A tale of heroes (and other subs)

If you’ve been perusing our instagram lately, you’ve likely noticed an uptick in sandwiches of the long variety. Your subs, grinders, heroes, po’ boys, hoagies. A few of the boomers will conjure names that no one still uses (but maybe we should bring back) - torpedoes, bombers, blimpies, wedges, spuckies(?).

Where we come from, and across Pennsylvania, it’s always been “hoagie” - usually said with that Mare of Easttown drawl which can’t be typed and read, only said and heard. I just assumed that more of the country was in on hoagies too. But alas, based on this infographic, taken from a random Reddit post and in no way verified, you can see that most of the country is eating “subs.” 🥱 

Unlike my unconscious shift from “pop” to “soda” in the early aughts, I’m planning to stick with hoagies. Below you can see another borrowed infographic, this one from a tabloid out of NYC known as The Times. It illustrates just how serious allegiances are to local dialects with the Hoagie-Sub Line tying directly to baseball team loyalties - save for that small group of lonely “Mets fans who eat hoagies,” probably while crying into them. 

Anywho, you know the drill. Go get a sub, hoagie, hero, or whatever you want to call it and share it back with us in the MSD. Here are a few that we love, including some of your submissions:

Since we’re digging into data and infographics this week, we wanted to follow up on our sandwich personas question, which I’m sure you recall from this old newsletter.

We got a decent amount of replies from you all and the largest chunk, 34%, fell into the “Contemporary” category defined as “Burgers, bagels, and pitas welcome. Well done.

Surprisingly, the next largest category at 25% was “Classical: A sandwich is between the slices.” This is a very serious and strict group, I guess?

Moving down the line, 20% of you replied with “Modernist: I can and will defend hot dogs, open-faced, & ice cream sandwiches.” This is where I put myself.

And then a tie at 7% each for:

“Impressionist: A burrito is not a sandwich, but a wrap is for some reason.”

“Realist: Stick to the recipe in its purest form. A chicken cheesesteak is an oxymoron, not a sandwich.” 

Lastly, one lone club member selected “Other” declaring themselves to be a “Paul Reubens” (assuming pun intended here) explaining, “I’m a loner, a rebel. You don’t want to get mixed up with a sandwich guy like me.” Oh, but we do!

If you haven’t already, you can still add your persona through the form (it’s the question at the bottom).

OK, now I need a hero!

Club:Sandwich is the world’s first ever members-only club for sandwich lovers (as far as you know). Together we discover, order, make, eat, and discuss sandwiches while building the largest, most comprehensive database of sandwiches ever. Grab or make a sandwich and then share it with us by adding it to the Million Sandwich Database. Uploading sandwiches will earn you points that have no value and cannot be used in any way.