Hot Open-Face Roast Beef
A single slice of soft white bread under thin roast beef and brown gravy, a scoop of mashed potato beside it under the same gravy, eaten with a fork off a wide oval diner plate.
Editor's Picks
Hot Muffuletta
The hot muffuletta runs a New Orleans cold sandwich through a press: heat thins the olive-salad oil and melts the provolone, fusing the cured-meat stack into one warm object.
Hawaiian Sweet Bread Sandwich
Soft enriched Hawaiian sweet rolls sliced and filled with ham and Swiss, baked under a Dijon-butter-poppy-seed glaze and pulled apart at the seams.
Hamburger
Ground beef patty on a bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and condiments.
Fried Chicken Biscuit
Fried chicken breast or tenderloin on a buttermilk biscuit.
French Dip
Thinly sliced roast beef on a French roll served with au jus for dipping; disputed origins between Philippe's and Cole's.
French Dip with Cheese
A slice of Swiss between beef and roll turns the dunk into two surfaces against the same jus: dunked bottom, sealed top, dial moved but still alive. At Philippe's it adds seventy-five cents.
Fluffernutter
The fluffernutter as the New England regional reading: a Massachusetts statehouse argument, a Lynn-made marshmallow creme, and a school-cafeteria standing the grape-jelly version cannot quite match.
Five Guys Cheeseburger
Five Guys's whole design is the press: two loose balls of chuck squashed thin on a flat-top, a free-toppings list on the wall, peanut oil through every fryer, since 1986 in Arlington.
Filipino Sisig Sandwich
Chopped sizzling pork sisig with calamansi, chili, and a folded egg packed into a pandesal or brioche bun; a Filipino-American diaspora sandwich of Aling Lucing's 1974 Pampanga dish.
Egg Bagel Sandwich
Two scrambled or fried eggs and a slice of American cheese folded onto a toasted, faintly sweet egg bagel and wrapped in foil. The New York City corner-deli morning counter's standing call.
Double-Double
Two thin patties, two slices of American, hand-leafed iceberg on a 3.5-inch toasted bun. Harry and Esther Snyder put the first In-N-Out drive-through in Baldwin Park, California in 1948.
Cuban Sandwich (Tampa)
The Tampa Cuban presses four meats onto a lard-enriched loaf: roast pork, boiled ham, Genoa salami, Swiss. The salami is the marker that separates it from Miami's three-meat build.
Cuban Sandwich (Miami)
Ham, mojo-roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard on pressed Cuban bread; no salami (key Miami vs Tampa distinction). Heart of L...
Crispy Fish Sandwich
A breaded white fish fillet on a steamed bun with cold tartar and a half-slice of American cheese. Lou Groen invented the Filet-O-Fish for Catholic Cincinnati in 1962.
Cornell Chicken Sandwich
Charcoal-grilled split chicken in a vinegar, oil, and egg baste from a 1946 Cornell recipe, pulled off the bone onto a soft white bun. Upstate New York firehall and county-fair food.
Coddies
A fried cake of salt cod and mashed potato pressed between two saltine crackers with a stripe of yellow mustard. Faidley's Seafood has been serving it in Baltimore's Lexington Market since 1886.
Chopped Sandwich (TikTok)
A built sub taken apart on a board, chopped fine, scooped back into a roll. The 19 March 2023 TikTok from @big_erics_bbq fixed a technique the deli counter has always had.
Chopped Liver Sandwich
Sauteed chicken livers hand-chopped with onion and hard-boiled egg, bound with schmaltz on Jewish rye: a kosher deli spread engineered by the absence of butter.
Chopped Cheese with Hot Peppers
The chopped cheese is built with a spatula, not a press: ground chuck chopped flat on a Harlem bodega flat-top, American slices folded through, hot peppers chopped in or piled cold.
Chopped Brisket
Smoked Texas brisket chopped on a butcher block with the bark worked through the pile, dressed with a thin tangy sauce, on a soft white bun with pickle and raw onion.
Chimichanga
Deep-fried burrito; claimed to be invented in Tucson.
Buffalo Chicken Finger Sub
Fried strips tossed in the cayenne-and-butter emulsion of the Buffalo wing, laid end-to-end down a sub roll with blue cheese on the bread; a Western New York pizzeria specialty.
BLT
Bacon, lettuce, and tomato on toasted bread with mayonnaise; one of America's most iconic sandwiches.