Margo Gildner, a Stax employee and Moscow native, said she began working at Stax about a year ago in order to save up some money and she has loved it. She said Stax is the best sandwich shop in Moscow and although it is not the fastest, it has the highest quality food.
“There”s no preservatives, nothing like that in there, which is why it always smells like fresh-made bread when people come in here in the morning,” said Andy Severson, manager of Stax”s Moscow location.
Nina Rydalch | Argonaut
People stop at Stax for a quick lunch March 8.
Severson said he makes the bread early in the morning, so the shop smells like freshly baked bread when it opens. Stax is also well known for its portion size, he said.
“Our regular is enough to feed most people, so our large is very big,” he said.
Severson said Stax offers a variety of cold sandwiches, but it also has grilled sandwiches, soups and salads. The grilled sandwiches are the most popular option among the customers, and there are also various special ingredients in addition to the normal deli options, he said.
“We had a Tuscan seasoned chicken that was really popular here, and then more recently a chipotle pesto,” Severson said.
He said Stax has two locations, both in Idaho. One is in Moscow and the other in McCall. He said the Moscow location is the “mother location,” having opened the October 2009.
“We”ve really kind of been embraced by the community,” he said.
The owners then introduced a Stax to McCall in 2012 and Severson said he hopes to open a third location in Lewiston in June.
“We have always kind of wanted to have multiple locations,” he said.
Severson said Lewiston would be a good fit for Stax, as it is a small Idaho town and Stax is a family shop. He said Stax was a convenient source of income for the owners because they could take their kids to school in the morning and by the time school ended they could pick them up.
“It started as a way for the original owners to stay very active in their kids” lives,” Severson said.
Gildner said the family atmosphere extends to the relationships between the employees.
Severson said it is common for them to make five to six hundred sandwiches a day. He said this includes serving people who walk in for grab-and-go from the University of Idaho and other local businesses, especially medical offices.
Severson said he thought it was likely easier for customers to call in the morning to order a working lunch than to go somewhere in the middle of the day.
“I would imagine every department at the U of I (buys sandwiches) off and on throughout the year,” he said.
Nina Rydalch can be reached at [email protected]