The R&D Chicken Soup Sandwich is a masterclass in sandwich construction. The foundation is a slab of challah. Piled on is tender pulled chicken, hunks of carrots, onions, celery, a mess of crispy shallots and plenty of dill. It's then topped with broth.
Ilene Rosen and Sara Dima have been making loads of good, homey food for their neighbors in Prospect Heights since 2012, when they first opened a sweet little cafe called 606 R&D on Vanderbilt Avenue. 606 only lasted a few years, but their spinoff catering operation and salad and sandwich shop next door, R&D Foods, remains a solid neighborhood favorite, maybe even more so during the pandemic.
"In the beginning of the pandemic we were rethinking what we were doing every day and trying to remain flexible and nimble," chef and co-owner Rosen told Gothamist. "Then things sort of leveled out--I won't use the word 'normal'--and we went back to more of what we were. Like, we stopped including a roll of toilet paper in each order, and we allowed people to come back inside. And Open Streets was amazing for us.
Another pandemic side effect: everyone seems to be eating a lot more sandwiches. "We're really doing so many sandwiches now, but I wanted something that would feel like the quintessential winter sandwich," said Rosen about her latest creation. "So, of course, I landed on chicken soup. So many people are just not feeling the way they should, for obvious reasons, so I took a little of the Jewish penicillin from my heritage and morphed it into a sandwich.