Roast Beef Sandwich Shop With Chef Credibility Opens Saturday

Fast-casual roast beef sandwich restaurant Top Round is opening its first California location beyond Los Angeles this Saturday, August 26th, its third overall. The chef-driven shop will bring fried chicken sandwiches, cheesy curly fries, frozen custard, and roast beef to the Mission’s historic Discolandia Records space. It replaces Pig & Pie there, and like that business before it, will maintain the record store’s recognizable sign.

That’s appropriate given Top Round’s nods to LA’s Googie architecture and the nostalgia it taps into. Chef Steven Fretz (XIV, Curtis Stone) and some serious food industry partners — Anthony Carron (800 Degrees), Noah Ellis (Red Medicine), and Jami Tiampo (an investor NYC's dell'anima and L'artusi) — opened LA’s Top Round in 2013 in a former donut shop.

Top Round’s beef is slow roasted for up to 10 hours and served on butter-toasted buns with au jus. Options include beef and cheese (with homemade cheese “wizz”) and beef on weck (with “atomic” horseradish and caraway). Top Round also serves fried chicken sandwiches and curly fries that are fried in beef fat. For dessert, there’s frozen custard in flavors like strawberries and cream (strawberries, marshmallow, whipped cream) and Elvis (bananas, salted peanuts, hot fudge). For breakfast they’ve got steak and egg sandwiches and tater tots.

Bread and Butter Public Relations/Top Round

In 2015, Top Round signed a franchise arrangement for San Jose. While that location hasn’t yet materialized, luckily for SF beef fans, that deal was non-exclusive, meaning that the brand could open elsewhere in the meantime. A Louisville location is already open and a Dallas one is on the way, too. Starting Saturday, the SF franchise will be open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

• Top Round Aims for Roast Beef Dominance With NorCal Franchise Agreement [Eater LA]
• LA’s Top Round Roast Beef Is Headed To The Mission and More A.M. Intel [ESF]