Bacon and Avocado
Bacon with avocado; modern brunch sandwich.
Andrew Lekashman
Avocado Sandwich
Sliced or mashed avocado on bread; modern addition.
Avocado and Egg
Avocado with fried or poached egg.
Asparagus Rolls
Buttered white bread rolled around a single asparagus spear, tips visible; elegant, seasonal tea sandwich.
Arbroath Smokie Sandwich
Haddock hot-smoked to the bone in a barrel fire, flaked warm onto buttered bread. Not a kipper, not cold-smoked salmon: a cooked fish, and a name protected to one Angus coast.
Anchovy Toast
Mashed anchovies with butter on thin toast; strong, salty tea sandwich.
Anchovy Paste Sandwich
Anchovy paste on bread; very salty, intense.
All-Day Breakfast Sandwich
A full cooked breakfast folded into one bap, the cook draining and banking the wet items so the bread survives. The full English made portable, served all day in greasy-spoon cafes.
Zep
The zep is Norristown's long-roll sandwich, defined by its refusals: one meat, salami, never lettuce, thumb-thick raw onion, oregano, and oil. Named, by most accounts, for a zeppelin.
Z-Man
At Joe's Kansas City the onion rings go inside the brisket sandwich: smoked brisket, smoked provolone, and fried rings sealed under the kaiser, named for a radio host who called himself the Z-Man.
Wrap Sandwich
Any sandwich filling rolled in a flour tortilla or lavash; 1990s health-food trend that became permanent American sandwich format.
Whiz Wit
Cheesesteak with Cheez Whiz and onions; purist's choice.
White Hot
Rochester's pale pork, beef, and veal hot dog, grilled from the cool edge of the grate and dressed with mustard, onion, and meat hot sauce.
White Castle Slider
Five holes in the patty, a griddle carpeted with onions, the bun cooking on top of the beef: the 1921 Wichita original that launched the first fast-food chain and sold America on ground beef.
Whataburger Patty Melt
Two patties, Monterey Jack, grilled onions and a creamy pepper sauce on buttered Texas toast: the diner patty melt rebuilt to run through a drive-thru, Whataburger's own.
Whataburger Original
Five-inch bun with large beef patty, mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onions; Texas-born chain (1950), beloved across the South. Cu...
Whataburger Honey BBQ Chicken Strip Sandwich
Three whole breaded strips, not one fillet, laid across a toasted bun or Texas toast with honey BBQ and Monterey Jack. Whataburger has pulled and restored it by name, with a documented 2010 comeback.
Western/Denver Sandwich
The Western, or Denver, is an omelet built to behave like a filling: ham, onion, and green pepper bound in a set egg slab on dry white toast. Its name is older than every restaurateur who claimed it.
Western Bacon Cheeseburger
Carl's Jr. built its name on this one: a charbroiled patty, bacon, battered onion rings folded inside the bun, and barbecue sauce where the ketchup would be.
West Virginia Pepperoni Roll
Pepperoni baked inside a yeast bread roll, grease melting into the dough; invented 1927 by Giuseppe Argiro for coal miners needing portab...
Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich
Wendy's Spicy Chicken: cayenne and paprika fried into a breaded breast, lettuce and tomato and mayonnaise on a toasted bun, no spicy sauce; seasonal from 1992, permanent in 1996.
Wendy's Baconator
Two beef patties, six strips of applewood bacon, cheese melted between the layers, and nothing green. Wendy's 2007 Baconator, built by doubling instead of balancing.