Whataburger Original
Five-inch bun with large beef patty, mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onions; Texas-born chain (1950), beloved across the South. Cu...
USA
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, Cherrywood 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; introduced 1996, permanent in 1998.
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.
Wedge (Westchester)
In a stretch of suburban New York the Italian sub is a wedge, and nowhere else is. The word draws a small dialect border a few towns wide, and ordering one is a quiet way of saying where you are from.
Wawa Gobbler
Hot turkey, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce folded into a roll at a gas-station counter. The Wawa Gobbler is Thanksgiving dinner as a hoagie, sold only a few weeks a year.
Wawa Classic Hoagie
Italian deli meats on a hoagie roll customized via touchscreen kiosk; Wawa convenience stores are a Mid-Atlantic institution, annual 'Hoa...
Walleye Sandwich
A lean, sweet freshwater fillet fried fast and light on a soft bun, the walleye sandwich is the Upper Midwest's lake fish in one hand. It belongs to the Friday fish fry and the shore lunch alike.
Virginia Ham Biscuit
Virginia country ham is cured and aged for months until it is too salty to eat alone. The bland, fatty buttermilk biscuit exists to make a meat that intense edible, shaved paper-thin into the seam.
Vermonter Sandwich
Roasted turkey or ham with sharp Vermont cheddar, sliced green apples, and honey mustard on country bread; Vermont's namesake deli sandwich.
Vermont Cheddar Burger
A burger that names its cheese by maker and age, two-year Cabot or clothbound Grafton: sharp aged white Vermont cheddar, crumbly and loud, melted gently over a griddled patty.
Venezuelan Arepa
A corn-flour cake split and packed warm with shredded chicken and avocado, black beans and queso, or shredded beef and cheese; the everyday food of a US Venezuelan diaspora.
Veggie Burger (California Style)
California's plant burger builds inward from the produce, leaning on Hass avocado and 1970s sprouts to do the work beef fat would, over a patty whose paper trail runs through 1982 London and 1980s.
Vegetable Hoagie
The Philadelphia hoagie with the meat checkbox left blank: the official-city-sandwich build minus the cured pork, a Catholic Friday and Lenten order that still lives on Wawa's build-your-own counter.
Veal Parm Hero
The veal parm hero is the parmigiana sandwich at its most delicate: a milk-fed cutlet pounded near translucent, breaded, sauced, and handed over before it toughens. Chicken's older, pricier sibling.
Utica Greens on Bread
Sauteed escarole with prosciutto, cherry peppers, breadcrumbs, and pecorino, spooned hot onto a sub roll. A Utica-area sandwich born from the plate version codified at Chesterfield in 1988.
Utah Pastrami Burger
A cheeseburger crowned with a pile of griddle-hot pastrami and fry sauce: the Utah pastrami burger flopped in California and became a Salt Lake institution, the Crown Burgers build.
Turkey Sandwich
Sliced turkey breast, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise on soft bread: the standing American lunch order. The meat comes off a brined cylinder, and its everydayness took an industry decades to build.
Turkey Rachel
Roast turkey breast in for corned beef on a Rachel: drained slaw, Swiss, Russian dressing, butter-griddled rye; the deli's lean substitution on a fixed build.
Turkey Hoagie
A turkey hoagie is what a Philadelphian orders when the case feels too heavy: lean roast turkey on a hoagie roll, leaning on oil, oregano and provolone to carry a near-flavourless meat.
Turkey Hero
Sliced turkey breast on hero with lettuce, tomato, and mayo.