Apparently, the sandwich name was based on the name of a bar in Cuba where Mr Sweeney had spent (considerable?) time while on vacation. It's a little less clear if the bar actually served a sandwich like today's Sloppy Joe, but you get the idea - he had a sandwich at the Havana bar - he liked it alot - and when he got home he asked his local deli man to make it nice!
So began the long and storied history of the New Jersey Sloppy Joe deli sandwich.
In the mid 1940's the Millburn Deli opened it's doors and they had the sandwich on their menu. In the 1950's, reportedly, the sandwich made it onto several of the more iconic Jewish Delis in New Jersey including the long-gone, but never forgotten Karpen's Deli (originally of Passaic and later in Clifton).
There are as many versions of the Sloppy Joe as there are deli meats, but the "must have" ingredients are thin sliced rye bread (thin sliced because the sandwich is always a double-decker), swiss cheese, coleslaw, and Russian dressing.
I'm not sure that statistics exist as to who sells the most Sloppy Joe sandwiches in the State, but my local deli - The Millburn Deli - sells a lot of them. And they are great!
My "Joe" of choice is the Turkey*.
*If you want to avoid the lines, they always have several pre-made (like this one) in the case.
Where did the Sloppy Joe come from?!
If you don't know, now ya' know ...!
