Why This Sandwich Shop Is Florence's Most Legendary Street Eat | Legendary Eats

We're outside Osteria All'Antico Vinaio in the heart of Florence. Ask anyone here, local or tourist, they will tell you that if you haven't been to Antico Vinaio, you really haven't been to Florence at all. Why? Because this place makes the most epic sandwiches. They're in the top 10 of the most-reviewed restaurants on TripAdvisor. So we're gonna go inside to see how they make their sandwiches. Let's go. All'Antico Vinaio is just minutes away from Florence's Piazza della Signoria, the famous piazza where this guy, Michelangelo's David, used to stand fiercely until it was replaced by a replica. Unlike its neighboring statue, though, Antico Vinaio hasn't been moved to a museum yet. Let's hear what customers have to say about the shop. I'm here to study abroad, so I came from New York to come here. And this is actually on our way to class. I've never been to a restaurant like that before. They prepare the meal in front of you, so it was pretty interesting. The sandwich itself is very good. The mozzarella is fresh. Everything's tasty, very tasty. Very big and juicy. Yeah, it's huge. Nice, very nice. Antico Vinaio was born in the early 1960s, because it's a very historic place. It was born in the Bosani family. Then, in the late 1980s, my parents bought it. It's basically from the 1989s, more precisely. And the great thing is that in the early 2000s, I also started working here, when I was very young. And this connection between me and my parents was born, which has led me to be in this place today. It's a bit of a mouthful for everyone, and for us, it's an honor. Al Antico Vinaio was born as a single shop, this one. But it has then expanded and opened three more shops on the same street and employs more than 50 people. On a busy day, they can serve up to 700 customers. Sandwiches are done with a local bread called schiacciata, which is heated up in the kitchen and brought promptly to the counters, ready to be sliced. I don't know if you can call it a type of bread. It's obviously salty, unlike our bread, which is salt-free, and that's why it's typical. It has coarse salt, oil, yeast, and water. The great thing about this schiacciata is that we were able to produce a product that, in the early years, was a bit of a surprise, because when I was little, it was normal for me to go to the grocery store to eat schiacciata with ham. My grandfather would bring it to me. The magic of this place is all about the fillings. The shop has endless selection of cold cuts, cheese, and homemade creams, like the truffle cream and the artichoke cream. Customers can choose from the schiacciate on the menu, or they can get creative, You know that feeling when you're still deciding what to order, and suddenly it's your turn? We got you covered. For a great combo of flavors and Tuscan products, order Di Favolosa, the all-time favorite and bestseller. One day, for some unknown reason, I told him something and he said, It's fabulous! And he said it in such a beautiful way that from that day on, we decided to call it that way. It's our most typical schiacciata, with the sbresciolona, the typical Fiorentine salami, the pecorino cream made by my grandfather, the artichoke cream, and the slightly spicy aubergines. It's a schiacciata that has given us a lot of satisfaction because it was even mentioned in the Saveur magazine as one of the best sandwiches in the world. We spoke to people that have basically just put my expectations this high, so I'm really, really curious to see how this taste is like. Let's dig in. Okay, actually hard to dig in. This cheese cream is just like, this cheese cream is from another world. Never had anything like that. This is better than the actual cheese. It's not salty at all. I mean, you may expect with all this stuffing, meat, cheese, artichokes, and there is like a random horse passing by. Of course. Yeah, I mean, we're in the center of Florence, so there is a bunch of touristic stuff, but that's the nice thing of this place, you know? It's close to schools, so a lot of students come in here and it's like in the heart of the tourist centers. Of course, there's lots of tourists, but there's so many locals as well that just don't want to miss out on the party. The combination of like flavors, it's really something unique. You can't find it anywhere else here. It's not like you're boring ham and cheese. Forget about that. This is what a real sandwich looks like. For example, we had a Nutella Day for charity and 1,065 people participated. It was a great thing. The average can vary from 300 to 400 people to 600 to 700 people, basically. We've never had a precise number. But when you start doing it, you get 20 to 30 kilos of sandwich every week. It's a lot of work, to be honest. There's a lot of salami. And it's a lot of work. Thank God, we have 50 young people working here. So, from a small company, we've already become slightly bigger. We're still hiring a lot because we've seen that there's a lot of work. And who knows, maybe in the future there will be a lot of places to open around the world. So, who knows what the future holds?