A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from June 14, 2005
Westchester: Wedge Sandwich
A regional sandwich name in Westchester (Yonkers) for the hero/sub/hoagie is "wedge." Again, I checked the telephone directories.

The long list of the names of sandwiches served on long rolls includes blimpie, bomber, Cuban (medianoche), Dagwood, garibaldi, gondola, grinder, hero, hoagie, Italian, jawbreaker, muffuletta, peacemaker (La Mediatrice), pilgrim, pistolette, po' boy (poor boy), rocket, skyscraper, spiedie, spucky (spuckie, spukie), submarine (sub), torpedo, torta (Mexican po' boy) and zeppelin (zep).


Old Fulton NY Post Cards
4 December 1954, Yonkers (NY) Herald Statesman, pg. 4, col. 5:
The Nedick's drive-in restaurant at 1830 Central Park Avenue, near Underhill Street, will double its size shortly with an addition to cost between $3,000 and $5,000, reports its owner, Joseph Rossetti.

Mr. Rossetti operates the restaurant under franchise from Nedicks. In addition to the Nedick specialties like frankfurters and orange drinks he has gone in for other hot foods and especially Italian "wedge" sandwiches.

His wedges, in fact, have brought him the patronage of many of the drivers of the big earth-moving trucks on the Thruway project. Noontime finds as many as a dozen of the behemoths parked outside the drive-in.
(...)
Formerly in the real estate business in the Bronx, Mr. Rossetti has operated the restaurant for 18 months.

Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, Bronxville, Tuckahoe
YELLOW PAGES
CLASSIFIED TELEPHONE DIRECTORY
1958
Corrected to January 3, 1958
Pg. 320, col. 3:
GAITO'S INN
Specializes in Hot Wedges
434SawMillRiverRd -- YOnkers 9-9269

Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, Bronxville, Tuckahoe
YELLOW PAGES CLASSIFIED TELEPHONE DIRECTORY
1960
Corrected to October 13, 1959
Pg. 315, col. 1 ad:
GAITO'S INN
YOnkers 9-9269
Specializing in
ITALIAN
HOT WEDGES
TO GO
434 SAWMILL RIVER RD.
YONKERS

Old Fulton NY Post Cards
14 November 1959, Yonkers (NY) Herald Statesman, pg. 4, col. 6:
ETRUSCAN EPICURES will be glad to know that Alfonso DiLascio of 42 Hill Ter. has opened an Italian-American delicatessen at 656 Tuckahoe Rd.

Mr. DiLascio had been pensively punting about the idea of opening a delicatessen, featuring Italian specialties, he discloses.

The new store features hot wedges of sausage, meatballs, eggplant Parmesan and pepper and eggs.
(Photo caption, col. 7 -- ed.)
OPEN FOR BUSINESS in their new Italian-American Delicatessen at 5 Tuckahoe Re. Mr. and Mrs. Alfonso DiLascio are ready to assemble one of their featured hot sausage wedges.

Old Fulton NY Post Cards
17 July 1974, Yonkers (NY) Herald Statesman, "Counsel ready for schools' defense" by James Kilgore, pg. 11, col. 3:
Munching on a ham wedge sandwich during a lunch break, Sapir leaned back in a desk chair inside his temporary office and explained his new post between leisurely mouthfuls of bread and ham.

4 August 1977, Washington (DC) Post, "Please Pass the Subs--Er, Hoagies, Er...," pg. E10:
Submarine, he (Howard Robboy of Temple University, who wrote an American Speech article on sandwich names -- ed.) found, is the most popular name for the sandwich, followed by hoagie, poor boy and grinder. In some cities they go by more than one name, such as Philadelphia, where one finds both hoagies and submarines. Other names are torpedo (Reno, San Antonio, San Diego), Italian sandwich (Louisville, Reading, Allentown), hero (New York City and Newark), rocket (Cheyenne and Cincinnati), bomber in Buffalo, mufalatta in New Orleans, Cuban sandwich in Miami, wedgie in Weschester County, N. Y. and slame in Berkeley. Norristown is the only place it is referred to as a zeppelin, and Madison the only place one finds it as a garibaldi.

Posted by Barry Popik
Nicknames of Other PlacesNew York State • Tuesday, June 14, 2005 • Permalink


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