Goldie's and Bakery Burger ask $25 for a sandwich, and they have reasons

Goldie's Goodness Outpost in the Glebe has sandwiches priced at nearly $25, and Bakery Burger in Hintonburg charges $27.50 for its most expensive burger with fries. Those are roughly twice what some fast-food competitors charge.

Jimmy Bickford, owner-operator of Goldie's, which opened July 22, said the price was a matter of arithmetic. "We added up the cost of the products and once the costing was figured out, this was the price it needed to be for the business to be sustainable and to pay employees and keep the lights on," he said. "Trying to be expensive wasn't the goal."

Goldie's has no room for a full kitchen in its former convenience store space, so it roasts meats in-house, makes some condiments from scratch and buys bread baked to its specifications from Ottawa suppliers. Four sandwiches use sesame semolina hero buns from True Loaf Bread Company.

The chicken cutlet sandwich is $24.50, the porchetta $23.75 and the roast beef $24.75. The mortadella sandwich, on focaccia from Michael Sunderland of Michael's Dolce, is $17.50, and the prosciutto is $18.50. The roast beef was the reviewer's favourite. The prosciutto sandwich needed work, with the meat getting lost among the other ingredients.