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20 Blocks

Sandwich shop · 1 location · Manhattan: East Village

Two owners with no restaurant background, one from live events and one from the art world, spent three years getting here, running pop-up sandwiches in community gardens and giving the money back. The 20-seat East Village counter they opened in August 2026 is theirs outright.

Founder-run

The Big Picture

Genuinely Independent

20 Blocks opened in August 2026 as a single 20-seat counter with six employees, so there is almost no public labor or environmental record to weigh yet, and the only supplier it has named publicly is the Brooklyn wholesale bakery that makes its bread. Jack August and Willy Corman own it outright through Empty Lunchbox LLC, with no investor, parent company, or franchise structure named anywhere in its filings. For now, it answers to nobody but the two of them.

Let's Get Critical

Local ownership
9/10
Founder involvement
9/10
Worker pay & benefits
6/10
Environmental impact
6/10
Sourcing & labor
6/10

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Company data last updated August 2026

How does one person build and research all this? They don't: here's how it actually works. Verdicts are our opinions, based on the public sources cited above as of August 2026. Spotted something off? or learn more.