Miette Sandwicherie does everything the hard way—and that's the point

There's a moment right after an order comes through at Miette Sandwicherie that probably drives the staff a little crazy: Instead of just cutting the sandwich and wrapping it in paper like every other place, Thea Bryson insists that it's wrapped first, then cut through the paper. "You obviously first eat with your eyes," she explains, and that first reveal—the perfect cross-section, every ingredient in its place—matters.

It's a small detail, but it tells you everything about how Bryson thinks. Four years after starting Miette Boulangerie as a self-taught baker working out of her apartment, she's opened the sandwich shop a mere ten albeit long blocks down Notre-Dame Ouest in Saint-Henri. And while the new spot serves grab-and-go food that you can eat in five minutes, everything behind that speed is built on the same philosophy that takes her sourdough 36 hours from start to finish: do it the hard way, because it tastes better.