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Subs, Hoagies, and Heroes: The Story Behind America’s Favorite Sandwich

wikicommons

History and food geeks: let’s take a deep dive into the development of the submarine sandwich, which has roots in Italy but was introduced in the late 19th century in the United States.

The submarine is known by many regional names, including blimpie, grinder, hero, hoagie, po’ boy, spuckie, torpedo, wedge and zep, among others. It was developed in the late 1800s by Italian immigrants to the eastern US, especially in cities with large enclaves such as NYC, Philly and New Orleans.

Back in Italy, these future Italian immigrants mostly lived agrarian lifestyles where meals were more formal, thus sandwiches likely played less of a role in their daily lives. When they came to the US en masse in the late 1800s and early 1900s, on the other hand, they worked as laborers, thus requiring portable, hearty and quick meals.

That said, there are a number of Italian sandwiches that may have influenced the development of the Americanized versions, albeit indirectly. I’ll highlight a few before we get to subs.

Pane Cunzato
Literally translating to “seasoned bread,” this Sicilian dish features a rustic bread split open and dressed with olive oil, tomatoes, anchovies, oregano, and cheese (such as caciocavallo).

📷 wikicommons

Piadina
A thin, soft flatbread from Emilia-Romagna, this is perhaps closer to a wrap but nonetheless has been eaten in central Italy for centuries as a quick, portable choice, especially among laborers and shepherds.

📷 wikicommons

Vastedda / Pane ca meusa
In Palermo street cuisine, this bread is stuffed with fried spleen or panelle (chickpea fritters) and cheese. Interestingly, the vastedda roll is similar to the type of bread used for early subs: soft on the inside and firm on the outside.

📷 wikicommons

Panino con Porchetta
Perhaps one of the closest relatives to subs, porchetta sandwiches often use crusty bread and a hearty, flavorful filling that can be satisfying as a meal. This is a classic dish with a long history in central Italy.

📷 wikicommons

Other Italian sandwiches that may have influenced the development of Italian American sandwiches include: Lampredotto (Florence), Focaccia Ripiena (Liguria), Crostone/tini (Tuscany), Frico di Montasio (FVG), etc. But let’s move on to subs.

Lampredotto 📷 wikicommons

While it is human nature to try to assign a single origin to every “invention,” it’s improbable that there is one specific entry point for subs. Rather it’s far more likely these sandwiches evolved in parallel across different clusters of Italian immigrants.

That said, the first to successfully sell Italian American sandwiches at scale was almost surely NYC’s Angelo Basso, dubbed “Angelo of the Sandwiches” by the New York Sun. Basso arrived in 1868 and ran a popular deli/grocery, cutting slices from large Italian loaves to make his sandwiches, as opposed to serving sub-like rolls. Basso designed and built the five cent sandwich, wrote the Sun, “broad and deep, that fills hungry men.”

On Basso’s counter, continued the Sun, “there were rows of those big Italian loaves, shaped like a hassock, crusty and golden hued, with specks of the ash still upon them. Then there was a great boned ham, a cheese, gray and musty as to its shell, and several cylinders of the Italian bologna bound about with foil and twine. One spoke the word, off came two generous slabs of the Italian loaf, a smear of butter was larded in between and then a thick slice of ham, of cheese or bologna was slipped in between the two retaining walls of bread like the struts that support a house to be moved. All of this and a smile from Angelo thrown in for five cents.”

Basso’s sandwiches “were known all over New York,” wrote the New York Tribune in 1908. “No one thought in the old days that he had enjoyed himself at Madison Square Garden unless he had eaten several of ‘Basso’s sandwiches.’”

Other notable NYC sandwich shops that helped develop the submarine (now locally known as a hero) include John’s Italian Hero Shop (BK), Sandro’s Delicatessen, Manganaro’s, Di Palo’s Fine Foods and countless other street carts and small shops. Beyond NYC, of course, there were other notable Italian sandwich upstarts.

Around 1900, for example, Giovanni Amato began selling rolls to dock workers & laborers at the waterfront in Portland, ME. Legend says these workers asked him to fill the rolls w/ meats, cheese & vegetables to create a meal, which led to an ‘Italian sandwich’ business that thrives to this day.

📷 Amato’s website

In 1906, as another example, Salvatore Lupo introduced the muffuletta sandwich at his Central Grocery store in New Orleans, the city a popular destination for Sicilian immigrants. Muffuletta was a common table bread in Sicily, but Lupo appears to have been the first to stuff it with meats, cheeses and the now signature olive salad.

📷 wikicommons

While muffuletta bread wasn’t often used for sandwiches in Sicily, it’s relatively similar to the aforementioned vastedda, which of course is used for several popular sandwiches in Palermo and thus may have helped inspire the American muffuletta.

1920s New Orleans then saw the introduction of the po’ boy, a sub-like sandwich on a long roll. While today po’ boys are often stuffed with seafood, early versions were more commonly filled with deli meats like other Italian-style sandwiches.

Holland I Sub 📷 wikicommons

Around 1910, Italian immigrant Dominic Conti opened a grocery store in Paterson NJ. According to his granddaughter Angela Zuccaro, he sold sandwiches “made from a recipe he brought with him from Italy” (specifically Campania, near Naples) on a long, crusty roll that was “filled with cold cuts, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, onions, oil, vinegar, Italian spices, salt, and pepper.” So the bread would not become soggy, Conti buffered the filling on both sides with a layer of cheese.

“My mother often told me about how my grandfather came to name his sandwich the submarine,” said Zuccaro. “She remembered the incident very well, as she was 16 years old at the time. She related that when grandfather went to see the Holland I in 1927, the raised submarine hull that was put on display in Westside Park, he said, ‘It looks like the sandwich I sell at my store.’ From that day on, he called his sandwich the ‘submarine.’ People came from miles around to buy one of my grandfather’s subs.”

A 1931 Paterson newspaper appears to contain the first written usage of ‘submarine sandwich,’ and from there the literal paper trail turns south to Wilmington, DE, in 1936 and Philadelphia in 1937 (the latter before ‘hoagie’ was ever used).

As such, when Groton, CT claims it coined the term near a naval station in WWII, this can be easily disproved. (Also, the term ‘grinder’ seems to be more classically used in that area of New England.)

In conclusion, Italian-style sandwiches that would become known as subs (et al) were most likely developed in parallel in NYC, the mid-Atlantic, New England and even New Orleans, but the name ‘submarine’ almost certainly comes from New Jersey.

If you enjoyed this brief article, I also wrote a book about the history of sandwiches in Philly, which goes much deeper into the stories behind Philly hoagies specifically, as well as cheesesteaks, roast pork and more.

Newspaper quotes via Newspapers.com

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Subs, Hoagies, and Heroes: The Story Behind America’s Favorite Sandwich was originally published in Vintager on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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