Open Market’s new cookbook disappeared nearly as fast as the cafe’s daily sandwiches.

The Koreatown restaurant and wine shop known for its L.A.-inspired recipes turned five this month, and released a hardcover cookbook to celebrate. “The Open Market Recipe Book, Vol. 1” details some of its best sandwiches through the years, with each recipe hand-illustrated — and it sold out in less than three hours.

“It’s a good time capsule of the last five years,” said chef-partner Andrew Marco, who spearheaded the writing. “We weren’t expecting to sell a lot. It was more for the customers who really liked us and have followed us for a while. It’s like a keepsake for us, because five years is a nice little milestone to hit.”

When husband-and-wife team Brian and Yoonna Lee partnered with chefs Andrew Marco and Ralph Hsiao in 2021, they envisioned a modern corner store and bodega for and by Angelenos. The chips and pantry products came from regional makers, and Open Market hosted artists, pop-ups and other ways to spotlight locals.

Over time, the bodega shelves emptied to make way for bottles of worldly wine and beer, but the love for the city remains five years later — as do those signature sandwiches.

The sandwiches derive their names from the city’s streets. The Normandie combines gyudon with a classic French dip. The Kenmore is a Korean take on tuna salad. The Hill Street special riffs on the salt-and-pepper pork chops found at Chinatown’s Full House, here reimagined into a quasi-katsu sando.

There are plump breakfast burritos and sweet-salty miso cookies to be found at Open Market, but the stars will always be the sandwiches.

Some of Open Market’s most popular stacks rotate on and off the menu via the Friday special, but with the new cookbook — which restocked at the cafe last Wednesday — you can now have them at home.

The recipe book began with the drawings: Open Market tends to announce weekly sandwich specials with hand sketches on butcher paper, and over the years they’d amassed dozens. Some of this art was used to decorate the space, but to one friend of the owners, it seemed like a good idea for a coffee table book or a cookbook. As the team neared five years, they remembered the suggestion and dove in.

This was Marco’s first attempt at writing a cookbook, though as a self-taught chef he owns countless titles. These and online tutorials taught him how to navigate cooking alongside his friend and business partner Hsiao, first in their Filipino pop-up dinner series together, then at Open Market.

The “Open Market Recipe Book” is full of stories and the inspirations behind each sandwich. The recipes are entirely metric-based — be sure to invest in a kitchen scale before attempting.

Sandwiches, Marco said, are a universal and democratized way of eating: So many cultures offer them, and in a culture-crossing city like Los Angeles, they can be a way to embrace, taste and discover so many new flavors.

Given that Open Market’s new cookbook is pointedly called “Vol. 1,” will there be another edition released for a future anniversary? According to the team, maybe so. But they’re taking it one sandwich and day at a time.

“We were playing around with calling it ‘Vol. 1’ and leaving it be, or maybe just putting a year time mark on it,” Marco said. “I think for us, it was more like: If we put ‘Vol. 1,’ then it’ll force us to have to do ‘Vol. 2’ one of these days.”

Try your hand at one of Open Market’s most popular sandwiches, the K-Town Cowboy, with this recipe from the new cookbook. Then stop by the cafe to pick up a copy, and maybe a sandwich or three.

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Open Market’s K-Town Cowboy

Arby’s wishes it could make a roast beef sandwich this good. By using quality ingredients — including slow-roasted boneless rib-eye steak and a homemade spin on thick, gooey cheddar sauce — Open Market’s take on the fast-food icon is everything you wish the Beef ‘n Cheddar could be. The real kick comes from Marco and Hsiao’s version of horseradish sauce, which is also packed with crushed red chile flakes, Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder for an umami-bomb base.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: About 3 hours. Makes 4 to 6 sandwiches.