After 16 years behind the deli counter at Falletti Foods, Ornella Bouchard throws together a sandwich without a wasted motion. A ciabatta roll splits open with a few easy strokes of a bread knife, and her gloved hands get to work piling on meats: turkey, ham, pastrami and prosciutto, each layer disappearing beneath the next. After just two minutes, she puts the halves together, wraps the whole thing in plastic wrap and affixes a price sticker.
“Poor boy sandwich,” the sticker reads. It’s $5.50. When unwrapped and sliced in half, the cross section reveals a layered stack of beiges, pinks and reds, like the striped walls of the Grand Canyon.
This grab-and-go sandwich, hefty enough to feed a large man or a small horse, is one of the most popular items at Falletti Foods, a family-owned grocer in the Panhandle on the corner of Broderick and Oak streets. The poor boy is a simple stack of meat and swiss cheese on a roll smeared with mayo and mustard. In price, it’s one of San Francisco’s most economical full meals, going toe to toe with a banh mi from the Tenderloin. Bouchard said she sees one woman buy four poor boy sandwiches a day, seven days a week.
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“We’re out every day,” Bouchard, 60, said. “We can make anywhere from 20 to 28, and we never have anything left over.”
Jamie Falletti, left, and his father James “Tick” Falletti pose for a portrait in the produce section inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
Signage and merchandise related to the store’s brand and history are on display inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
Shoppers peruse the offerings inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
A made-to-order sandwich at Falletti Foods’ deli, like the popular Italian sub or the veggie, goes for $12.50. The poor boy costs less than half that, mainly because it’s made from odds and ends. It’s a Frankenstein’s sandwich of day-old rolls and extra slices of turkey; when a customer orders a pound of deli meat, any extra gets put aside for the poor boys. When a supplier offers the store a one-time bulk deal on deli turkey or salami, that meat gets thrown in as well.
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The result is an ever-changing sandwich of the day. The poor boy is on a Dutch crunch roll one day and sourdough the next. The only constants, Bouchard said, are swiss cheese, mayo, mustard and turkey. (The store tends to get more bulk deals on turkey.)
Shoppers peruse offerings inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
The poor boy sandwich, featuring mixed deli meats, mustard and mayo, is prepared for shoppers inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
In my experience, leftover meat didn’t equate to a second-rate meal. The sourdough was still soft for day-old bread. A generous dollop of mustard lent the sandwich acidity, balancing out the fattiness of the meats. Without a tomato slice, the poor boy was still surprisingly moist, thanks to a tactful amount of mayonnaise. Most importantly, it was substantial. I’m someone who can eat three Crunchwrap Supremes, and after finishing my sandwich, I was full for several hours.
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Bouchard, who grew up in Cow Hollow and has been working behind deli counters since she was in high school, borrowed the idea for the sandwich from a previous grocery store job. At 17, she took her first job at Cala Foods, a now-defunct San Francisco supermarket chain. By 20, she was a manager. One of Cala Foods’ offerings was a poor boy sandwich, similar to the one Falletti sells today.
When Bouchard became Falletti’s first deli manager in 2010, she brought the poor boy sandwich with her. James “Tick” Falletti, the president of the store, gave her the green light.
Shoppers peruse offerings inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
Inventory is neatly stocked inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
“Basically, we had never run a deli,” Tick said. “So, she came in, she was given basically carte blanche.”
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Back then, the poor boy cost $3.99. Like every other offering on grocery store shelves, that price has slowly crept upward over the years. When Eater wrote about the sandwich back in 2023, it cost $4.49. Today, it costs $5.50. The cumulative jump is still below the inflation rate; according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, $4 in May 2010 is worth $6.05 in March 2026.
It’s easy to keep prices low, Bouchard said, because they’re not trying to turn a profit on the sandwiches. She guesses the store breaks even on the poor boys.
“It’s not so much about making money off of them, but more to help people out that are on a budget,” she said.
Shoppers peruse offerings inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
The poor boy sandwich, featuring mixed deli meats, mustard and mayo, is prepared for shoppers inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
Falletti Foods opened in 2006. Before that, the Falletti family ran a grocery store on Fulton Street and Masonic Avenue, where there’s now a Lucky, from 1956 through 2000. Tick started helping out around that store when he was nine. (“Don’t get my dad on child labor,” he said, laughing.) As an adult, he took a job as a corporate controller at Westinghouse but returned to the family business in 1983, with plans to work alongside his father, Jim, and his uncle, Lou.
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“I decided I didn’t want to be in the corporate world anymore,” Tick said.
Lou died the weekend Tick returned, and he stepped up to help run the store. Today, Tick runs Falletti Foods with his adult sons, Jamie and Dominic.
Falletti Foods didn’t have a deli until 2010, when the family took over an adjacent deli area that had been used by another market. Now, the poor boy sandwiches are a staple for a handful of local shoppers.
Although both Fallettis appreciate their appeal, neither Tick nor Jamie eats the sandwiches.
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Pedestrians pass Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
Shoppers peruse offerings inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
A team preps the ingredients for sandwiches inside Falletti Foods, a family-run grocery store and deli in San Francisco, on May 4, 2026.
Camille Cohen/For SFGATE
“I have to kind of make my own because I’m not a condiment guy,” Tick explained.
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Ornella, when asked how often she eats them, responded similarly.
“Never,” she laughed. “After you’ve been in this business that long, you get tired of seeing all the meat all the time, right?”
Apparently, the same isn’t true of the store’s customers. Thanks to Falletti’s regulars, the poor boys still disappear from the shelves day after day, year after year.
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Falletti Foods, 308 Broderick St., San Francisco. Open Monday through Sunday, 7 a.m.-9 p.m.
Do you have a go-to affordable lunch in San Francisco? Send tips for our “Eat Cheap” series to madeline.wells@sfgate.com.