From a Minneapolis staple that stretches well over two feet in length to a monster
that's stacked with three different types of meat, the Man v. Food hosts have faced
down some formidable sandwiches. Let's take a look at their absolute favorites.
Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh is the home of a truly iconic sandwich:
the Primanti sandwich. The restaurant started as a Pittsburgh staple and now
has locations across the state, with locations in Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland as well.
For most mortals, eating one of these may be a challenge. Their "almost famous" sandwiches come
with fresh meat on Italian white bread, and all their sandwiches also come with
Primanti Brothers' signature coleslaw and a handful of hand-cut french fries right
inside the sandwich. Just a look at these sandwiches can make your jaw muscles ache.
The result of adding side dishes to the top of a sandwich? Adam Richman said,
"You have all the flavor profiles that you would expect in a full meal, literally in your hand."
At the time "Man v. Food" visited Rutgers University,
you could find a row of "grease trucks" that graced the campus for many years. And the main
attraction in those golden days was the R U HUNGRY? and its famous Fat Sandwiches.
The hoagies weigh roughly a pound and a half,
so it's almost a challenge just to eat one. The food truck's actual eating challenge, though,
asks the bold to eat five Fat Sandwiches in 45 minutes. Whether or not diners accept the
challenge, the Fat Sandwich comes on a flaky hoagie roll with customizable options that
include the option of adding greasy spoon staples like eggs or mozzarella
sticks. No matter how it is constructed, it comes topped with a handful of fries.
If a competitor conquers the challenge, they get to make up their own distinct fat
sandwich that gets placed on the menu. The grease trucks may be now gone at Rutgers,
but R U Hungry? has opened a couple of restaurants, including one in Newark,
New Jersey, to ensure that the legend of Fat Sandwiches lives on.
You know the iconic banh mi, and the banh mi at Lu's Sandwiches in Minneapolis fits into
that classic mold. The restaurant makes it on a French baguette with marinated pork shoulder,
pork paté, cilantro, cucumber, pickled carrots, daikon, jalapeños, green onions,
mayo, and butter. What is less typical is the restaurant's Banh Mi Challenge.
Casey Webb went to Minneapolis to take on a banh mi taller than a toddler. It's a
30-inch sandwich with nothing particularly surprising about it, except for the part
where it is absurdly gigantic. There's a lot of great Southeastern Asian food in Minneapolis,
but Webb makes the claim that Lu's is the best banh mi in the Twin Cities.
There may not be a more iconic deli in the United States than Katz's Delicatessen,
which opened way back in 1888. Even if you've never been,
you'd probably recognize it from the famous "When Harry Met Sally" scene.
"I'll have what she's having."
And the food is just as iconic as the reputation. When "Man v. Food" rolled into Katz's,
the show focused on that beloved corned beef and pastrami. This mighty sandwich hits the plate
fresh and simple because the ingredients speak for themselves, with meat that is smoked in-house
for three days. The meat is so tender it can make your mouth water right through the screen,
while the pickles — piled to the side of every sandwich — are also made in-house. Yum!
The Cuban sandwich is a hall-of-fame-worthy delight. It may have mysterious origins, but that
doesn't stop it from being an absolute classic. The Sarussi Original at Sarussi's in Miami puts
a little twist on it. More specifically, it puts a 2.5-pound turn on the style, topping its sandwich
with ham, pork, pickles, and cheese, as well as the secret sauce on which Sarussi's made its name.
In the episode, Richman doesn't seem able to quite put his finger on what
he's tasting in there, but guests point to the secret sauce as the
magic that makes Sarussi's worth the visit. Whatever the case, the end result is that
the Sarussi Original is a monster of a sandwich, loaded with alluring flavors.
Other than bread itself, cheese is arguably the most essential sandwich
ingredient in the U.S. But with all of the excess on display in "Man v. Food," though,
there is a sandwich that tests the limits of our collective love of cheese.
Melt Bar & Grilled's 5 pound behemoth is a true challenge. At the time of the show,
the Cleveland-based restaurant said its melt featured 14 kinds of cheese. That included
unexpected appearances from bleu cheese, feta cheese, and goat cheese. Since the show aired,
the restaurant has changed the recipe so it now features just 13 kinds of melted cheese,
as well as three slices of bread and a hefty pile of fries and coleslaw.
Unlike most eating challenges featured on the show, there's no time limit on this one,
but the Ohio restaurant chain still says 91% of people fail to rise to that untimed
challenge. Richman, however, rose to the moment and finished the sandwich.
Casey Webb hit Milwaukee to attempt to devour a deceptively large sandwich in Season 5. The
Commish, a food challenge concocted by Jake's Deli, doesn't have the obvious
huge factor of some sandwiches the show has taken on. It isn't stacked high. It
isn't the spiciest sandwich east of the Mississippi. It's just, well, girthy.
Founded in 1955, the deli makes the sandwich on an entire loaf of
rye bread with 2.5 pounds of corned beef and pastrami, a half-pound of sauerkraut,
a half-pound of cheese, a half-pound of jalapeños, Thousand Island dressing,
and pickles set atop the mountainous pile. It's basically an entire deli made into one sandwich.
It looks delicious, but at 4.5 pounds, it's a lot of sandwich. The restaurant told Webb
it normally gets 10 to 12 sandwiches out of the loaf that makes just one Commish. Webb only had
45 minutes to finish it off and noted that only four people had ever completed the challenge at
the time the episode was filmed. It was one of the rare eating challenges that bested Webb.
The Pigzilla falls into a similar category as The Commish; it looks incredible, but it's about five
sizes too big. The Pigzilla Challenge was created by Papa Buck's BBQ near Savannah,
Georgia, and stars a 4-pound monster, loaded with more pulled pork than most
people can — or should — eat in a single sitting. It's constructed with 3 pounds
of pulled pork and a massive 1-pound bun that is so large it could be hollowed out
to make a doghouse. The sandwich also gets doused with the restaurant's barbecue sauce.
The sandwich isn't just sizable, it's also made with love. Papa Buck's smokes the meat in-house,
giving the Pigzilla Challenge some appeal despite the inevitable fullness that will
follow. Of course, you could also get some of that fall-off-the-bone
tender pulled pork on a sandwich that doesn't weigh 4 pounds. Nonetheless,
the Pigzilla is still out there if you're feeling bold. According to the restaurant
website, 191 people have given it a run, but only 18 have conquered it.
Even though the Las Vegas based Stripchezze is a grilled cheese-focused food truck,
it brings that Sin City flourish to the classic sandwich. Webb stopped
by the truck and described the sandwiches as "outrageously fun."
He honed in on the Hot Streak, which is an immensely alluring concoction. Webb
notes that food truck owner Suzy Davis uses sourdough bread not only because
it's delicious but because it is sturdy enough to stand up to the massive amount
of cheese she piles onto her sandwiches. It comes packed with pepper jack cheese,
pickled jalapeños on sourdough bread crusted in Parmesan cheese and Flaming Hot Cheetos. Oh,
and it gets a drizzle of Sriracha mayo to bring just the right amount of heat.
Roswell, New Mexico, is best known for the conspiracy theories that call it home. It's
something that the sandwich shop B'wiches has embraced wholeheartedly with their
Thanksgiving-themed sandwich dubbed the 1947. It's named after the year of the Roswell Incident,
which depending on your stance, is when a weather balloon caused confusion,
the government covered up something significant,
and/or little green space travelers made a pit stop in the American Southwest.
However, the only thing out of this world about the 1947 is the number of chiles that go into its
creation. The show-stopping sandwich features turkey, cream cheese, green hatch chile jam,
green chile cornbread dressing, gravy, and garlic parm mayo on toasted sourdough bread. If
that doesn't already sound good enough, B'wiches gives it texture by frying the stuffing before it
hits the sandwich. The sandwich is proof that owner Kerry Moore meant it when she told Webb,
"We take anything that's traditional and then we New Mexico-fy it."
The Double Dragon might sound like some kind of clever wordplay for a sandwich
loaded with Dragon's Breath peppers, but Adam's Grub Truck in San Francisco says
it's just about the classic video game. Owner Adam Lee told Webb,
"I had a fried chicken sandwich and I had a pulled pork sandwich,
and I was like, let's do the Double Dragon."
The Double Dragon features a huge piece of fried chicken, pulled pork, bacon, a fried egg,
Asian slaw, muenster cheese, and hoisin barbecue sauce on a brioche bun. The chicken is clearly
the star of the show as Webb takes viewers behind the scenes to see the thighs marinated
with white pepper, soy sauce, and Sriracha before getting coated in Panko bread crumbs.
In Duluth, Minnesota, you're almost as far north as you can get in the Lower
48. It might be worth the trip, according to Webb,
because that's where you'll find Northern Waters Smokehaus cooking up the Cajun Finn sandwich.
Northern Waters smokes its own meat, including fish, and actually
got its start selling smoked meats wholesale. Fortunately for mouths across the north shore,
a tentative foray into retail bloomed into a full-blown sandwich haven. The Cajun Finn
sandwich is made with smoked Cajun salmon, onion cream cheese, roasted red peppers, pepperoncini,
and lettuce on a rustic stirato roll. It might even remind you of a delicious and
playful twist on a Lox bagel. The deli reports that the Cajun Finn is still its best-selling
sandwich. That is a hearty endorsement given that 29 sandwiches currently grace its menu.
Portland — dubbed Porkland by Webb because of this sandwich — is home to Lardo, a restaurant
that loves bringing pig into almost every dish. The former food cart has a lot of sandwiches,
but Webb came to the Northwest for the porchetta. Lardo cooks the meat for this sandwich in-house;
the loin is seasoned with salt, garlic, rosemary, fennel pollen,
and pepper before being rolled up and tossed in the oven. Once it's done,
the meat is sliced and spends a little time on the flattop. Then, it's sandwich time.
The porchetta sandwich is made with a generous spread of caper mayo, house-made gremolata,
and succulent meat, along with arugula and parmesan nestled inside a ciabatta
roll. In the episode, Lardo owner and chef Rick Gencarelli says that
each sandwich is loaded with crispy fat from the outside of the porchetta roll,
as well as fatty pork belly and tender meat to bring it all together.
The Haystack sandwich has achieved some level of fame, particularly in northern New York. So,
it's not surprising that while visiting Niagara Falls, Adam Richman swung through Lewiston,
New York, to get a taste of the cheesesteak twist. At The Silo,
a small restaurant with beautiful views, the Haystack is a legend.
The hoagie is filled with a full pound of rib-eye steak covered in melted mozzarella
and topped with crispy hashbrowns straight from the flattop. The delicious mess is set inside a
locally-made roll. It's not the spiciest, most exotic, tallest, or most unexpected sandwich the
hosts of "Man v. Food" have dug up, but it has a big reputation for good reason, and the Silo
continues to serve up a boatload of Haystacks to this day in the original or foot-long version.