shehadeh, there was a wonderful flexibility to the sandwich that worked with whatever he had on hand.Ī variety of sandwiches from Ike's Love and Sandwiches are seen in the Polk Street location in San Francisco. He performed this ritual so often, that by seven years old he could “eat a sandwich while playing video games” and the habit (and makeshift sandwiches) followed him through college. Except rather than just heat something up (Shehadeh called himself “lazy back then”), he started toasting bread, and shoving whatever leftovers they had (whether it was lamb or spaghetti) into a sandwich. As the story goes, after repeated requests for food, his mother gave him the classic ‘here’s how to do it yourself’ mom guide, pointing him to the leftovers, showing him how to use the microwave and walking him through how to properly wash dishes. Shehadeh had been making sandwiches since he was five, maybe six years old. On one side of his family’s store was an unused deli counter, and he decided to put it to use by making sandwiches. It was the early 2000s and Shehadeh was 22, fresh off earning a degree in computer science and engineering at UC Davis. Instead, the first sandwiches Shehadeh sold were at his family’s market near the corner of 16th and Mission Streets, where Mi Tierra now resides. What some might not remember about Shehadeh’s first sandwich shop is that it wasn’t your now-classic Ike’s. The first iteration of Ike’s Love & Sandwiches Turns out his stance on bread is just the beginning. ![]() We chat for a good 90 minutes, during which time I learn Shehadeh is surprisingly full of advice and he has one of the oddest resumes I’ve ever heard of. So that's why it hasn't left San Francisco or the Bay Area.” Nobody wants to destroy their mouth after they eat. ![]() It's probably because - this is my controversial take - is because Dutch crunch is actually not that good. “When we opened up in Arizona, when we opened up in San Diego and we opened up in Texas,” Shehadeh continued, “we were in Houston, Austin, Vegas, Reno, Hawaii, all over California, Miami. “And I hated Dutch crunch because every time I’d eat a sandwich, my mouth would be obliterated for a day or two. “So I remember growing up and eating Dutch crunch in San Francisco,” he begins. “I’ve got a very controversial take on Dutch,” he tells me, starting to chuckle lightly on the phone.
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