Editor's Note: These are the top stories Stratford Today posted this year.
You know you’ve made it when you keep popping up on X, even when the ‘you’ in question isn’t really you but a sandwich named after you.
You follow?
Probably not, unless you’re Brittlestar. The Internet’s favourite dad (at least in unofficial polling) and Stratford’s own, Stewart Reynolds, got a hit of nostalgia this week when X user Lizette Homan posted a query about whether or not to order a Brittlestar sandwich for lunch at Sirkel Foods.
Reynolds’ response? He’s delicious, of course.
It’s all in good fun, of course, as Reynolds has known the gals at Sirkel for a long time and counts them among his many supporters. As for the adulation of hungry fans?
“It comes in waves because the sandwich has been around for a bit,” he said. “But this is one of those things that comes up now and then that really validates what I do.”
The restaurant’s owner, Kelly Ballantyne, actually had to look up how long the Brittlestar has been on the menu for Sirkel.
“It’s been up there since November 6, 2015,” she said. “Stewart always came in for sandwiches and I had been naming food after other people so I decided that we would name one after him.”
The sammie itself - ham, bacon, cheddar, aioli, tomatoes, pickles and lettuce - was something Ballantyne said the restaurant hadn’t had on special before it was a hit but has become one of their top sellers. She also jokes that people sometimes mispronounce the name, perhaps indicating that Stewart might want to consider changing his handle to Starbuck.
“It’s often mispronounced as Battlestar,” she said. “But our son, Ewan, was in one of Brittlestar’s Halloween Vines when they were little, so we’ve known Stewart forever.”
It’s just the price you pay for this level of celebrity, right Stewart?
“When you’re as delicious as I am, you get your own sandwich,” he joked. “But we’re fans of Sirkel - they’re just killing it over there. I’ll go in sometimes and pre-pay for a bunch of sandwiches so when someone orders one they’re getting it for free. So Bieber and (Lloyd) Robertson can have their sidewalk stars - I’ve got my sandwich!”
