With both parents hailing from Abruzzo, in the small town of Teramo, Luca Sacchetti spent his childhood summers in Italy visiting his grandparents and embracing the culture.
“The food, the family, the love, the togetherness has always been a big, big part of my life,” Sacchetti told What Now Seattle.
As Sacchetti grew older, he and his father became “fanatical” about sandwiches—especially their favorite, a mortadella sandwich on schiacciata, the Tuscan flatbread prized for its crispy crust and airy interior.
Up until his father’s death about four years ago, he and his dad would passionately debate whether a sandwich was good or not. He had spent many years as a musician, performing as a singer in a band, but his father often urged him to open a sandwich shop.
“After his passing, I’ve been kind of in this transition, not really knowing what I wanted to do or what the next 10 or 20 years of my life was going to look like,” he said. “I started thinking I should open a sandwich shop. My dad would love that, just absolutely love it.”
The only thing initially holding him back from opening the sandwich shop was figuring out how to perfect the schiacciata bread.
“It’s the ratio between the bread and the meat that makes it just absolutely magical and the marriage between the two,” Sacchetti said.
Now, Sacchetti is partnering with chef Kirin Chun, his former colleague at El Gaucho, and William Leaman of Bakery Nouveau to bring his father’s long-envisioned dream to life: a sandwich shop called Fortuna Bottega.
“We decided that William was going to make the bread. He bakes it 50% in his kitchen and then we bake off the last 50% in our shop,” Sacchetti said. “He pointed at his mixer and it said ‘Fortuna.’ He said that’s what we should name the shop and we looked at each other and said, ‘That’s the name of our shop.’”
The Fortuna logo, designed through 99designs, features a wheel topped by a jester with outstretched arms.
“The Lady of Fortuna is about good fortune, the struggles of life and the turbulence you go through,” he said. “The jester symbolizes the releasing of that and knowing in life you have to accept things and just let them be.”
Fortuna plans to offer seven distinct sandwiches, each crafted with no more than five ingredients.
“There’s a certain art. The way you place the meat on bread, instead of packing it you almost just drop it onto the bread and the way it folds is the way it’s supposed to be. You don’t put a lot of ingredients in because it needs that air. When you take a bite, you can taste the things that are in there rather than having too many ingredients fighting for that dominance,” Sacchetti said.
He continued, “Where you place something on a sandwich can absolutely change the experience of the bite or flavor. Whether you put sun-dried tomatoes underneath the meat or above the meat, it’s going to have a different taste.”
The restaurant’s design will feature a silver tin ceiling, a dark blue and white interior and vibrant orange chairs. An outdoor patio will offer seating and a large screen for Sunday football, while the back wall will showcase a peacock mural accented with dragonflies.
“The thing that’s really important is the idea of community and putting something that really enhances the neighborhood,” Sacchetti said. “The idea of people coming together and enjoying something simple like a sandwich and a glass of wine or a beer, that’s the philosophy.”
Fortuna Bottega will officially debut in September.
