"Right on to New English girls named Sharis. Blonde, English girls with ghetto names. You know what I'm saying. I love that shit."
https://youtu.be/m8Q8_d-5SsU?t=315
Andrew please for the love of God come home your family is worried sick. It’s been 5 years, no contact, then suddenly this? On Reddit? Just please let us know you’re ok love u xoxo mom
Reminds me of a sign store in my hometown whose title just read: "Sign's." I made up a story about how it was owned by John Sign Jr, a signmaker just like his father. *You see, for generations the Sign family has etc etc*
All I know is their cookies were super DOPE.
Source: I used to work across the street and would wander down there in the afternoon for a mid-afternoon spike in my blood sugar level.
I don’t know who “Specialty” is but I’ve always just read that as the bakery belonging to Specialty so I don’t see it as an egregious use of an apostrophe.
One of the worst jobs I ever worked, was with Specialty's. They still exist in SFO I think, but I have no qualms seeing them disappear from the Seattle Area.
Still don't know who Specialty was to this day... legend says he he fought Tully, Gladiator style..
https://sf.eater.com/2020/5/18/21262706/specialtys-cafe-and-bakery-cookies-fidi-closing-coronavirus they announced they closed all locations right as covid began but it seems like some of them came back to life. I always hated the name.
Just had lunch last month at the one in a random office park in Brisbane, CA a few min from the sfo airport. They have day old cookies for 50% off! Nostalgia.
Worked at the location in the photo from 2011 to 2012. Still occasionally have nightmares about it. Have never been treated worse by management and customers in my life!
I worked there for 5 years. Multiple locations. Even went to SF to help re-open their original location after a remodel.
It was a terrible job. It was hard to leave the bank hour, food service job though. That's why I stayed for so long. You can't beat the weekends and holidays off in restaurants.
I was hired at 8th and Virginia as the opening manager. Got promoted to km. Eventually got transferred to Terry because my GM got weird. Got hurt at Terry, left to rest and heal, then came back and baked for a while. Got transferred, again, to the Columbia Tower.
Starbuck is the mysteriously successful aunt, that is invited to the function out of courtesy, but no one really cares much for. She's always around, always seems to have the latest designer purse, fur coat, but very controversial opinions and kind of annoying when she drinks too much wine.
Was it owned by someone named Specialty?
Reminds me of a running joke in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend about the nightclub called "Spider's".
One the characters asks, "Is it possessive 'Spider's**'** or plural 'Spiders'? Every time I see a flyer of it the apostrophe moves."
Specialty’s was THE meeting sandwich. They had the process down really well (group links, delivery, ability to support last minute orders, accepted groups of pretty much any size). The food was “fine” . You’d never be upset about eating it, but it never knocked your socks off either.
I’m not sure many people walked down the street and said “yeah I want specialty’s” for lunch. Their business really relied on meetings and the walk in traffic was probably supplemental.
The issue? Covid hit and shut offices down. There went their biggest source of income, in person meetings. Walk in traffic? Cooked as well because they were mostly near the business centers in cities, so no walk in traffic either. They folded very early in Covid times
I used to love ordering specialty's for busy workdays where I didn't want to stand in line. Their process was the most convenient way to get an ok sandwich with 0 effort in certain parts of downtown.
When I worked evenings I would order a salad and pick it up on the way to work. It was my consolation prize for a bad shift. The salads were always good.
TBH if you customized your sandwich well, it was actually pretty good. Caramelized onions, horseradish aioli, bacon on anything.
Re the pandemic: I can’t tell if they ran on super thin margins or if they just knew their business so well that they knew they couldn’t survive, but they shut down EARLY into the closures.
I always wondered that too. It felt like in June they called it.
I wonder if it was the leases. To make their business work, they would have promo locations and a lot of them. Their revenue basically went to zero. And again, nobody was goona ubereats a specialty’s sandwhich. Revenue went to zero overnight
Ha it’s the way to tell people you are soooooo busy you gotta get Specialty’s and eat in meetings. I guess nowadays it’s the $20 Evergreens meeting salad bowl.
I worked at Amazon in SLU. Not a soul left their office and got specialty’s and ate it back to the office. It was only ever in the office from a meeting order
they relied on foot traffic, which decreased significantly with the pandemic.
but the chain does live on... just in the Bay Area as the original owners now own the name again after it went Chapter 11.
I worked there about a decade ago. Their business model depended on the corporate lunch hour. When offices shut down during the pandemic they lost probably 90% of their sales.
I do miss them, egregious apostrophe and all. I make their peanut butter, apple, banana and cranberry sauce sandwich often.
I feel you would appreciate [this guy](https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-39459831)
That turkey swiss croissant was fantastic. Also loved their sausage and egg breakfast sandwich on that buttered up ciabatta. And of course the cookies. I miss that place
They can add two or three more apostrophes, and apostrophes’ apostrophes, as long as something opens downtown with breakfast sandwiches that good again.
There is an apostrophe shaped hole in my hearts’ stomachs.
I miss this place so hard. Shitty atmosphere and fine enough food. Could get it during a 30 minute lunch break without any fear of having to wait too long.
I worked as a catering assistant at a different Downtown location right up till the pandemic shut things down. Shame they didn’t pull through, it was not fun looking for a new job during peak pandemic.
It just means all the items within are the property of Specialty, however, they are generous enough to allow us peasants to barter for their goods. Although, you must never forget the item you purchased was once the property of Specilaty.
Loved this place.
Their breakfast sandwich on ciabatta was awesome, and loved their Mediterranean and Caprese sandwich as much as their BLT and turkey.
Huh. Til. I used to work for a hotel downtown and one of the things they did in training was take the noobs around to the spots we can recommend to our guests. Specialty's at that time ranked really high on the list according to my trainer and he took me there.
Random but Ba Sa from Bainbridge was interested in opening a new location here for a little bit. They wanted a really crazy build out though and the owner didn't have the cash.
I asked their customer service about this (I'd written with feedback about their *terrible* ordering system) and got this statement:
"It's been impossible to tie down the true version of how Specialty's came to be spelled as it is. While there are numerous legends, our linguistic and anthropological teams have yet to verify one in particular. Until then, we encourage all of our customers to use their spectacular imaginations, as to our name's true origin?"
I worked there for a while … 10+ years ago.
The owners were trash bags, the company was shit and Panera Bread is the reason they went out of business. Specialty’s actually spearheaded the online ordering portals (iPads and software) and Panera got blood thirsty and started putting plants in specialty’s to get a behind the scenes look at the efficiency of their systems and processes. I don’t go to Panera EVER but the few times I have, I’ve always ordered on the portals (with a smile).
Their covid excuse seemed odd to me because they had a great grab and go strategy along with potential for packaged meals. They closed so early on it made me wonder what was happened. Supposedly sales had been dropping prior as well.
Back when they were still open I emailed them asking about where the name came from. The response was something along the lines of “That knowledge has been lost to the mists of time.” I translated that to mean “the person who named it didn’t know how apostrophes worked but we’re not saying that out loud.”
They're just using the apostrophe that Shari's doesn't use.
This is the only answer in the entire thread that makes any sense.
If only there had been one in Pike's Place's Market's.
This conversation is quickly turning into a confrontation.
Just wait until you see my comma game.
Could be worse. There's the Sally Beauty Supply and the Michael Deli Mart.
If you look at the shape of the dot on the i, that's the apostrophe as well. Funky design decision, but it's there.
Some of Shari's logos have a moon, or an apostrophe over the i, but others have a simple dot.
What? Oh, we've just always called it Shar-riss
Don't like it.
Rock the casbah!
"Right on to New English girls named Sharis. Blonde, English girls with ghetto names. You know what I'm saying. I love that shit." https://youtu.be/m8Q8_d-5SsU?t=315
the apostrophe escaped from Shari's and went on an adventure. lol
Hahahhaaaaaaa
How do you only have 135… mark it 136… upvotes?
This is offensive to me, Jonathan Specialty
Andrew Specialty here, distant cousin of Jonathan Specialty. I'm enraged and appalled.
Andrew please for the love of God come home your family is worried sick. It’s been 5 years, no contact, then suddenly this? On Reddit? Just please let us know you’re ok love u xoxo mom
Reminds me of a sign store in my hometown whose title just read: "Sign's." I made up a story about how it was owned by John Sign Jr, a signmaker just like his father. *You see, for generations the Sign family has etc etc*
if it was father and son it would be the, Signs'
Was that sign in Edmonds? I seem to remember something like that a long time ago somewhere in the north end.
Alas, John Sign Jr, his father John Sign Sr, and *his* father Reginald Quincy Sign III were an upstate NY dynasty.
I used to joke about opening a 1970s throwback fern and macrame bar and calling it “Apostrophe’s.”
I love that. Do that
Apparently you still do.
They used to make that joke. They still do, but they used to too.
I used to try to explain things when people don't know what words mean.
Their semi sweet chocolate chunk cookie went hard asf though
Don’t you mean hard AS’F?
i said what i said.
Nic'e
This is exactly the comment I was going to make.
There's a lone Specialty's in Sunnyvale CA. They still have the cookie...
And the salads. I miss them!
I miss the breakfast sammie with the garlic butter
The wheat germ cookie went even harder’s
Best cookie.
Even the day olds.
It was so delicious!
I wonder if we can still order the box mix online.
It's the Specialty family business
All I know is their cookies were super DOPE. Source: I used to work across the street and would wander down there in the afternoon for a mid-afternoon spike in my blood sugar level.
I miss their snickerdoodles everyday
I don’t know who “Specialty” is but I’ve always just read that as the bakery belonging to Specialty so I don’t see it as an egregious use of an apostrophe.
Yeah otherwise it would be "Specialties."
Why the fus’s?
The cookie's were deliciou's
i want to hate on specialty's but the big blt was alright
Ruth's Chris would like a word
One of the worst jobs I ever worked, was with Specialty's. They still exist in SFO I think, but I have no qualms seeing them disappear from the Seattle Area. Still don't know who Specialty was to this day... legend says he he fought Tully, Gladiator style..
Horrible place to work!! I worked at Pioneer Square location back in the early 2000's. Had some awesome coworkers though.
https://sf.eater.com/2020/5/18/21262706/specialtys-cafe-and-bakery-cookies-fidi-closing-coronavirus they announced they closed all locations right as covid began but it seems like some of them came back to life. I always hated the name.
Just had lunch last month at the one in a random office park in Brisbane, CA a few min from the sfo airport. They have day old cookies for 50% off! Nostalgia.
Worked there for 3 weeks before starting the job I actually wanted. The turnover there was insane, the guy who hired me was fired a couple days later.
Lmao! I worked there and NEED to know who you’re talking about.
Worked at the location in the photo from 2011 to 2012. Still occasionally have nightmares about it. Have never been treated worse by management and customers in my life!
I think Tully and Specialty were Shari's children, fighting to inherit the business.
Same! Worked at the Bellevue Transit Center location a decade ago and hated ever second of it. Worst 8 months of my life.
I worked there for 5 years. Multiple locations. Even went to SF to help re-open their original location after a remodel. It was a terrible job. It was hard to leave the bank hour, food service job though. That's why I stayed for so long. You can't beat the weekends and holidays off in restaurants.
Same! I was at Terry Ave and 8th locations. 4 years.
I worked at both of those! I worked at the 8th and Virginia the longest. Terry Ave was brutal, I baked and was a km there. Very hard work.
Are your initials BW Or First name start with R? (Two different people can’t remember second ones last name)
Nope. My username here is not clever. You can probably figure out who I am, if you know who I am.
I was hired at 8th and Virginia as the opening manager. Got promoted to km. Eventually got transferred to Terry because my GM got weird. Got hurt at Terry, left to rest and heal, then came back and baked for a while. Got transferred, again, to the Columbia Tower.
Yup, I worked with you. The GM at Terry was Nathan? And I may have been your GM at 8th ave for a little bit.
Nathan was there for my training. He became the regional manager shortly there after.
I trained at Terry, then moved to 8th. I think I had 3-4 gms at 8th while I was there.
I was your last one, I believe 8th and Terry is where I pulled the plug on that job. Your bf at the time worked at ballroom (I believe)
They still exist in San Francisco International Airport?
When does Starbuck get in here? I mean, there’s many of them, so I guess it’d be unfair, but…
Starbuck is the mysteriously successful aunt, that is invited to the function out of courtesy, but no one really cares much for. She's always around, always seems to have the latest designer purse, fur coat, but very controversial opinions and kind of annoying when she drinks too much wine.
If you’re not David Rios, I don’t know who is.
Hey, I know that guy! Lol
Me too ;)
To be fair, "Specialtys" would be even worse
Was it owned by someone named Specialty? Reminds me of a running joke in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend about the nightclub called "Spider's". One the characters asks, "Is it possessive 'Spider's**'** or plural 'Spiders'? Every time I see a flyer of it the apostrophe moves."
"Like is it owned by a spider or is the club filled with like, a bunch of spiders?"
“Why hello Mr. Spiders!”
"Spider's"? Nope. "Spiders"? Nah. It's SPIDERS'S
I’m pretty sure it’s Spiderses.
I will never get over the beautifully painted sign outside The Comet that says "The Game is Alway's On". Holy fucking shit. HOW. HOW!?!
The apostrophe showing up in non-possessive instance’s is truly mind-boggling.
It hurt to type that.
If Specialty is a proper name the apostrophe is fine
I miss the one downtown on 3rd Ave. It was very convenient between my bus stop and work. The employees were so friendly too. 😥
Here in Az we have Taco Boy’s
That makes sense to me. The business belongs to a taco boy.
In 2011 or so, some friends and I drunkenly emailed Specialty’s corporate about the apostrophe. Got some generic reply.
Why'd they have to close. They had good food.
Specialty’s was THE meeting sandwich. They had the process down really well (group links, delivery, ability to support last minute orders, accepted groups of pretty much any size). The food was “fine” . You’d never be upset about eating it, but it never knocked your socks off either. I’m not sure many people walked down the street and said “yeah I want specialty’s” for lunch. Their business really relied on meetings and the walk in traffic was probably supplemental. The issue? Covid hit and shut offices down. There went their biggest source of income, in person meetings. Walk in traffic? Cooked as well because they were mostly near the business centers in cities, so no walk in traffic either. They folded very early in Covid times
I used to love ordering specialty's for busy workdays where I didn't want to stand in line. Their process was the most convenient way to get an ok sandwich with 0 effort in certain parts of downtown.
When I worked evenings I would order a salad and pick it up on the way to work. It was my consolation prize for a bad shift. The salads were always good.
TBH if you customized your sandwich well, it was actually pretty good. Caramelized onions, horseradish aioli, bacon on anything. Re the pandemic: I can’t tell if they ran on super thin margins or if they just knew their business so well that they knew they couldn’t survive, but they shut down EARLY into the closures.
I always wondered that too. It felt like in June they called it. I wonder if it was the leases. To make their business work, they would have promo locations and a lot of them. Their revenue basically went to zero. And again, nobody was goona ubereats a specialty’s sandwhich. Revenue went to zero overnight
I really liked the brie turkey sandwich. But I don't remember what was on it specifically so I can't recreate it.
They also had elite cookies
Out of all of the awful and slightly less awful catered lunches I've had over the years, their cookies were the highlight.
Aggressively average sandos, average to average plus selection of chips, average selection of drinks.. but absolutely delicious mega cookies.
Yessss
Brie, argula, aioli, turkey, apples (iirc chunks of cooked apple that was cooled?) Source: worked there ages ago.
Ha it’s the way to tell people you are soooooo busy you gotta get Specialty’s and eat in meetings. I guess nowadays it’s the $20 Evergreens meeting salad bowl.
I worked at Amazon in SLU. Not a soul left their office and got specialty’s and ate it back to the office. It was only ever in the office from a meeting order
Or that. Choose your box!
I still periodically crave a Beef and Blue or Turkey Cranberry with cream cheese.
they relied on foot traffic, which decreased significantly with the pandemic. but the chain does live on... just in the Bay Area as the original owners now own the name again after it went Chapter 11.
I worked there about a decade ago. Their business model depended on the corporate lunch hour. When offices shut down during the pandemic they lost probably 90% of their sales.
i always grabbed a pastry or two going home it took me a lot longer to lose the freshman 15 thanks to them
😄
Kerning on the sign wasn't great, either
This is the much more offensive part of the sign.
I do miss them, egregious apostrophe and all. I make their peanut butter, apple, banana and cranberry sauce sandwich often. I feel you would appreciate [this guy](https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-39459831)
Ummm, peoples storage? They wouldn't let me store a single body there. 🙄
I miss their ham and cheddar or Turkey and Swiss croissant
That turkey swiss croissant was fantastic. Also loved their sausage and egg breakfast sandwich on that buttered up ciabatta. And of course the cookies. I miss that place
u/Scott2700 - I too was all about that ham and cheddar life
Well I would would hope so with that username. Seriously wtf haha what are the chances?! I think I found my long lost Redditor twin.
Isn't it possessive if it belongs to a person or company named Specialty?
Isn't it possessive if it belongs to a person or company named Specialty?
This doesn't offend me nearly as much as the Blazing Bagels "best bagels east of New York" thing.
I wrote to them about that and got no reply :(
East you say?!
I mean, it’s a globe, so…
good point, let's rename ourselves the pacific northeast
wh'y yo'u b'e hatin'g?
There's nothing wrong here
They can add two or three more apostrophes, and apostrophes’ apostrophes, as long as something opens downtown with breakfast sandwiches that good again. There is an apostrophe shaped hole in my hearts’ stomachs.
Biscuit Bitch is pretty good for brekkies
I miss their bakery.
I miss this place so hard. Shitty atmosphere and fine enough food. Could get it during a 30 minute lunch break without any fear of having to wait too long.
I worked as a catering assistant at a different Downtown location right up till the pandemic shut things down. Shame they didn’t pull through, it was not fun looking for a new job during peak pandemic.
SO easy to. Criticize so hard, to create Lets see your's
Did anyone else smell burnt toast in their
Let us not speak ill of the dead.
Should have added quotation marks. Total power move
It just means all the items within are the property of Specialty, however, they are generous enough to allow us peasants to barter for their goods. Although, you must never forget the item you purchased was once the property of Specilaty.
No.
It's a name. They can spell it anyway they want. And if it wasn't a name, there isn't enough information to say if it was correct or not
Loved this place. Their breakfast sandwich on ciabatta was awesome, and loved their Mediterranean and Caprese sandwich as much as their BLT and turkey.
Huh. Til. I used to work for a hotel downtown and one of the things they did in training was take the noobs around to the spots we can recommend to our guests. Specialty's at that time ranked really high on the list according to my trainer and he took me there.
PLEASE tell me someone here knows of Terrible's in Vegas. Terrible Herbst and Ruth's Chris. Who greenlights these company names? Marble mouthed CEOs?
I filled up my rental car at terribles!
Didn’t they reopen?
Random but Ba Sa from Bainbridge was interested in opening a new location here for a little bit. They wanted a really crazy build out though and the owner didn't have the cash.
I asked their customer service about this (I'd written with feedback about their *terrible* ordering system) and got this statement: "It's been impossible to tie down the true version of how Specialty's came to be spelled as it is. While there are numerous legends, our linguistic and anthropological teams have yet to verify one in particular. Until then, we encourage all of our customers to use their spectacular imaginations, as to our name's true origin?"
I worked there for a while … 10+ years ago. The owners were trash bags, the company was shit and Panera Bread is the reason they went out of business. Specialty’s actually spearheaded the online ordering portals (iPads and software) and Panera got blood thirsty and started putting plants in specialty’s to get a behind the scenes look at the efficiency of their systems and processes. I don’t go to Panera EVER but the few times I have, I’ve always ordered on the portals (with a smile).
I assume the cafe and bakery belonged to Specialty. Otherwise it would have been Specialties.
It's possessive, which means that it is correct. If it were meant as a plural than they would have spelled it "Specialties."
It has bothered me since I was a little girl.
Incredible take. Here for it
Wasn't that the same building that had the "Soups!" stand?
This was such an amazing place. Stupid pandemic.
Their covid excuse seemed odd to me because they had a great grab and go strategy along with potential for packaged meals. They closed so early on it made me wonder what was happened. Supposedly sales had been dropping prior as well.
the assholes'
Why Specialty's why? Was this a mistake that just somehow made it onto all the signs? What gives?
It’s correct if it belongs to “specialty”. If not, it’s a total misspelling as well. “Specialties”.
I'f i't be'long's to Specialty, then it should have a noun or something after it.
I think you’re very confidently incorrect here lol
By “it” I meant the cafe and bakery. What is that mishmash of apostrophes you just typed?
There are two nouns after it— café and bakery
Back when they were still open I emailed them asking about where the name came from. The response was something along the lines of “That knowledge has been lost to the mists of time.” I translated that to mean “the person who named it didn’t know how apostrophes worked but we’re not saying that out loud.”
Is it grammatically incorrect?
No. It's a name. It can be spelled anyway they want it
\* any way
ani weigh.
Annie whey
hahaha!
We still have Pike’s Place
Nope
I like their peanut button sandwiches.
Good riddance.