Selling food
is a lot like
anything else:
You need a
good story.
History, between two slices
Eight seminal moments in
U.S. sandwich-selling
THE EARL OF SANDWICH’S
SANDWICH MAN
BY JASON FEIFER
1837
The sandwich makes
its U.S. debut in the
cookbook Miss Leslie’s
Directions for Cookery.
Its recipe: buttered
bread, mustard, and
cold boiled ham.
1918
Philippe Mathieuat
creates the French dip
sandwich at a café in
Los Angeles, delighting
droves of local soggy-bread lovers.
1921
The Pig Stand sand wich
shop opens near Dallas–
Fort Worth; its new
“carhop” service paves
the way for the modern-day drive-through.
1930
There have been 11 earls of Sandwich. The first, bestowed the title in
1660, was a celebrated British naval
commander. Others have been
politicians, statesmen, authors, and
supporters of the arts. They were
important people. They had excellent hair.
But even now, all anyone seems
to know about this proud lineage
is that one of them—as it turns
out, the fourth one, born in 1718—
apparently had a liking for meat and
bread, or maybe cheese and bread,
and he ate it while playing poker
because he was a degenerate gambler unable to stop for a meal, or he
ate it because he was so busy being
a war hero that he had no time for
a knife and fork, or he instructed
his soldiers to eat it because it traveled well, or—you know what? It
Robert Earl, left, and the Earl of Sand wich enjoying a sandwich at Earl of Sand wich
Wonder Bread starts
selling presliced bread.
By 1933, 8 in 10 American loaves are sliced
before they’re sold.
1950
Kraft debuts its
“Deluxe” processed-cheese slices, a popular sandwich fixin’
known simply today as
American cheese.
1964
Blimpie launches in
Hoboken, New Jersey.
It’s the first major U.S.
sandwich chain (
assuming you don’t count
burger joints).
2006
Panera Bread sues a
mall for renting to Tex-Mex chain Qdoba, a
breach of its exclusivity
agreement. The judge
later rules that burritos
are not sandwiches.
2010
KFC’s Double Down
“sandwich” subs slabs
of fried chicken for
bread slices—and sells
10 million within weeks
of its launch. Yum?
—DAN MACSAI
BILL DAVILA/S TAR TRAKSPHO TO. COM (EARLS); IS TOCKPHO TO (FRENCH DIP, SLICED BREAD); COUR TES Y OF MARY ANN’S PIG S TAND (NEON PIG); FOODCOLLEC TION/GE T T Y IMAGES (BURRI TO); MICHAEL SAECHANG (KFC’S DOUBLE DO WN)
