Toucan, Bordeaux: the images of a sandwich shop that has since closed

Toucan opened on 13 May 2022 at 21 rue des Augustins, in the Capucins-Victoire quarter of Bordeaux, in what had been Munchies. Forty-five square metres, a serious sandwich counter at lunch, a tapas and cocktail bar in the evening. The house had been founded by Marina and Tony Pinelle, the latter having worked in Alexandre Couillon’s three-star kitchen. The series was shot in June 2025. The venue closed on 13 October 2025, and the company moved to Anglet, where it now trades as a caterer.

A sandwich is a difficult object: everything that gives it value is inside, and the outside shows only bread. The one way to make the build legible is to cut it and hold it open, which puts a hand in frame and leaves very little time before the filling slides. On the hot dog, the shoestring fries collapse within minutes. The room itself was forty-five square metres: no room to step back, no room for a tripod.

Everything was shot at hand height, inside the venue, using what the room offered as background — the ivy wall, the glass shelves, the timber. Plates were taken as they came out and never rebuilt for the camera: on this kind of menu, a rebuilt filling shows. The vertical format was held throughout, because that is what the house published.

A short food series, framed vertical, on the signature pieces of the lunch menu.

The exact scope of the licence is not restated here. Releases are on file for everyone appearing in frame.

The address closed four months after the shoot. These images are, in effect, one of the last records of what was served there. See also the food photography pillar.