Back to School Foodways Series: Part 12 Deli Culture

Roast beef wedge

My high School, CHHS is located just up the street from the village of Croton on Old Post Road in New York’s picturesque Hudson Valley. School administrators had an open campus policy that permitted students to purchase food in the village. The fact that the school cut the hot lunch program that most other area schools had also facilitated the daily parade of students into the village in search good but cheap eats. Our village had a lot of delis and most ran lunch specials, largely Italian cuisine such as ziti, eggplant “parm” parmigian cheese or meatball wedge with a drink to attract students. One could also order a wedge made with lettuce, tomato mayo or mustard, and freshly delivered Boar’s Head cold cuts. I thought that everybody described these foot long sandwiches made with Italian bread (courtesy of the old Ossining Italian bakery of course!) as a wedge. Since graduating from CHHS in 1981, I have lived in many different places on the east coast and traveled a lot for work. I learned that delis and the term wedge are a part of Westchester County culture. When I asked for a wedge (sandwich on a long piece of Italian bread) outside of Westchester I kept getting this strange looks. It took a long time to realize that people called my wedge a sub, grinder, hero, hoagie, Italian, po' boy, zep, or torpedo.