Earlier this week, Japanese-inspired sandwich shop Sando Shack shared with its social media audience that its planning a move. On Sunday, Dec. 29, the restaurant will cease operations at its 3173 Morgan Ford Road in order to relocate to Maplewood in the new year.
The new restaurant will be located at 7376 Manchester Road, in the former home of Boardwalk Waffles and Ice Cream. Amy Guo, who co-owns Sando Shack as well as Hello Poke with Dan Jensen, said it’s currently looking like the Maplewood location will open some time in April.
Having first started as a food truck in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, Sando Shack quickly gained a customer following and the eatery moved into its current Tower Grove South location in November 2022. The business has continued to grow over the past two years and has outgrown its current space.
“We looked at quite a few locations, but the main thing we wanted was more space for customers,” Guo said of the reasoning behind the move. “We chose this location because of the neighborhood. From our research, we’ve found that Maplewood is very community-oriented, and we really like that this stretch of Manchester has lots of other restaurants and commercial spaces nearby,” she further explained.
Its Morgan Ford Road location offers a handful of counter seats, or guests can take their food to the neighboring Amsterdam Tavern, but the Maplewood location will offer much more space. The new location comes in at about 2,000 square feet and will feature seating for around 30 guests.
Over the next several months the new location is set to undergo minor renovations, including adding many cosmetic details, as Guo said guests should expect aspects of design elements found in the current restaurant to show up in Maplewood.
“We have a mural and neon inside our current location, which will be carried over [to Maplewood] and we’re adding more wall art and shelving,” she said. Guo promised that the new location will still embody the fun Japanese elements and the “cool shack vibe” of their current restaurant as well.
There are no plans to change any menu items with the move, so patrons will still be able to find the eatery’s lineup of katsu sandos, katsu bowls and sides like wings and fries at the Manchester Road space. Guo said they’re expanding the menu, with one of those new items to include ice cream. Since the eatery serves the Japanese street food dessert taiyaki, a fish-shaped waffle that is stuffed with a filling, the establishment will add traditional scoop ice cream to its menu lineup to serve with its taiyaki.
This article appears in December 2024.