By Brooke Curley
brooke@gilavalleycentral.net
SAFFORD – Marie Antoinette may have called for the masses to eat cake, but at Ginaveve’s Market Place, a shop on Safford’s Main Street, customers can eat their salad and a brownie too.
To answer the demand of the Gila Valley’s need for a great lunchtime salad, Ginaveve’s Market Place owner Jenny Howard created the salandwich bar, which takes a salad and rests it between two pieces of bread making what Howard calls a salandwich. Located at 501 West Main St. in Downtown Safford, Ginaveve’s Market Place is a shop featuring a multitude of items ranging from a wide variety of balsamic vinegar, home decor, jewelry, and even aroma therapy oils. The salandwich bar is accompanied by in-house seating arrangements so customers can either take their salad to go or dine in. The salandwich bar is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
Contributed photo/Courtesy Amanda Howard: This salandwich is one of the many salad/sandwich combinations available.
Co-owner John Howard told Gila Valley Central that the salandwich bar had been in the works for roughly a year and that it was the creative creation of his wife, Jenny Howard.
“We’ve had this brainstorm for probably the last year (and) we’re just finally implemented it,” John Howard said. “Jenny is very innovative, she’s always thinking of ways to change the store so that people can come in and experience something different. So, what’s after the salandwich bar? I don’t know, but I’m sure something will come because it’s her brainchild, and she’s the one that wants to do it. She’s been thinking about it for a while.”
When asked what exactly goes into a salandwich, John told Gila Valley Central, that his wife noticed many individuals would simply put a salad on their sandwich. Seeing an open need, Jenny created a salandwich solution.
“You can basically build a plain sandwich if you would like, we have those basic ingredients, or you could build your salandwich, which is kind of a salad sandwich,” John said. “You have flat bread where you cut your hoagie roll in half and you put all your stuff on it and you eat it with a fork, like a sandwich. Basically, what we’ve found people doing is making a sandwich and a salad so she just combined them. The concept was a salandwich, where you have a hoagie bun, a piece of flat bread, or gluten free bread, whatever fits your fancy, and you basically build a salad on top of it.”
The salandwich bar boasts a wide array of ever-changing dining options. Although the area that is available for food options is relatively small, the staff keep the rotation of fruit and meats ever-changing from day to day.
“You never know what you’re going to get,” John said. “It’s neat that you can come in here and shop before lunch and then have lunch and then shop. We have tables where people can sit and visit.”
Brooke Curley Photo/Gila Valley Central: Store manager Bailey Allred stands beside the salandwich bar.
Aside from managing the entire store, Bailey Allred also stocks the salandwich bar. Allred told Gila Valley Central that above everything, many individuals come away with the remark that the produce from the bar is unbelievably fresh. However, what truly sets Gineveve’s Marketplace salandwich bar apart is the fact that individuals that use the bar may also use the wide variety of balsamic and olive oils that the shop has to offer on their salad.
“We try to have every veritable available every day,” Allred said. “You get a variety. I think it’s great that you can use any of the balsamic (oils), and that makes it different. It’s your choice, you don’t have to have a set salad.”
Decked out with the customary meats, such as turkey, tuna, and ham, the salandwich bar has an extra element to take pride in – gluten-free bread. For those living the gluten-free diet, the salandwich bar just might be something out of carbohydrate heaven. Providing the Udis brand of sliced and hoagie bread, the salandwich bar appeals to those who can only eat certain types of grains.
For those of you who don’t mind the gluten, the salandwich bar also offers brownies to be dribbled in the consumer’s choice of sweet balsamic oils. The brownie is a separate order, of course. However, it is just the sweet treat to offset a salad’s healthy choice in a lunch.
Lastly, the salandwich bar also offers free delivery. Simply call Gineveve’s Marketplace at (928) 432-6951, or email an order to eatatgineveves@gmail.com. Delivery is free of charge. Unless the order has been paid for over the phone via card, exact cash will be needed because the delivery drivers do not have card readers. A salad, complete with free delivery, comes to the price of $8.72
Reservations are always accepted.
For more information see Gineveve’s Marketplace website at ginaveves.com/shop.
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