Food purveyors joining forces for the winter

Two local entrepreneurs who got their start in the mobile food business are teaming up for a winter joint venture that appears from the start to be a winning proposition for both businesses and their customers.

Alex Coker opened Cold Snap Coffee in the old Crumby Bakery location on the Palmer Wasilla Highway in August. He’s been selling his coffee – in drinks and by the bag – along with the three kinds of bagels he makes, since then.

Matthew Shaughnessy has been selling his gourmet sub sandwiches and unique hot sauces out of his Birdhouse Sandwich Co. trailer since 2019. Creativity has always been part of the recipe for him.

Shaughnessy grew up in a restaurant family and was exposed to a variety of cooking formats from an early age. His signature Asian-Mexican fusion style was honed during his time working with a Korean chef years ago who blended Mexican cuisine into his traditional cooking.

Now, they’ll be sharing Coker’s space for the winter.

The two met when Coker was using his coffee roasting skills in-house for The Crumby Bakery. Shaughnessy stopped by to show off his latest hot sauce creation.

“My general impression of Matt was that he was a super genuine guy with a passion for quality,” Coker said. “So we meshed really well.”

Subsequent meetings led to casual discussions about business. As summer was drawing to a close and the prospect of serving sandwiches out of the cold trailer all winter was coming closer, Shaughnessy pitched the idea of a “pop-up” sandwich business inside Cold Snap.

Since Coker’s business is largely wholesale, his retail hours are short. Cold Snap Coffee opens at 7 a.m. and closes four hours later. So the opportunity to keep the doors open longer was appealing to Coker.

“Matt was griping about the cold weather, and all my customers complain about my terrible hours,” he said. “So it seemed natural to pursue what would be in the best interest of our customers – and our wallets. This is a way to serve people without overextending ourselves.”

Shaughnessy elaborated.

“Alex and I have been brainstorming on how to join forces at the bakery,” he said. “Since his bagels have taken off so well, he has been extremely busy. So I tossed out the idea of stepping out of my hoagie comfort zone and coming to make sandwiches using his bagels instead.”

The joint venture begins this week. Thursday and Friday, Oct. 30 and 31, will be the first days for the pop-up operation. The new menu will run from 7:30 a.m. until 1 p.m., or until the sandwiches sell out. Those new additions to the Cold Snap menu, at least for the first pop-up, will include two breakfast bagel sandwiches – one a classic meat, cheese, and egg, and the other a meatless creation with egg, cheese, peppers, onions, and tomato. Three new lunch bagels will join the lineup.

Two of those, the club and the Italiano, will be variations on sub sandwiches on the current Birdhouse menu. The club features turkey breast, ham, Swiss and American cheese, and house-smoked bacon, topped with smoked garlic aioli and lettuce, tomato, and onion. The Italiano is made with ham, genoa salami, pepperoni, provolone, and is also topped with smoked garlic aioli, lettuce, tomato, and onion.

A third sandwich, Creole Mango Chicken Salad, is a new creation.

Future pop-ups, likely to be bi-weekly and remain just two days a week for now, will be announced on both the Birdhouse Sandwich Co. and Cold Snap Coffee Facebooks. Menu offerings will also change.

“We’re starting small to see how it is received by the public, but we hope that it grows to be something regular,” Shaughnessy said. “I have been wanting to make new types of sandwiches, and this is a great opportunity to do just that. We both agree that this is a great way to get introduced to a new target market for both of our businesses.”

Birdhouse Originals Hot Sauces, which creatively combine exotic peppers with different fruits and other ingredients in 4-ounce bottles, will also be available for sale. A passion project for Shaughnessy, he said he obsesses over sauce recipe combinations that lead to lots of experimentation before he settles on a finished product.

“My fusion cooking style is very much alive in my sauce venture. I like looking into world cuisines to see how they work with certain peppers,” he said. “I am all about the complexity of flavor and utilizing the pepper in that fashion, not just for heat’s sake.”

Coker said he looks forward to working with Shaughnessy, and he thinks customers will appreciate the joint venture, too.

“His subs are damn good, and his sauces are dope,” Coker said. “From a guy who only does bagels and coffee, I gotta commend a guy who only does sandwiches and sauces.”