Brown baggin' it gourmet san'wich shoppe in Lake Park. Leila McCann makes her signature sandwiches. (Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post)

To say Leila Kidd McCann is just a sandwich maker is a little like saying Dwyane Wade is just a shooting guard.

Her sandwiches are MVP-quality stuff, never a mere stack of cold cuts confined by bread.

When the Lake Park sandwich chef reports for work at the Brown Baggin’ It San’wich Shoppe on Park Avenue, she’s ready to be inspired by her ingredients.

Then again, she works with extraordinary ingredients: Rotisserie meats roasted on premises. Breads baked fresh at Muzzio’s Italian bakery a few blocks away. In-season produce. Homemade slaws, pickles and dressings.

One ingredient triggers a flavor segue, then another. Fresh baby spinach, for instance, sparks a salad idea that she will deconstruct, then reconstruct as a sandwich of rotisserie turkey, spinach and melted brie drizzled with a strawberry-balsamic reduction on a pressed baguette.

“Sometimes people think it’s so difficult to get a little creative in the kitchen, but I find it’s not hard at all. Just go with it,” says Kidd McCann, who co-owns the quaint little sandwich shop with her husband, Brian McCann, and their partner Joel Kozlowski. “I’ll go get some sun-dried tomatoes, throw them in my Magic Bullet and make a pesto. And that will lead me to another ingredient.”

Turkey with melted brie and sundried tomato pesto croissant. (Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post)

Last week, that sun-dried tomato pesto met the acquaintance of a buttery croissant, a stack of thinly sliced roast turkey and a respectable slab of brie to make up one of the day’s specials. It was a flavor combo conjured as the Magic Bullet whirred its contents to a deep, lush red.

On another recent day, a batch of fresh mangos brought in by her in-laws turned up in a salsa, tossed with cubed pineapple and jalapeño slivers. That salsa dressed one of the day’s specials: fresh pork slices and melted Swiss cheese in a hot-pressed baguette.

What made those sandwiches extraordinary was the contrast of flavors packed into one bite. Stack fresh turkey on good bread with a little mayo and you’ve got a good sandwich. But add a creamy layer of brie cheese and a lightly acidic smear of pesto and you’ve got a great one. You’ve got a sandwich with dinner potential.

Hot Turkey reuben with homemade purple sauerkraut. (Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post)

Consider this creation on a recent Thursday: medium-rare roast beef, provolone, baby spinach, red onion and buttermilk-herb vinaigrette in a hot baguette. It’s the kind of flavor combo Kidd McCann would serve her dinner guests at home, before she and her husband opened the sandwich shop with their foodie friend in April 2008.

“Everyone would say, ‘you should open a restaurant,’ ” says the 39-year-old, Palm Beach Gardens-born cook. Having worked server, bartender and line-cook stints in the restaurant biz for 20 years, Kidd McCann dreamed of going to culinary school.

But along came a gadget that would put cooking school dreams on the back burner – and bring her closer to becoming the sandwich chef of Park Avenue.

“Brian’s boss gave him a rotisserie grill, so we started to cook meats on it and we’d make sandwiches and take them down to the Blue Heron, the boat,” she says, referring to the charter fishing boat docked under the Blue Heron bridge in Riviera Beach. “Brian worked on that boat for years, so we’d go down and sell the sandwiches.”

One sandwich led to another and soon the McCanns were talking to friend Kozlowski about opening a sandwich shop. They found an open space, a former tax office, on Lake Park’s main drag, renovated the 1000-square-foot interior, brought in a rotisserie oven, a small Wolfgang Puck convection oven and a small burner and “we’ve been making sandwiches ever since,” says Kidd McCann, whose mother, Delray Beach artist Lynda Kidd, painted the beachy blue murals that line the walls.

Although they have since purchased a larger oven, she keeps her kitchen simple. There’s no fancy panini press. Instead, there’s a flat electric griddle and a couple of foil-wrapped bricks used for pressing the sandwiches.

“That’s how we do it. You don’t need a panini press when the bricks work really well – even better, I think,” she says.

Her pickle-making routine is just as homey. She fills a jar of cucumbers with a pickling juice of vinegar, salt, sugar and dill and sets it in the sun for three days.

“I like to use as many homemade ingredients as possible,” says the sandwich chef. “I don’t like processed food.”

A SANDWICH CHEF’S TIPS:

Don’t be afraid to experiment. Instead of simple mayo or mustard, try a strawberry-balsamic reduction. Kidd McCann whisks equal parts balsamic vinegar and strawberry preserves over low-to-medium heat and reduces to a glaze.

You don’t need a fancy panini grill to make a great, hot-pressed sandwich. Place a foil-wrapped brick on your sandwich as it griddles.

Pair your sandwich with homemade slaw. Toss shredded purple cabbage with an herbed vinaigrette (or even a little flavored mayo) for a crunchy contrast to cheesy, melted sandwich fillings.

Think sweet for an unexpected flavor profile. Kidd McCann tops fresh, sliced turkey and brie with thinly sliced Granny Smith apples, a touch of grain Dijon mustard and a drizzle of honey.

The bread is as important as the filling. ‘I like a nice soft bread that stays soft inside when pressed,’ she says.

TO GO:

The Brown Baggin’ It San’wich Shoppe

934 Park Ave., Lake Park

Hours: Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Phone: (561) 842-2515

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