Customers disappointed after Toronto bakery removes sandwich from menu

A very specific sandwich at a Toronto bakery — or rather, the lack thereof — is causing quite the stir among its biggest fans.

Now, look, I know what you're thinking: don't we have bigger fish to fry than sandwiches disappearing off bakery menus in the year 2026? Well, yes.

But, at the same time, if you've never had the harrowing experience of being excited to eat your favourite sandwich from your favourite bakery all day, only to find that it's sold out, or worse, has been removed from the menu altogether, I assure you, it's very serious stuff.

It's particularly disappointing when that very sandwich was one of a select number of vegan options in your neighbourhood, and you, yourself, were vegan.

That's exactly what happened to one Toronto resident, who chose to remain anonymous. For the duration of this story, she'll be referred to as Sarah.

A lifelong activist and plant-based eater of 40 years, to say that Sarah knows her way around the vegan sandwich scene in the city would be an understatement. A resident of the east end, one of Sarah's go-to spots has long since been Blackbird Baking, she tells blogTO.

The sandwich selection at the Riverside bakery changes up regularly, always designed to showcase their star sourdough breads, but Sarah could always count on there being at least one sandwich in the case that was entirely free from animal products. Until she couldn't.

"Almost weekly, I would walk over and grab a loaf of bread and a sandwich," Sarah tells blogTO.

"I noticed it had been removed last week when I dropped in to grab one. I had just missed the last vegan sandwich. I asked when the new menu was happening and was told by the staff that it would be next week, but there would no longer be a vegan option."

Sarah then confirmed the staff member's information by sending an email to Blackbird.

"They have 5 sandwiches on the menu, why they would choose to remove the only one that everyone can eat doesn't make sense," she says.

And she's not alone. Around the same time as when Sarah noticed the sandwich's disappearance, a post about the removal of the Blackbird Baking vegan sandwich appeared on the Toronto Vegans Facebook group, and garnered an outpouring of outcry.

"It's so short sited [sic] when eateries do this. They're losing a transaction right off the bat without even trying. I hate it when restaurants do this too," one comment reads.

"Sent them an email asking why they'd leave out a whole group (vegans) when making vegan sandwiches could be eaten by veg, vegan and animal eaters. But only 2 groups would eat vegetarian Sammie. Makes no business sense imo," writes another.

Blackbird Baking assures blogTO, as it seemingly did to the concerned patrons who reached out about the vegan sandwich, that the removal had nothing to do with the desire to no longer appeal to its vegan clientele, but was instead a routine business decision.

"We appreciate that we have fans who care this much about the food we offer, and we do not like to disappoint anyone," a representative from Blackbird Baking tells blogTO. 

"However we are a bakery first, and prepared food is a very small part of our offering, intended to showcase our bread, most of which is entirely vegan. Our savoury team is small, produces all sandwich ingredients in-house, and our current menu reflects our capacity."

The selection of savoury items at Blackbird, they explain, is dictated by the costs of labour, ingredients, and past product sales, as is the case with many businesses in the food industry.

That said, the response from the Toronto vegan community has reached Blackbird, and the representative tells blogTO that a vegan sandwich may make its way back onto the prepared food menu in the future.

"We have heard, and we will try to include a vegan sandwich option when we're able."

In the meantime, they note, "Handcrafted sourdough is our primary product, and all sourdoughs are plant-based — just not all sandwiches."

If you're on the hunt for other plant-based sandwiches in the city, Sarah is quick to offer plenty of recommendations: "Tied for number one would be Animal Liberation Kitchen and Bad Attitude. So delicious, and since both businesses are plant-based, I don't have to worry about limited options."

Oi Banh Mi's tofu banh mi, all the sandwiches at Stefano's and the burgers at Soy Boys also get Sarah's seal of approval. Now to address the question of whether a burger is actually a sandwich...