Editor’s note: In this recurring column, SFGATE food writers celebrate the Bay Area’s rich deli culture by spotlighting longtime family-run delis — the neighborhood institutions — and the newer community sandwich hubs.
One of the best restaurants in the country is a nondescript sandwich shop hidden inside an office building in Burlingame.
That’s according to Yelp, at least. Gigi’s Cafe, crowned No. 14 on the site’s 2023 list of the top 100 places to eat, may seem a bit of an odd choice for such a superlative. Sandwiched between a Hilton hotel and an airport parking lot, it’s the type of unassuming spot you’d only find if you were looking for it.
But when I did find it, following little red signs pointing me into a huge parking lot, I was surprised. Beneath the tall office building that houses Gigi’s was a picturesque outdoor dining setup. A buzzing lunch crowd munched on sandwiches under red umbrellas with views of the neighboring lagoon.
Beyond the sunny patio, though, it’s the sandwiches that bring folks to this little stretch of Burlingame. They’re both massive and artful — the kind of creations that will make you gasp when you unwrap the parchment paper and pull apart the two perfect halves.
Owner Teresa Gee has been cooking since she was 5 years old, when she first started helping her mother out in the kitchen.
“When everyone else was watching Nickelodeon, I was always watching Food Network,” she said.
Graduating high school early to study pastry at San Francisco’s Le Cordon Bleu was only the natural next step for Gee — at age 17, she was the youngest in her class. Shortly after finishing culinary school, she moved to Florida to work at celebrity chef Adrian Carmellini’s restaurant The Dutch at the W Hotel.
A few years later, though, Gee got homesick and returned to the Bay Area. After working as a pastry chef at Il Fornaio and Oracle’s old headquarters in Redwood City, she’d developed a strong background in pastry. But she started to feel the urge to try something different. Something more … savory.
So in 2017, when she was just 24 years old, Gee took over an existing sandwich shop in her hometown of Burlingame. A play on her last name, Gigi’s Cafe was born.
“The previous owner was doing simple sandwiches, just lettuce, tomato, meat,” she said. “But with my culinary background, I was like, we can do a twist on this.”
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Gigi’s Cafe’s sandwiches aren’t pretentious, but they are certainly more creative than the standard deli fare. The shop serves classics but with a twist: Rather than a BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato), Gigi’s Cafe serves a “BAE” (bacon, avocado and egg salad), and its tuna melt, called the “Fishin’ 4 Heat,” features a spicy kick from jalapeños and pepper jack cheese.
“There’s nothing like, ‘Oh my gosh, they get this imported from wherever,’” Gee said. “They’re all simple ingredients, but we just put it together with things that I don’t think other people would think of.”
And then, of course, there are the catchy names. A sandwich with pastrami, turkey and bacon is called the Tech Bro, a cheeky nod to Gigi’s Cafe's Silicon Valley clientele. A sandwich with potato chips in it is called the Knuckle Sandwich (because biting into it sounds like cracking your knuckles); the Chipotle Is My Life, which has turkey, pepper jack cheese and chipotle spread, is a reference to an iconic 2014 Vine.
“I’ve always been a punny person,” Gee said. “Some of the names really have me laughing sometimes.”
For me, though, the most exciting aspect of Gigi’s is that it has an extensive vegetarian menu. We’re talking a full 10 sandwiches, many of them veg-ified versions of the popular meat sandwiches. On my visit, I ordered the Vegetarian Chipotle Is My Life, made with breaded soy tofu “chicken,” melted pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, mayo and chipotle spread on a toasted French roll.
Rather than the overly healthy versions of veggie sandwiches commonly found at sandwich shops, this one felt decadent. The tofu was satisfyingly meaty, with a craveable smoky flavor from the chipotle spread balanced by all the fresh lettuce, tomato and onion. It was so enormous that I could only finish one half — which, at $13.99 before tax and tip, I think is an incredible deal.
The Chipotle Is My Life isn't the only one that boasts unusual size. One of the most popular sandwiches, the Tech Bro, features nearly a pound of meat. The other most popular one, the Turkey Avocado Smash, includes an entire avocado.
“I want people to come hungry and leave happy and full,” Gee said. “I just want it to be picture-worthy and for people to be like ‘wow’ when they see it.”
Perhaps that’s Gee’s inner pastry chef jumping out. But besides taking an artful hand to her awe-striking sandwiches, she hasn’t abandoned pastry completely. Gigi’s Cafe also sells a few sweet treats, from rocky road brownies to chocolate peanut butter cookies (and cakes for pre-order).
Being in such a hidden location, Gigi’s Cafe struggled to stay afloat throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It was closed for four months, and when it did reopen in the summer of 2020, there were almost no sales some days. So when somebody called her in February this year to tell her she’d been featured on Yelp’s list of the top 100 places to eat, she couldn’t stop crying. The effort had all been worth it.
“I was like, is this person pranking me right now?” she said. “… I couldn’t believe it, and I called my mom crying.”
But when she finally calmed down and processed the news, she came to another conclusion.
“I was surprised, but I’m also not surprised in a way because I worked hard to get to where I am,” she said. “I love the food that I put out. I’m happy with everything. So I feel like I’m surprised, but I feel like I earned this.”
Gigi’s Cafe, 111 Anza Blvd, Burlingame. Open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Got a favorite deli to share? Send it to food editor Jessica Yadegaran at [email protected]
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