Bagginβs Gourmet Sandwiches, Tucsonβs popular sandwich shop with the famous gooey chocolate chip cookie tucked inside your sack lunch, is making inroads into the Phoenix area at the end of May.
The sandwich-maker will open its first restaurant outside of its 40-year Tucson home base at 14202 N. Scottsdale Road, just south of the upscale Kierland Commons shopping and dining area.
βWeβve wanted to do this for a long time,β said Bagginβs Vice President Sunny Bravin. βOur plans were to actually to have it done in 2020, but COVID hit so we had to reassess as with everything that happened with COVID.β
Bravin, who co-owns Bagginβs with founder Cheree Garrett-Jeffries, John Murphy and Nancy Murphy, said the company would eventually like to open at least three locations in Phoenixβs East Valley in the next five years.
Garrett-Jeffries and her husband Jay Garrett launched Bagginβs in 1984, slipping a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie in the paper bag with every sandwich sold. That tradition lives on today at the companyβs nine Tucson restaurants and locations in Oro Valley and Marana, where, company officials said, they make more than 7,000 sandwiches a day.
Bravin said she anticipates Bagginβs will find an eager audience in Scottsdale among business people as well as families. The restaurant caters mostly to the lunch crowd and does office and party catering.
The Scottsdale restaurant will offer in-store dining in the 2,500-square-foot space that was once home to a gourmet popcorn shop. They also will offer delivery and third-party delivery.
