All Stories
Jul 14, 2006
Which ‘wich? DCist Talks Sandwich Shop
In Eating Your Words, former New York Times restaurant critic William Grimes discusses what’s in a sandwich name — be it hoagie, wedge, muffuletta, Cubano, rocket, garibaldi, zeppelin, or spuckie. Region seems to dictate names as much as anything. Grimes attributes the Philadelphia “hoagie” to flapper-era Philadelphia jazz musician Al De Palma — who apparently said, “you had to be a hog to eat it.” During the Great Depression in 1936, he opened up a…