A Secret Specialty's
When I worked in the city, I had lunch at Specialty's (the Montgomery Station location) several times a month.
The sandwiches are creative (I had my first turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce here, and I still love their Vegan sandwich), the salads fresh, and really, is it necessary to say anything about a cookie hot from their oven?
Well, I'd been doing without for nearly a year when C, who works a mile from me, called me from lunch one day.
"Where are you?"
"At Specialty's."
"You drove all the way to the city for a sandwich?"
"No, there's one in South San Francisco. In the Actuate building in that weird business park... um, didn't you know?"
You can imagine the tantrum that ensued, dear reader. Here I'd been eating sub-par sandwiches (well, the Happy Hoagie makes a fine sandwich, they're just pretty basic), mediocre, wilting salads and nary a delicious fresh-baked cooking in sight! All while there was a Specialty's a mere 3 miles away!!
Fortunately, I've since discovered Specialty's Direct, whence one can place an order (complete with full customization functionality -- eg, "no anchovy on my small caesar salad, please but extra chicken and pack it in the large container"), add on a cookie, pay with a credit card and specify a pick up window.
As I sit here finishing off the last of my dense, chewy, nearly brownie-like black and white cookie (now, don't you purists go getting excited. It's not a real b&w -- it's more a dark chocolate cookie with white chocolate chunks), I can't help but be thankful that the fine folks at Specialty's decided that enough corporate drones had moved south to warrant a secret little outpost of our own in lovely South San Francisco.
Those cookies are truly phenomenal! So much so, in fact, that my co-workers and I have worked out a scheme in which we have people in my firm's SF office buy the cookies and then send them to us in the Menlo Park office by interoffice mail... Surprisingly, we've never "lost" a cookie in transit!
Posted by: NS | July 25, 2005 at 04:42 PM
What I want to know is: When are they going to open one in the Potrero Hill universe? I miss Specialty's from my time in the financial district.
Lucky you.
Posted by: Derrick Schneider | July 25, 2005 at 05:41 PM
I love bakery cafes so much, and we don't have many around here--Specialty's sounds wonderful! Thanks for coming by my site--it helped me find yours. You live in San Francisco and your husband misses Florida?!? Compared to your area, we are a culinary wasteland. Still, we do have the beaches, LOL. I love your site--I'll be back!
Posted by: Amy | July 27, 2005 at 04:13 AM
Amy, welcome! So glad you made it... yes, C still adores Florida. And really, in a lot of ways, I don't blame him. We always eat quite well when we go home!
Derrick, I imagine Potrero is still a bit to independent for a Specialty's. I can pick you up a few next time I order, though, and gladly deliver!
NS, you are a wiley one!
Posted by: Fatemeh | July 27, 2005 at 09:47 AM
omigod--i looooove specialty's cookies. I actually asked about how much butter they put in there once,(which I won't tell). so delicious.
Posted by: Amanda | July 27, 2005 at 06:42 PM