Ike’s Place Hosts Grand Opening at Stanford

Nearly three weeks ago, the only way to know that Ike's Place had opened was the long line in the furnished, but starkly un-decorated Stanford Engineering Center. There was no signage, nothing to indicate the grand opening except for menus plainly printed on 8x11 computer paper floating from customer to customer.

The popular sandwich shop, the most popular location formerly in San Francisco's Castro District, opened to eagerly anticipating customers, but were glaringly ill-prepared. 

"I had to a little digging, but I found out that the opening was today," said Tenisha Armstrong of the King Institute. "I wanted to see why all the lines were always so long," she said.

The Sept. 20 opening on the first day of classes, in contrast, saw a marked difference, with students from all Stanford schools enjoying free samples of four different sandwich varieties and still waiting in line for the real deal.

"Our quantum mechanics professor always raved about these sandwiches, so we had to give them a try," said Josh and Brendan, first year Electrical Engineering students who declined to have their last names printed.

Stanford approached Ike Shehadeh, Ike's Place's founder, about a year and a half ago to inhabit the new space. Shehadeh said it was perfect because he was looking for a new location after he was forced to vacate the one in San Francisco. Four neighbors' complaints that the restaurant was a "nuisance" forced the city to take action, general counsel Ali Faritous said.  

"But we still get the same clientele," Shehadeh said. "And people who come here don't mind waiting in the long lines."

Because the lines were "miserably long," Josh said, they instead made a lunch out of the free samples, which also included refreshments and chips. Both agreed that the "Thanksgiving" sandwich with turkey and cranberry sauce was their favorite.

But Faritous, who was working double duty serving samples, was gladly giving away as many samples as possible.

"You!" he called at passersby. "Come get a sample!"

Tyler Reid and Andrew Harner, first year Aerospace and Engineering students, also relied on samples for their lunch but said they would "definitely come back."

"I really enjoyed the John Elway sandwich," Reid said. "I'm a huge fan of bacon."

But not everyone at Ike's Place was in love with the sandwiches.

"The mayo on this sandwich was a bit excessive," Noel Crisostomo said of his sample.

Especially on the Sept. 1 opening, some frustrated customers were even less pleased when the sandwiches hadn't lived up to their expectations.

"The sandwich was pretty small in comparison to the ones in San Francisco," Kunal, an Applied Physics student who declined to have his last name printed, said of the $5.95 "small sandwich."

The Food Network featured the sandwich place in August 2009 on the show "Man vs. Food," in which the host tackles enormously portioned dishes. The Stanford location still serves their signature fourteen to sixteen inch sandwiches in the future, but even Shehadeh said he wouldn't recommend ordering the monsters. The "Kryptonite" featured on the television showed combined a whopping thirteen ingredients for a total of four pounds. But for now, the most common order is one of the "small sandwiches" with distinctive names that entertain customers while they wait in line.

"I wonder how they come up with these names," one customer mused to herself, as she scanned sandwiches like "[Name of the Girl I'm Dating]," "Hot Mamma Huda," and "We're JUST Friends."

Kunal ordered the "Menage a Trois," aptly named for the three sauces cohabitating under one loaf of bread. He called it "borderline" for his overall satisfaction. He and his friends arrive at 11:05, and he was the first to receive his sandwich at 12:05. His envious friends could only jokingly berate him for being the last to order, but the first to receive his sandwich.

"Luckily my boss is out of town," Kunal said of the atypically long lunch break.

Another customer complained that the sandwich was cold as soon as he unwrapped it. The cashier politely offered to re-heat it, but the customer declined, already visibly frustrated with the wait.

But Brian, another Applied Physics student who declined to have his last name printed, might have been the only one with an optimistic tone that day.

"This place is going to be wildly successful," he predicted. "There are only five places on campus to eat and they're terrible."

Nearly three weeks after the grand opening, Brian's predictions are correct and the lines are just as long.

"It's definitely a different crowd than the hipsters who wait in the epic lines in Castro," Brian said. "But still a lot of people nonetheless."

Tom, a Business School student who declined to have his last name printed, was still willing to purchase a full-sized sandwich even though there were free samples.

"I definitely want the whole sandwich," he said.

Located in the heart of the Stanford's new Li Ka Shing Engineering Center, Ike's Place stands to reap huge success. For the average, busy Stanford student, sandwiches to-go seem to be the perfect college food.

"This is the first space where the demographics of our customers are exactly like us," Ike said. "We're young, fun, and intelligent, and we can't wait to treat customers the way they should be treated."