Beneath the climbing skyline of South Brisbane, PepperJack Sandwiches is stacking up a reputation of its own. Inspired by the fast-casual joints of San Francisco, it serves up specialty sandwiches that are big on taste and quick to go. But behind the crunchy bread and loaded fillings is a bigger story of sharp pivots, early challenges and a co-founder who ditched the corporate grind to build a new kind of business.
A taste for change
When Henry Wong first bit into a San Francisco-style sandwich while studying abroad in California, he had no idea it would shape his future. “In the food court, there was this one sandwich shop,” says Henry. “There was always a huge line all the way out the door. When I tried it, I was amazed – it was like nothing I’d ever tried before.”
Years later, a corporate restructure brought his finance career to a halt, prompting Henry to reconsider his next move. He had a redundancy payout, a long-standing desire to start a business and an idea: to bring that bold, flavour-packed sandwich experience to Australia.
Henry admits the timing was sooner than expected. “I wanted to have all my backup options in line before I dived straight into business. But I got let go earlier, and then COVID hit, so it made finding another job hard.”
Rather than finishing his finance studies, “I was like, ‘I’ll just burn the bridges and just go all in now’,” he recalls. He threw his savings into launching his own venture. And that’s how PepperJack Sandwiches was born.
Building a business from scratch
PepperJack began in a ghost kitchen, where Henry and his wife (and co-owner) Michelle spent a year testing their recipes and refining their concept before taking the next step: a physical store. They quietly opened their South Brisbane location in 2020, taking a more organic approach to growth. “I relied on the product being good and word of mouth to slowly grow the business,” Henry shares.
Progress was not without its challenges. A few months in, Michelle stepped back to care for their newborn, leaving Henry to manage the shop while also juggling parenthood. Understandably, he says, “It was pretty hard.” Their decision to price their menu affordably also created some early financial pressure. But it was a conscious trade-off to build a loyal customer following, and Henry could see the sales going up every week. “I just had to try to endure until we got to a break-even point where the economics of the model would start working.”
Their approach centred on good food that people could enjoy regularly, setting them apart from boutique sandwich shops with higher price tags. “People can only eat that maybe once a week. Whereas I want my food to be what they eat at the office, or where they can go and get a quick bite two or three times a week.”
To help get things off the ground, the duo turned to affordable tools that were easy to use and built to support their vision.
Powering their start with Square
Henry and Michelle adopted a flexible setup early on with Square, starting with online ordering during their ghost kitchen days. “Square was the easiest,” Henry says. “You can just take out your mobile phone and do it.” With no space for a full POS setup, a mobile-friendly solution was key.
From there, the setup naturally evolved. When they opened PepperJack, the all-in-one Square Register had just been released. “It was exactly what I wanted because I wanted a front-facing screen. So we ended up just sticking with Square the whole way.”
Queues? Kiosks to the rescue
One of PepperJack’s biggest upgrades came with the release of the self-serve Square Kiosk. For nearly two years, Henry had been keen to integrate kiosks to meet their growing needs, but wasn’t happy with what was available. “I was dying to get a kiosk and I was looking everywhere to see if I could get one to work with Square,” he says. When Square launched its own in 2024, he jumped on it straight away. The impact was immediate. “The kiosk really changed the business.”
Before that, customers would form a long queue at a single register, and staff had to step away from prepping food to jump in. “Because we have a small store, we didn’t have a dedicated person just taking orders,” Henry says.
Now, with five kiosks up and running, those bottlenecks are gone. “We need that many for lunch,” Henry explains. “If you have a line out the door, it’s bad because the overall wait time for each customer goes up. If they can just all order at the same time, they can get their food faster and spend less time in the store. That’s more convenience for them.”
He’s also observed that customers take more time exploring the full menu on the kiosks instead of making rushed decisions at the counter. “It’s helpful for people who have complicated orders. If they’re ordering for a family with two kids, they can sit there and scroll by themselves. It saves us time as well.”
Turning roadblocks into product wins
From the outset, PepperJack wasn’t trying to be another trendy sandwich spot. Sandwiches were having a moment, but Henry and Michelle had a broader vision: to create a fast-casual concept grounded in value, quality and flavour. Think Dutch crunch bread baked to perfection, smokey beef pastrami, Swiss cheese, punchy sauces and plant-based options – all served in a space that feels more like your go-to takeaway than a high-end lunch bar.
Sourcing authentic ingredients wasn’t as simple as expected. Henry had assumed they’d be able to recreate the American-style sandwiches he loved. But many of the meats and sauces commonly found in US delis weren’t available locally. Cheeses like provolone and Pepper Jack were also hard to track down. “Which is, ironically, the name of our shop,” he laughs.
Still, these challenges pushed the team in a better direction. They began roasting their own beef and making coleslaw in-house, a move that ultimately improved the quality of their offerings.
Bigger goals, same values
Today, PepperJack’s sales have reached levels Henry didn’t think were possible for the area. The shop – which they once worried was too big – is now bursting at the seams. The kitchen is tight, the fridges are full, and storage is stretched. “We’re really struggling for space now,” Henry laughs. Their sandwiches have become so popular that even the small family bakery supplying their signature Dutch crunch bread is working full tilt to keep up with demand.
With business climbing, they’re now weighing up the possibility of a second location. As PepperJack moves forward, Henry takes a moment to look back and reflect.
“I used to read a lot of business books, and I feel like it’s always been a passion for me. I always wanted to create a business where it’d be a good place to work and employees are happy. I’m proud that I’ve been able to grow the team to 20-plus people for one store and have a really low turnover rate. We still have staff who have been with us from the start.”
