15 MAY 30-JUNE 5, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Breaking Bread LITTLE ARTHUR’S IS READY FOR SOME BIG MOVES. BY MOLLY MARTIN “I like to think of it as honest food,” says AJ Shreffl er, who began selling massive hoagies inspired by his Philadelphia upbringing out of his home fi ve years ago. “I’m making things that mean something to me. I’m creating things that I love, that actually have meaning to me already, and releasing them to the world.” Now, though, Little Arthur’s is growing up. The popular pop-up has gone through several iterations since its humble beginnings, and soon it will move into a new home where fans can expect what Shreffl er calls a more “mature” version of the business that has racked up nearly 40,000 Instagram followers. Early this summer, Little Arthur’s is set to debut inside Out of the Barrel Taproom at 205 East Seventh Avenue in Capitol Hill. “I think with them being able to sell beer and wine and us selling the food, it’s going to be a really great relationship. It’s a great loca- tion. The atmosphere in there is so awesome, and they’re building two patios. It should be pretty cool soon enough,” Shreffl er says. The move comes with some changes, but the heart of the business remains the same. Born and raised just outside of Philly, Shreffl er has always been scrappy. After an injury left him unable to continue playing football, he found a career in restaurants, which was an ideal fi t for someone who grew up with a passion for food. No stranger to the side hustle, he once started a bagel business in Hawaii after he noticed a gap in the local culinary scene. After moving to Denver in 2018, he spotted a similar hole, this time in the shape of East Coast-style hoa- gies, and set out to fi ll it. “The fi rst pop-up was out of my old apartment, tiny kitchen. I basically just told peo- ple I worked with, ’cause I had only been in Denver for a few months,” he recalls. But soon that small group of customers grew larger. “By the third time, I had a little list of people going, then it just kind of got out of hand for a long time,” he jokes. He continued doing the pop-ups on his days off, often staying up all night baking fresh, sesame-seeded rolls inspired by the ones used at Sarcone’s, a 103-year-old Phila- delphia institution. Then, at the beginning of 2022, he decided to leave his job as a sous chef at Bar Dough and go full-time hoagie. “I just kind of went on a gut feeling of how busy it was when I was doing them all by myself out of my tiny apartment,” Shreffl er recalls. “I just fi gured, this is a sign that I could maybe live off of it if it was consistent enough.” Making the leap was a risk, but “it’s one of those things where you’re either the type of person that takes the jump or the type of person that doesn’t, and I’m the type of person who takes the jump,” he says. “The things that I feel like have been the best parts of my life, from being young until now, are the times that I took risks.” Over the last two and a half years, Little Arthur’s has continued to do pop-ups. For some of that time, it had a consistent base at Sunny’s, a breakfast joint in the Sunnyside neighborhood. During his run there, Shref- fl er was also able to build a team. He currently has three staffers, though he hopes to add several more employees by the time he opens at Out of the Barrel. Even with a team, pulling off a service requires work from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., Shreffl er notes, so “it’s been amazing [having help]. I’ve been able to delegate. We have some people with experience, and some people just started working in kitchens under me, and their progress has been amazing. It’s one of the lights of my life to watch them get really into it and get passionate. ... They’re really the main reason why we can grow, why we can do the things that we’re doing.” One of the things the team has done is launch a second concept, Arty Express Old World Sandwiches, that serves smaller sandwiches on Kaiser rolls — another food category that Denver is lacking. “I’m a cre- ator, and my artistic expression is food, so I’m always thinking of other things we could do. A Kaiser concept just really spoke true to what we already do and being true to my past,” Shreffl er explains. The original plan was for Little Arthur’s to continue at Sunny’s and for Arty Express to operate out of a trailer that Shreffl er pur- chased last year, but a licensing technicality forced the hoagie concept to move out of the Sunnyside kitchen. Since then, Shreffl er has been using the trailer for both concepts. While that’s been working as a temporary fi x, he’s excited to share the next iteration of his two business ventures. Arty Express “is going full breakfast,” he says. BEC fans, take note: It will be at Novel Strand, likely serving on weekend mornings starting in the next month or two. Meanwhile, Little Arthur’s will dish out its signature hoagies at Out of the Barrel, but with a new approach. “For most restaurants and concepts, fi ve years is kind of the time for a little reset,” Shreffl er says. And “after fi ve years of selling literal two-pound sandwiches for $25 to $30 that were great to share,” he’s making the move to a smaller serving size and a lower price. “We got critiqued all the time” about pricing, Shreffl er admits. “I’ve had trolls in my DMs saying the nastiest things over the price of a sandwich for years and years, and none of that fazed me. I was keeping food costs where they had to be to operate and not fail.” But as he thought about what he wanted the fi rst menu at Out of the Barrel to look like and how Little Arthur’s could best operate out of its new home, “I decided to give some of the people what they want and bring down the size and the price a bit,” he says. “It was a feeling I had a few months ago, and it just feels right.” The new hoagies are made with the same high-quality ingredients and care — and are still big enough to share, though you don’t have to. At the fi rst test run, a basic chees- esteak with eight ounces of ribeye and fried onions was $18. Various add-ons like several types of cheese, mushrooms and cherry peppers were available for an extra $1 to $3. What is made for sharing are the new, full-size pizzas that Little Arthur’s will roll out at Out of the Barrel. “We’re going to do pre-order pizzas. We’ll only be able to sell forty or fi fty a night, and they’re going to be big and really special to us,” Shreffl er notes. He’s also considering adding freshly made pasta to the lineup, and is especially excited for the dessert offerings; ideas in- clude a cookie tray, fi lled-to-order cannoli and ricotta cheesecake. While he probably won’t actually change the business’s name, Shreffl er has been jok- ing about the possibility. “Remember when Lil’ Bow Wow dropped the ‘Lil’?’” he quips. Whether it’s called Little Arthur’s or just Arthur’s in the future, he concludes: “It feels really good to be progressing every year that we’ve been doing this. I feel like it’s been a healthy progression, and hopefully, we can keep spreading our wings, keep rising up with the same employees, and just keep it going.” For updates on Little Arthur’s and Arty Express, follow them on Instagram @littlearthurshoagies and @arty_express. CAFE FIND MORE FOOD & DRINK COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/RESTAURANTS AJ Shreffl er went full-time with his business two and a half years ago. The new cheesesteaks from Little Arthur’s are smaller but still mighty. MOLLY MARTIN MOLLY MARTIN
