Artist serves up sandwiches to satisfaction
By LIZ ENKE
DCN Correspondent
A chilling winter breeze blows behind a customer entering the Fourth Street Market. The smell of fried chicken lingers in the air while Christmas music plays in the background.
Behind the counter employees carry on gleeful conversations one another. The laughter personifies the unhurried, yet productive, atmosphere that’s always present.
Two little boys run up and down the aisles from behind the counter. Scurrying around the store, they briefly slow down to inspect the few customers browsing the merchandise and then giggle.
After a quick loop around the store, it’s back to behind the counter. They tug on a man’s pants while he’s in an intense conversation about soup with a coworker.
“What did I tell you about talking to me while I’m talking?� the man says.
And that was that. Back to running around the store they went.
A performance is happening off in the distance. Pickles are plopping onto burgers in a crazy, yet refined process. In the blink of an eye, about a dozen sandwiches are accompanied by a single pickle.
The star of the show emerges. Sandwich artist April Miner is on a roll. Plastic wrap and sandwiches flail around in the air. From a distance it looks like pure chaos. It is not chaos, it’s an assembly line of sandwiches run by one person.
Miner has her game face on as she tries to package these sandwiches in a record time, hoping to beat nobody’s record but her own. Finished. She looks at the packaged sandwiches with what seems to be satisfaction.
“Click, click, click,� goes the price gun. Satisfaction has not been reached. The one-woman assembly line must press on. Up, down, down, down, up the price gun travels until all the sandwiches are tagged, “click, click, click.�
Pause.
Miner steps away from the stage and picks up a yellow grocery basket from one of the aisles. Back to the show she goes. The end is in sight. She places the sandwiches in the basket; it’s time to move.
Spoke too soon. A sandwich, unwrapped, came out of hiding. Miner quickly wraps, tags it and tosses it with the rest.
The sandwiches are brought to the deli section. One by one, each is put out in an abrupt manner. Done. Miner takes a step back to admire the finished product. And there they are, 15 “Ma & Pa Fourth Street Market Double Cheeseburgers $2.39.�
Perfection. As a line starts to form at the Fourth Street Market, Miner heads back to the stage with Styrofoam plates and a bag of buns. Another performance is about to begin.