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Jon Martin and Liz Clifford, owners of Fat Kid Sandwiches
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The Fat Kid Sandwiches stall at the now-shuttered Hatch Local food hall in Manchester, where Clifford and Martin held a residency for two years
Liz Clifford and Jon Martin never thought they would be professional sandwich makers. But over the years, it’s become a title the duo proudly claim. Formerly operating out of Hatch Local food hall in Manchester, this summer, the pair plan to debut Fat Kid Sandwiches at 1110 E. Main St. in the city’s financial district. Taking over the Main Sub Central space, which will close May 31, they plan to be a weekday supplier of breakfast sandwiches, zippy Italians and housemade ice cream.
“For me, it’s a blank canvas,” Martin says of building sandwiches. “It can be the most basic thing in the world, or you can build it to the ceiling and be as complex as you want. Also, I’m a big believer in nostalgia.”
Hailing from the Washington, D.C., area, the couple relocated to Richmond in 2018 and began working as chefs de cuisine at the bygone Southern powerhouses Pasture (Martin) and Comfort (Clifford). With 45 years of combined restaurant experience, their backgrounds range from Clifford slinging cheesesteaks and pizzas at the shore in Maryland and cooking in Italy to Martin washing dishes at Chili’s before working in Chicago at a Michelin-starred restaurant and in Richmond at Julep’s New Southern Cuisine.
The diversity of their resumes has allowed the pair to harness a fun mutability that is reflected in their offerings. It’s the Fat Kid way. “We’ve done a fried fish special or go super-high end, and we did a lobster roll popup and put caviar on top,” says Clifford, a graduate of Johnson & Wales culinary school. “We’ve seen the tippy-tippy top, seen rock bottom and are happy where we landed,” Martin echoes.
The pandemic served as the catalyst for the two to launch a venture of their own. After the restaurants they worked for closed, Martin, who was averaging a club sandwich or two a week, says, “We kind of looked at each other like, ‘What do we do?’ We were in the beginning stages of wanting to open our own place. We had an LLC and had just started to figure out that stuff, but obviously it made us move a lot faster. That’s how we started with sandwiches.”
Originally operating a ghost kitchen called Dunharrow Concepts with three different concepts under one roof, it quickly became clear that sandwiches were their breadwinner. They launched delivery service before eventually landing a Fat Kid Sandwiches residency at Hatch Cafe. Upon its opening in 2022, they were one of the original food hall vendors at Hatch Local, which closed in March.
"Obviously, we’re not super happy how it ended, but it was a very successful experience for us and made us grow from people sort of vaguely knowing who we are on Uber Eats to people ... recognizing us on the streets,” Martin says.
Their stand was adorned with vintage metal lunch boxes featuring Strawberry Shortcake and He-Man & Masters of the Universe, and they served Capri-Sun and soft serve. They plan to bring the same “cafeteria/school vibes” to the new space.
Previously sharing a dining room and kitchen with other businesses, the pair are looking forward to having fewer limitations and being able to create a menu with no boundaries. “Instead of just doing sandwiches, we can make potato salad and have french fries and all the sides and stuff we didn’t have the space to do,” Clifford says.
Alongside flagship offerings such as the Loaded Italian, Veggie Delight or Turkey-Bacon Ranch, diners will find Fat Kid’s full lineup of cheesesteaks, plus the return of popular specials including the Chicken Parmesan, Reuben-Esque and Burger Madness. Around Thanksgiving, patrons can expect a return of The Gobbler, a hefty two-hander with house-roasted turkey, cranberry relish, Swiss cheese and a homemade sage stuffing bread.
“There’s room for bigger and better and badder, but the proverbial girls that got us to the dance, we plan on dancing with them,” Martin says.
The Fat Kid vision also includes breakfast and a well-stocked grab-and-go market with cold sandwiches, salads and sides.
“All the people who have been yelling at us over the last two years, ‘Why don’t you guys do salads?’ come on back,” Martin says. His baked goods, from chocolate chunk brownies to blondies, which first appeared in Fat Kid’s “Dessert Emporium,” along with homemade ice cream, will satisfy that sweet tooth.
“We’re excited now that we also have the space to expand our ice cream selection,” Clifford says. “[We’re] going to do both our soft serve and traditional dipped ice cream, have ice cream sandwiches, maybe ice cream cakes. We have all sorts of fun ideas.”
Of the journey to this point, Martin says, “I wouldn’t trade anything we have done. I think it taught us a lot of what to do and what not to do. I think all those things, those lessons, are going to help us in this new challenge.”
Fat Kid Sandwiches will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday at 1110 E. Main St.
