Winterguide 2012

I read an article in an AirTran inflight magazine over the holidays and came out of it with the distinct impression that 21st-century boosters and marketeers in Pennsylvania are now crowing about having “invented” the whoopie pie.

It’s official, they seemed to be saying. The Maine legislature, possibly acting on their claim, fell short of proclaiming the whoopie as our state dessert, instead settling for calling it our Maine “state treat.”

For their own purposes, the Pennsylvanians seemed to be glossing over the real reason this happened in Augusta: that our delicious Maine blueberry pie was first in line for state dessert.

Why all this spiking of the ball, guys? It’s fine if you want to make your own whoopie pies, but why tread on ours?

Which is why I’ve decided to reveal to the world that it was really Maine who invented the Philly cheesesteak sandwich.

The conventional citation, per Wikipedia, is that “Philadelphians Pat and Harry Olivieri are often credited with inventing the sandwich by serving chopped steak on hoagie rolls in the early 1930s. They began selling this variation of steak sandwiches at their hot dog stand near south Philadelphia’s Italian Market. They became so popular that Pat opened up his own restaurant which still operates today as Pat’s King of Steaks. The sandwich was originally prepared without cheese; Olivieri claims provolone cheese was first added by Joe “Cocky Joe” Lorenza, a manager at the Ridge Avenue location.”

Since the original Philly cheesesteak didn’t even have cheese (way to go, Mensas), and since “the early 1930s” date depends entirely on a hoagie roll with nothing beyond chopped steak, Maine has only to prove that we served steak sandwiches in Italian sandwich rolls before the early 1930s to win the claim.

Which is easy to do.

The Amato’s chain sprang up on India Street in Portland in 1902, featuring its world-famous Italian sandwich rolls. According to the Amato’s site, “Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, the Model T Ford was still six years in the future and on the Portland waterfront a young Italian immigrant named Giovanni Amato began selling fresh baked rolls filled with meat, cheese and fresh vegetables to his fellow countrymen working the docks.”

It’s okay to do a little dance (or even whoop), Mainers. Cheez whiz, guys, “your” Philly cheesesteak sandwich was still 30 years away!

Anyone familiar with the Italian sandwich (a far greater invention) has seen his or her friends ruin perfectly wonderful Italians with the caveat, “Hold the onions and pickles,” “Hold the oil,” or “Substitute the ham with steak.” There are so many kinds of love. So don’t you think one of us simply ordered an unvarnished steak sandwich in an Italian roll before 1932?

“We sell a ton of steak and cheese,” says Karen Sinclair of the India Street Amato’s. “Always have.”

Yo, Adrian, this practice started in 1902, just as surely as the Patriots beat the Steelers in the AFC championship and then ripped the Eagles two weeks later to win Super Bowl 2005. Your memory’s probably a little fuzzy about that, too, right, Pennsylvania?