I wonder how many people outside of Philly and south/central Jersey understood this:
Before heading to the meeting, Mr. Obama stopped at Taylor Gourmet, a local sandwich shop in Washington, to meet with small business owners who have grown their businesses with government incentives. The president bought $62.70 worth of sandwiches from the shop for himself and the congressional leaders. Holding up one of the sandwiches, he said, “This is a serious sized hoagie.”
I mean, it sounds dirty. What do they call a sandwich on a long roll in your neck of the woods?
Well, it’s a hoagie around here, too. As far back as I can remember into my childhood, that is what it has always been. I guess I just assumed the term was ubiquitous. Maybe I’m wrong, huh?
Sub
A Po’boy.
It was a sub back when I was in Boston, then it was a hero here in New York.
Hoagie? Isn’t that a Philly/New Jersey term? I think a new birther conspiracy is in order — he wasn’t born in Hawaii or Kenya, he was born on the Jersey shore!
We’re pretty boring in Chicago, I guess — almost always it’s a sub, with the occasional hoagie or grinder. The Philly hoagie seems different from what I’m used to in a sub. I think hoagies use better bread. The best one I ever had was at a hole in the wall called Chickies (I think) sort of near Philly’s Italian market. Roaches provided an animated wall mural and an ancient leak in the cooler had left a scary soft black streak down the side. But my immune system was good, and the taste more than balanced any medical or aesthetic threats. Is Chickies still around?
..ah, then it was authentic. Best served up by an ancient geezer that looks like he has at least four communicable diseases.
What Bismark said about sausage and politics is applicable to more foods than sausage.
In NJ, Hoagie.
They can be really good.
When I die, they’ll find about eight pounds of grease in my arteries that I accumulated here between about 1983-1989, which sporadic stops before and after that.
However, that joint is now run by George’s nephews or something. It’s not the same. Today, you gotta go to George’s Roasters & Ribs. The eggplant parm I had there at Christmastime was the best sandwich I’ve had in America.
In Keyport, NJ it was “sub”. Mike’s Subs have the best. Splurge and get a sour pickle with yours.
Massachusetts: sub.
MN, ND, IA – Sub.
I think sub is universal thanks to the chains, and the others are just regional hold overs from the past.
(MD) “Sub”
In California, while most of us understand the names from other regions, we stay carefully neutral and just call them “deli sandwiches” (as opposed to the PB&J that you make at home, I guess). But lately out here we eat a lot of banh-mi, which is a pretty fabulous addition to the menu.
I think “sub” was the most common usage when I was younger, though you’re right that more places these days just say “sandwich”.
Banh mi are wonderful.
I woulda called it a sub.
but, since I spent 8 years in the northeast, I know what ‘ hoagie’ means.
I know what hoagie means from watching the Cosby Show
heh. That’s cool.
Kentucky: dinner for four…
I thought that was opossum. And Tennessee was roadkill squirrel.
Now you’re talking fine dining…
In MA it was a sub – submarine sandwich – then at some point a couple of shops usually “… house of pizza” started to put them in the oven and those became grinders.
You could actually see signs that advertised both subs AND grinders.
I can kinda understand where sub came from but grinder? Where did that come from?
I blame CT.
Grinders are big in Michigan.
I know what a grinder is, but it wasn’t a big deal in my neck of the woods. A coney dog, on the other hand, is a big Detroit deal.
Yes, I always found that odd. Here I came from an hour away from Coney Island all the way to Michigan, and everyone was chowing Coney dogs. It was bizarre.
On grinders, perhaps it is more a Western Michigan thing.
Having grown up on Long Island, I would call it a sub. (or hero for a hot sandwich) But here in Westchester county, New York where I’ve been living since 1994, some folks call it a wedge.
I’m familiar with all of the above sandwiches, but you’ve added to my knowledge base with wedge ~ that’s a new one on me.
It was strange upon first hearing it.
Sub in WI, occasionally a hoagie. I think the first time I heard of a grinder was in Boston. I don’t know where the hell “grinder” comes from.
In Florida it depends, of course, on whether you’re a native. Natives call them “subs”. New Yorkers seem to call them either “subs” or “sandwiches”. Philadelphians call them “hoagies”.
Subs here in Ohio. Fast food joints: Subway, Subbies, Submarine Shop, Submarine House.
Here on the NJ/PA border, the nomenclature is a bit more developed: there are steaks, subs and hoagies. All are subs because of the bread involved, but the names have been shortened to make ordering easier. If the meat is steak, it’s a ‘steak’. If there is lettuce, tomato and onion involved, regardless of meat, it’s a hoagie. In the case of a steak, it becomes a steak hoagie. No LTO, no steak, then it’s just a sub.
Walking into the same shop, you can order a meatball sub (balls and sauce), a cheese steak (just steak and cheese), a cheese steak hoagie (steak, cheese and LTO) and an italian hoagie (3 meats, cheese and LTO).
Everywhere else, everyone is just wrong.