Top 10 Trout Streams in PA (only name brands)

If we did that we would end up spot burning the best hoagie shops.


Hint Subway not in top ten
Dear Tigereye,

Hoagies are literally all about the roll. Lunchmeat is lunchmeat, unless you are some neanderthal that likes it cut plank thick! LTO and all the fixin's are literally the same everywhere too. The roll makes the sandwich rock.

When I moved here, the Sandwich Man on Allentown Boulevard was clearly the best. They have slipped quite a bit in 20 plus years, but they are still the best. Mother's Subs across from the Governor's Mansion is pretty good too. I've heard great things about the Jackson House but I'm not a government worker who can stop at a place that is only open M-F, so I've never tried them. Most places around here use horrible rolls and ruin the sandwich before they even start.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
The Yinzer guys are gonna take issue with hoagie I think. I think we’d be willing to accept that, if Philly is willing to switch to calling a slice of pizza a “cut”.
 
Dear Tigereye,

Hoagies are literally all about the roll. Lunchmeat is lunchmeat, unless you are some neanderthal that likes it cut plank thick! LTO and all the fixin's are literally the same everywhere too. The roll makes the sandwich rock.

When I moved here, the Sandwich Man on Allentown Boulevard was clearly the best. They have slipped quite a bit in 20 plus years, but they are still the best. Mother's Subs across from the Governor's Mansion is pretty good too. I've heard great things about the Jackson House but I'm not a government worker who can stop at a place that is only open M-F, so I've never tried them. Most places around here use horrible rolls and ruin the sandwich before they even start.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

Agree that Sandwich Man of 15 years ago was better. Got it for the first time in 5 years probably sometime in 2024, and it was good, but not as good as I remembered it. Unless you LOVE onions, order light on the onions if you get LTO.

Jackson House is good. But agree a pain in the butt to get. My boss really likes it, so every once in a while we end up there for lunch.

Village on the square in Linglestown. Bake their own rolls daily. Get it toasted. The pizza ovens, if not original, are very old, and impart their own flavor.

Best fast food/chain subs…Wegmans, no one else is close.
 
Last edited:
Agree that Sandwich Man of 15 years ago was better. Got it for the first time in 5 years probably sometime in 2024, and it was good, but not as good as I remembered it. Unless you LOVE onions, order light on the onions if you get LTO.

Village on the square in Linglestown. Bake their own rolls daily. Get it toasted. The pizza ovens, if not original, are very old, and impart their own flavor.

Best fast food/chain subs…Wegmans, no one else is close.
Yo Swattie,

I may have to try the Village since it's close to me.

I haven't bought a chain store hoagie in a couple of decades, but when I lived in the Triple Cities in upstate NY the Danny's Special at Wegman's was my go-to. The hoagies were horrible up there, but they had so many other great foods that I really didn't miss hoagies, except when my brother came up from Philly with a couple of day-old soggy hoagies when he came to fish.

Now I'm missing Spiedies and a basket of fries and pierogies from Sharkey's Tavern in Binghamton. They closed a couple of years ago after a century in business. Three people could go in there, eat like hogs and catch a buzz on Matt's beer and throw $ 30.00 down when they left, and the waitress would remember you for your generosity. Plus, they had a 25 cent Ski-Ball table, with real sawdust too! 😉

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
Dear Tigereye,

Hoagies are literally all about the roll. Lunchmeat is lunchmeat, unless you are some neanderthal that likes it cut plank thick! LTO and all the fixin's are literally the same everywhere too. The roll makes the sandwich rock.
Very true and literally the hidden secret behind why Philly cheesesteaks are so good: the roll is the difference.

The Yinzer guys are gonna take issue with hoagie I think. I think we’d be willing to accept that, if Philly is willing to switch to calling a slice of pizza a “cut”.
Growing up in NEPA, this compromise is more than fair and acceptable. If it's too much to ask for others, I'll happily stop calling Iron City by its other, more common street name . . .
 
I for one am pretty disappointed we let this thread get soooo far off track. In the interest of getting back to the OP's original question, I for one believe we ought to all unify around the word "hoagie" instead of whatever word you all prefer for a "submarine" sandwich consisting of meats, cheese, and lettuce on a long roll.

Considering the "submarine" sandwich is known by different names in different parts of the country . . . hoagie (Philadelphia metropolitan area and Western Pennsylvania English), hero (New York City English), Italian (Maine English), grinder (New England English, Fulton County, NY), wedge (Westchester, NY), or spuckie (Boston English) . . . I do think "hoagie" is the one we should all rally behind for the simple reason that it's a nod to a time in American history that the US was the world's shipbuilding standard. Let me explain ....

Common folklore would point you to the the term hoagie being born in the late 19th century when Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "H.M.S. Pinafore" opened in Philadelphia. At that time bakeries produced a long loaf called the pinafore and entrepreneurial "hokey-pokey men"(think lunch truck entrepreneurs of the 1870's) sliced the loaf in half, stuffed it with antipasto salad, and sold is as the world's first "hoagie".

I don't buy it.

I subscribe to the school of thought that the word "hoagie" more likely originated in the Philadelphia area in the 1950s from Italian-Americans working at the World War I–era shipyards that lined the banks of Hog Island (now basically the location of the PHL airport and Revolutionary War era Fort Mifflin that guarded the mouth of the Delaware River before it harbored pesky brown trout 😉), during a time when those shipyards were some of the most active producers of shipping for the war effortfollowed by being the primary producer of oil/gas shipping vessels. A sandwich consisting of various meats, cheeses, and lettuce between two slices of a long roll became known as the "Hog Island" sandwich; shortened to "Hoggies", then the "hoagie".

Although I've heard this account from real life historians more than once, I'd like to thank Wikipedia for the assist.

BTW, fun fact: did you know the naval architect of the nation's original six frigates, authorized by the nation's very first Congress (Joshua Humphreys) lived in and designed those cutting edge (for that time) fast frigates out of his residence in Swarthmore, PA? Those six frigates BTW included the still active (228 years later) USS Constitution, home ported in Boston, MA.

To think, military domination of the high seas required not much more than a good supply of live oak and a little bit of copper plating ...

Okay. That should get us back on-subject.

You're all welcome.
I vote for sub sandwich because in modern times there are only two types of ships. Submarines and targets.
 
Dear Tigereye,

Hoagies are literally all about the roll. Lunchmeat is lunchmeat, unless you are some neanderthal that likes it cut plank thick! LTO and all the fixin's are literally the same everywhere too. The roll makes the sandwich rock.

When I moved here, the Sandwich Man on Allentown Boulevard was clearly the best. They have slipped quite a bit in 20 plus years, but they are still the best. Mother's Subs across from the Governor's Mansion is pretty good too. I've heard great things about the Jackson House but I'm not a government worker who can stop at a place that is only open M-F, so I've never tried them. Most places around here use horrible rolls and ruin the sandwich before they even start.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
I do agree on the roll being a key to a good hoagie. However, the meats and cheeses do contribute.
Being a native son of NEPA I was blessed with some of the best Italian foods in the state. Italian cold cuts consisted of a some blend of the following meats ham, capicola, hard salami, pepperoni, and provolone.

Imagine my surprise when I went to college in the Lehigh valley and was served an Italian sub with Genoa salami American cheese and bologna. Good God it was awful. Figuring i would have better luck with a sausage and scamutz, I was privy to breakfast sausage with cheese and something they tried to pass off as tomato sauce.

Needless to say they need to stick to their wursts and brats, which are fine in their own right. Their foray into Italian food was I'll conceived. IMHO
 
I do agree on the roll being a key to a good hoagie. However, the meats and cheeses do contribute.
Being a native son of NEPA I was blessed with some of the best Italian foods in the state. Italian cold cuts consisted of a some blend of the following meats ham, capicola, hard salami, pepperoni, and provolone.

Imagine my surprise when I went to college in the Lehigh valley and was served an Italian sub with Genoa salami American cheese and bologna. Good God it was awful. Figuring i would have better luck with a sausage and scamutz, I was privy to breakfast sausage with cheese and something they tried to pass off as tomato sauce.

Needless to say they need to stick to their wursts and brats, which are fine in their own right. Their foray into Italian food was I'll conceived. IMHO
Dear Tigereye,

There is nothing to argue with there.

I'll bet you know someone who still sells soupies out of their basement, right? 😉 I grew up outside of Philly and you could get soppressata everywhere. But in the Coal Region the good stuff always came from someone's basement.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
Top