The history of the hoagie, A Philadelphia staple (2024)

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The history of the hoagie begins with the birth of the submarine sandwich back in 1901. Dominic Conti, an Italian immigrant, owned a small grocery store in New Jersey where he sold Italian sandwiches made from a recipe he took with him from home. As the story goes, he was inspired in 1928 to call these sandwiches "submarine" sandwiches after seeing a submarine at a museum and noting how similar its shape was to the shape of the long rolls his sandwiches were served on.

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Though Conti sold a variety of sandwiches, most had a few things in common — things we now associate with sandwiches served on long rolls. Of course, they included a variety of cold cuts with standard toppings like tomatoes, lettuce, and onions, but they also included peppers, oil, vinegar, and a variety of herbs and spices. Conti also layered cheese atop both halves of the roll to protect the soft bread from getting too soggy. Smart move!

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Though the Italian long-roll sandwich was born elsewhere, the word hoagie is a Philadelphia creation — though there is some disagreement about how the term originated. One theory, put forth by the Philadelphia Bulletin, states that everything began with Italian immigrants working at a Philadelphia shipyard known as Hog Island. In the mid-'50s, they began bringing long-roll sandwiches stuffed with various meats and cheeses for lunch. These sandwiches became so popular that they were known colloquially as "Hog Island sandwiches," which was then shortened to "hoggies" and then eventually to "hoagies."

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The Philadelphia Almanac and Citizen's Manual begged to differ, however. It asserted that the birth of the hoagie could be traced to street vendors and, oddly enough, Gilbert and Sullivan. Back in 1879, when the operetta "H.M.S. Pinafore" opened in Philadelphia, bakeries would produce long, soft rolls of bread they called "pinafore" to tempt theater-goers looking for a snack. Street vendors, then called "hokey-pokey men," would buy these rolls, slice them in half, and stuff them with antipasto salad and meats.

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There's also a third theory behind the name, one that is similar in nature to the theory behind the origin of the po'boy sandwich in Louisiana. The idea goes that, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the phrase "on the hoke" was commonly used to describe poor, destitute or otherwise disenfranchised people. Certain deli owners at the time would, at the end of the day, fill Italian bread rolls with leftover scraps of meats and cheeses and give these sandwiches away to people who couldn't really afford a square meal. These sandwiches were known as "hokie" sandwiches, though disenfranchised Italian immigrants on the receiving end of the sandwiches pronounced the word "hoagie."

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If you can believe it, there's a fourth story behind the term, and this one seems to be the one that most hoagie historians agree upon. The story goes that Al De Palma, a former jazz musician, came across a few folks eating gigantic submarine sandwiches. He thought to himself something to the effect of "you'd have to be a hog to eat something that big." When he opened a sandwich shop during the Great Depression, he remembered that moment and called his largest sandwiches "hoggies," which eventually morphed into "hoagies" given the Philadelphia accent.

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However the word was coined, at the tail end of World War II the term was very common in the streets of Philadelphia, whether it was spelled "hoagie," "hoggie," "hoogie" or "hoagy." As the popularity of the term grew, so did the popularity of the sandwich, which began to return to its Italian roots as a cold-cut-stuffed meat and cheese sandwich with herbs and spices. By 1955, Philadelphia-area restaurants began listing hoagie sandwiches on their menus, and as the early '60s rolled around, the sandwich began to spread to Pittsburgh and other mid-Atlantic cities.

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As the hoagie grew in popularity, larger businesses started to take notice. As Woolworth's brand of department stores grew and expanded within the mid-Atlantic markets and elsewhere, it began introducing lunch counters at many locations. Noting the popularity of the hoagie sandwich, Woolworth's started serving hoagies to customers, thereby bringing them further along into the mainstream.

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Ask any Philadelphia native today to do a word association exercise with the phrase "hoagie sandwich" and they're likely to fire back with "Wawa." The Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain opened its first location in the 1960s and offered prepared foods, dairy products, and grocery items while opening earlier and staying open later than more traditional supermarkets. Since its opening, the hoagie has become one of Wawa's flagship products; the chain even offers breakfast hoagies at many of their locations.

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As the term became more and more popular not just in the mid-Atlantic, but nationwide through the latter half of the century, it began to lose its meaning. Especially in non-East Coast cities, the term began to be used to refer to any large sandwiches, not necessarily just ones that included the classic blend of cheeses, Italian cold cuts, vegetables, and toppings. With the growing globalization of culinary trends in America, sandwiches from overseas like the banh mi were (and are!) even referred to as "Vietnamese hoagies." The term, in recent usage, has more to do with the submarine roll the sandwich is served in than the fillings of the sandwich.

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As a final note, though the hoagie is the official sandwich of Philadelphia, there is some dispute over whether or not the hoagie was officially born there. Many believe that the first hoagie was actually served in 1925 in Chester, Penn., as a result of a picky customer quibbling with staff at a sandwich shop over what was available. By the time the sandwich had been made, it was a beautiful mish-mash of cold cuts, peppers, and cheeses, which, apparently, started the entire hoagie trend (though it wasn't called a hoagie back then). Wherever (and however) it was born, next time you go to Philadelphia, remember the cheesesteak's often-overlooked cousin. It deserves your attention.