Odie B’s Second Sandwich Shop Delivers the Hits

Where:

2651 W. 38th Ave., Denver (Sunnyside); 1350 40th St., Suite 180 (Cole)

The Draw:

Over-the-top-but-hits-the-mark sandwiches; plant-based options

The Drawback:

For some, the music may be too loud; falafel is overly salty

Noise Level:

Loud

What To Order:

The Boujee breakfast sandwich; chopped cheese sandwich; mixed bag of fries; the Hustler breakfast burrito; chicken biscuit; carrot-ginger-lemon OD blas

Odie B’s is more than just a sandwich shop; it’s a highly caloric, deeply satisfying, dopamine-producing vibe. The concept—both the smallish OG in Sunnyside and the brand-new, more spacious spinoff—is nothing short of a joy machine.

When Cliff and Cara Blauvelt opened the first restaurant in 2022, they named it Bodega (despite lacking the convenience-store shelves of its typical East Coast namesake). But after two years of crushing it with a packed dining room every day, they received a cease-and-desist letter from a Kansas City restaurant named La Bodega, so they quickly swapped in signage and printed materials with the new moniker. Honestly, Odie B’s fits all the better. Cara says Cliff chose the name because “it’s kinda hip-hop cool”—just like the couple’s restaurants.

You can hear the music thumping even before you enter the new spot on the border between the Cole and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods: Wu-Tang, Nelly, Keith Sweat, MF Doom. Order at the counter over the window-rattling beat (don’t worry—in my three visits, the staff has yet to misunderstand me); take your table card, emblazoned with ’80s and ’90s icons (Trapper Keeper, Carlton Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air) to a seat; and wait. Everyone—from guests to staff—is smiling big. There’s true hospitality here, delivered casually and warmly.

That comes straight from the Blauvelts. “In a world where hospitality is kind of dying, if we can blow people away at our little sandwich shop, that’s something,” Cara says.

Read More: Odie B’s: The 25 Best Restaurants in Denver This Year

There’s an intentionality to Odie B’s paved by six years of sobriety for the owners. The two met at Steuben’s, when Cliff was cooking and Cara was hosting. Years passed before their paths crossed again, but after reconnecting, they got sober together, opened the Sunnyside eatery, and got married a month later. (Cara jokes that her wedding diet was the Hustler, Odie B’s breakfast burrito jacked with chorizo, scrambled egg, roasted green chiles, tots, cheddar jack, and habanero crema.) Unsurprisingly, the menu’s nonalcoholic drinks stand out, especially the carrot-ginger-lemon juice served shaken, with the flair of a cocktail.

“Cliff doesn’t put anything on the menu that isn’t better than everything else out there; it has to have its own meaning and value,” Cara says. Take the Boujee, a breakfast sandwich with scrambled egg, whipped herby cheese spread, house greens, muhammara, and za’atar on pillowy City Bakery focaccia. Even without adding bacon, pork belly, or Impossible sausage (Odie B’s highly indulgent menu lists a plant-based option for nearly 80 percent of its items), this sando remakes the category. You’ll crave it in the morning and in the afternoon, and at the new location, you can also order it in the evening.

Here’s the other thing: Odie B’s portions are massive, so you can split a dish and the cost (that $13 breakfast sammie is now only $6.50). Same goes for the towering $16 chicken biscuit, which—with a fried chicken thigh, apricot honey butter spiked with Calabrian chile, and a runny egg all loaded onto a smoked cheddar and chive buttermilk biscuit—makes every other biscuit sandwich look like an amuse-bouche.

And then you have the chopped cheese ($16). The overstuffed hoagie is a take on the New York bodega classic—like a cheeseburger with all the fixings chopped on the flattop so everything gets cooked and crispy. At Odie B’s, it gets an upgrade with house-made breakfast sausage instead of ground beef, dill-pickled onions, pickled fresno chiles, and American cheese. The whole mess is minced and hashed before being slid onto a toasted roll, slathered with green-chile-based “fancy sauce,” and topped with shredded iceberg lettuce. It’s all a sandwich should be—decadent, gooey, satisfying, multitextured—especially with the finishing shake of everything seasoning for seedy, garlicky crunch.

More than sandwiches populate the Odie B’s universe. There’s the don’t-miss bag of mixed fries (thin-cut, waffle, wedge, and sweet potato, all together) showered with nutritional yeast and a proprietary seasoning blend called Bodega Dust. For something lighter, try the Damn Good Salad, which would have indeed been damn good if I hadn’t added the way-too-salty falafel (one of two $5 upgrades on offer; the other is fried chicken) to the crunchy pile of greens, roasted nuts, fennel, radish, carrot, and pickled apricot and red onion. Let me tell you, I will be asking for the recipe for the pistachio vinaigrette until the day I die. As for the falafel? I pushed them to the side and forgot all about them.

Honestly, that’s the only negative I can conjure up about Odie B’s. And the best positive (of many) I can say is this: Of the thousands of restaurants I’ve dined at over the years, I can’t think of another place where, from the second I walked through the door, I felt like I wasn’t just a customer. I was a part of something.

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5 Cookbooks To Peruse at Odie B’s

In keeping with Odie B’s commitment to building community around food, the Blauvelts display their extensive cookbook collection (ranging from A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches to Smoke & Pickles) at their restaurants. Prompted by a customer we overheard commenting, “Cool books, but I wonder if they really look at them,” we decided to ask. These are Cliff’s favorites.

1. The Flavor Bible (2008)

“If you’re ever stuck on a particular dish and looking for that extra oomph, hit The Flavor Bible by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. It’s an absolute must-have for any cook, professional or at home. I gift this book the most because it’s just so damn useful.”

2. Soups, Salads, Sandwiches (2024)

“Anything from Matty Matheson [yes, The Bear actor really is a chef and a cookbook author], but Soups, Salads, Sandwiches is a baller book. I’m not sure there is a more fun chef and cookbook combo out there.”

3. Max’s Sandwich Book (2018)

“Max’s Sandwich Book by Max Halley is truly the ultimate guide to creating perfection between two slices of bread.”

4. Ratio (2009)

“Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio is a technique-driven book that creates a solid base for your dishes.”

5. The Food Lab (2015)

“The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is a technical cookbook that will keep you in the know and turning the pages.”

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Read More:

• Odie B’s: The 25 Best Restaurants in Denver This Year
• The 43 Best Places to Brunch in Denver
• The 17 Best Sandwiches in (and Around) Denver