The Triple Decker Sandwich

 
My grandmother used to take us kids to Friendly’s on Hillside Avenue out on the Island. It was always a treat to go to lunch with Grandma Pauline. And we could order whatever we wanted!

For some reason, I often went for the triple decker sandwich. Which is a classic club: three slices of toasted bread, crispy bacon, turkey, iceberg lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, and mayo, stacked sky-high and cut into fours, each corner pinned with a toothpick holding the whole overstuffed situation together. Something about those little toothpicks with the colored tops takes me right back to 1989. I know those are a microplastic nightmare now, but let me reminisce.

I was tiny but had a big appetite, and I’m sure my grandmother knew that the triple decker was way too much for my little body to handle—but she’d just smile and let me order it anyway. That’s what grandmas do. They love you like that.

The club sandwich was stacked so tall, toothpicks didn’t do the trick, so we  halved skewers! Function over form on this one. 

We were a big triple decker family too. My dad made them at home. They are fun! We never called them club sandwiches—always triple deckers.

On my recent trip to El Salvador, with limited groceries and way too many eggs and slices of bread at the AirBnb, I rediscovered my beloved triple decker sandwich. Back home a few weeks later, I made another, in line with the classic yet a vegetarian version with fake bacon (close enough) and all the other stuff. There’s just something about a stacked sandwich that feels like summer, and I’m channeling that now.

As an investigator of food history, I looked up the origins of this iconic sandwich. Turns out, the club sandwich was invented in a club. Go figure. A men-only, private club in New York City.  The Union Club is still in existence today and is known as the oldest private social club in New York City, founded in 1836.

Wikipedia tells me the club sandwich was first mentioned on November 18, 1889, in an article in The Evening World newspaper and it outlined an early version of the recipe.

Another version of the story says it was invented in Saratoga Springs, bought by this rich businessman, art collector, and legal, horse-racing gambling guy named Richard Albert Canfield.

But I’m sticking with the NYC origin story. You can’t fully trust gamblers. I think he borrowed the idea.

I’m imagining white linen tables with seated, gluttonous, rolly-polly, cigar-smoking men at the Union Club. They’re all very hungry and have no patience. A brilliant chef in the kitchen decided to build a mega sandwich that echoed these gentlemen’s egos and wealth, and hopefully sped up the line. But I can’t find anything on who that person actually was. Legend.

The triple decker club sandwich became a staple of American dining, appearing on restaurant menus as early as 1899. Variations using chicken and ham evolved, and today you can find this iconic sandwich in almost every diner in America.

For more food theory banter follow mei n the kitchen, cooking and creating  on Instagram @theglorifiedtomato