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The sandwich menu at The Wicked Wich sandwich shop includes, clockwise from left, chickpea salad, The Beast (roast beef, turkey, Genoa salami, capicola, soppressata, provolone), a hero (Genoa salami, capicola, soppressata, mortadella, provolone, cherry peppers) and turkey.

Feliza Salazar owns and operates The Wicked Wich, a sandwich shop inside the San Antonio convenience store Oscar de la Tienda. 

A sandwich called The Beast comes with roast beef, turkey, Genoa salami, capicola, soppressata, provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles at The Wicked Wich, a sandwich shop inside the San Antonio convenience store Oscar de la Tienda. 

A chickpea salad sandwich comes with sprouts, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and pickles at The Wicked Wich, a sandwich shop inside the San Antonio convenience store Oscar de la Tienda. 

The Wicked Wich is a sandwich shop inside the San Antonio convenience store Oscar de la Tienda.

A hero sandwich includes Genoa salami, capicola, soppressata, mortadella, provolone, cherry peppers, pepperoncini, onions, lettuce and tomatoes at The Wicked Wich.

A turkey sandwich comes with turkey, provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles at The Wicked Wich.

The Wicked Wich is a sandwich shop inside the San Antonio convenience store Oscar de la Tienda. 

The sandwich menu at The Wicked Wich

“I wish I had something to sell you,” said Feliza Salazar with an apologetically furrowed brow as I ducked inside the Oscar de La Tienda mini-mart in Alta Vista just after 2 o’clock on a hot Thursday afternoon.

Salazar owns and operates The Wicked Wich, a sandwich counter inside the community-focused store, a hub for locals to display their art and buy coffee beans, Lucky Charms and Bettie Page refrigerator magnets.

I’d been caught in the whirlwind of supply and demand, and the lunch rush that started at 11 a.m. had wiped out Wicked Wich in three hours. Sold out. Gone. Salazar stocks the shop only with what’s projected to sell that day. Fresh in, fresh out, from the bread and sub rolls and veggies bought every morning to the chickpea salad Salazar makes by hand. 

And not only was everything gone, Salazar was dealing with an equipment outage that threatened to spill into the next day. But true to the hustle and flow of the hungry entrepreneur, Salazar was back at it by Friday morning, in full swing with two co-workers building every sandwich to order.

Location: 801 W. Russell Place, Suite A, inside Oscar de la Tienda mini-mart, Instagram: @thewickedwichsa

Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. or sellout Tuesday-Sunday

It’s takeout, mostly, aside from three seats at the compact counter and a table in the back. Apart from the six sandwiches on the menu and a rotating special, there's nothing else to it. Nothing except a whole mini-mart worth of chips, drinks and desserts. Cupcakes, kombucha and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, anyone? Or maybe just a six-pack of Miller High Life ponies.

Salazar comes by the hustle honestly, having spent seven years working for Subway, eventually running three stores. But it’s not accurate to compare Wicked Wich to that franchise factory. Except to say that this is what they want to be when they grow up.

Call it Subway, the right way. 

On ExpressNews.com: Oscar de la Tienda corner store fuels Alta Vista with art, music, sandwiches

Best sandwich: Wicked Wich isn’t by mission or by menu a vegetarian operation, but damn if it doesn’t make a great vegan chickpea salad sandwich ($8), stacked high with sprouts, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, onions and pickles on soft multigrain bread. But the chickpea salad’s the real hero, made by Salazar from mashed garbanzo beans, paprika and vegan mayo for a spread that was cohesive, flavorful and filling.

Other sandwiches: When it’s flex time at Wicked Wich, that flex has a name: The Beast ($12). It’s layered like a lunchbox birthday cake with roast beef, turkey, Genoa salami, capicola, soppressata, mortadella and provolone. 

And this is where Salazar leaves Subway behind, because it’s not just a salty, fatty pile of unaffiliated lunchmeats. They help each other out, balancing turkey’s athletic lean with mortadella’s velvet gloss, beef’s stoic reserve with capicola’s loudmouth swagger. It’s all built on a soft sub roll with a full dress of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, vinegar, oil and brown mustard to keep things from getting too stiff and formal.

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Take The Beast down a notch on the aggro meter and you get the hero ($10), a classic Italian deli number with Genoa salami, capicola, soppressata, mortadella, provolone and a tumble of cherry peppers and pepperoncini that added some twang to a conversation between old friends.

I hardly ever order just a turkey sandwich. Because when I ask myself — “Is this the day after Thanksgiving?” — the answer is almost always no. This is the turkey sandwich that could change my mind, just a clean stack of deli-sliced turkey in proper proportion to the sub roll, finished with provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles and a splash of oil and vinegar ($9). 

I’ll be over by the Cheetos if you need me.

msutter@express-news.net | Twitter: @fedmanwalking | Instagram: @fedmanwalking

Mike Sutter is the Express-News restaurant critic. Before joining the Taste Team in 2016, he served as restaurant critic for the Austin American-Statesman and editor of FedManWalking.com. He's appeared on NPR's "All Things Considered," ABC's "To Tell the Truth" and written for The Guardian, Bon Appetit and The Wall Street Journal.