Roast Beef Sammiches!
and a niche obsession of mine since 2015
This week we’re getting a little funky over here and exploring outside of NYC (sort of)! My friend and unofficial mayor of Hoboken invited me to her side of the Hudson to eat a famous sandwich. I would also like to apologize in advance for all of the jokes I will make at the expense of New Jersey. Please understand that this is how I was raised; being born in NY, NJ (or Staten Island, let’s be real) was always the butt of the joke. To be clear: I do not hate New Jersey, but my natural instinct is to make fun of it. We can all laugh together.
My second topic will take us squarely in tinfoil hat territory, so keep an open mind. This is a topic that will forever live rent free in my mind and actually might be the single inciting incident that encouraged my love of urban exploration. I’m talking about the Toynbee Tiles and, in fact, I will never stop talking about the Toynbee Tiles. They were cut out of my Soho Sidewalk tour but they will never be cut out of my life.
Before you read on…a plug for BCLF 100! Share you NY love story (or your NY hate story). Tell me your favorite park bench to cry on. Tell me about that time you fell asleep on the subway and woke up in Coney Island. We’ve all been there.
Fiore's (House of Quality) 414 Adams St #2693, Hoboken, NJ 07030 Neighborhood: Hoboken Open: Mon-Sat, 8am-6pm. Closed Sundays. Cash Only (ATM onsite) What to get: Thu/Sat Roast Beef special
Before I dig myself into a hole and let my natural jokey instincts take over, I want to state for the record that Hoboken is pretty cute. I love walking along the waterfront and there are tons of gorgeous Beaux-Arts and Victorian style buildings that I could have a field day simply looking at. Notably, the Hoboken Railroad building is pretty fuckin beautiful and Susannah even said it reminds her of the Paris Metro, which is probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about something in New Jersey (there it is).
I wasn’t there to gawk at architecture though - I was in town for a sandwich. The sandwich in question was the Saturday Special at Fiore’s - roast beef and mutz (mozarella, in Jersey Italian lingo, pronounced ‘mütz’) on a long roll and slathered in jus. I’m not much of an Italian sandwich person, which is blasphemy coming from the very Italian American Long Island, so I went into this hoping to have my mind changed.
Fiore’s has been serving Hoboken for over 100 years and was started by Alphonso Fiore. The shop began as your classic deli serving up cold cuts but their real claim to fame has always been their homemade mutz. They make a wet mutz, which implies the existence of dry mutz, and I truthfully never knew there was a difference. Wet mutz is your high moisture snacking cheese that’s usually the little balls floating in the liquid brine (hence wet) and dry mutz is the low moisture stuff sold in blocks that’s better for melting (like on pizzas). In 1950, John Amato Sr, and later Vincent Amato, started working at the shop and eventually the Amatos took over ownership from the Fiore Family and still run the place to this day. To say that this place is a Hoboken icon is an understatement.
The shop is very tiny but the walls of chock full of Italian snackies - pastas, sauces, taralli, olives, and pickled peppers. They also had a few Fiore’s branded sodas in the fridge near the entrance, so I naturally grabbed a black cherry one before wiggling my way further inside. For the uninitiated, ordering food here is chaotic, at least when they’re busy. You’ll ask (and be asked) multiple times if the person in front of you has ordered; just slowly make your way towards the back of the shop to order at the counter. By the time you get there, you better know what you want, which is easier said than done because the place has no menu aside from the daily specials. If you’re there on a Thursday or Saturday, that means you’re getting the roast beef and mutz. Other specials include ham, corned beef, sausage, or tuna, and I imagine you can create your own dream sandwich from their variety of meats and cold cuts in the deli case. Also - make sure your whole party orders with the same person lest you risk creating more chaos.
Sandwiches come in whole ($20) or half ($10) sizes - a half is enough for an average human/single meal in my opinion, as the whole looked to be about the length of my entire arm, but don’t let me squash your sandwich dreams. You’ll be asked if you want the roast beef jus on the sandwich or on the side and this comes down to personal preference. I don’t like an overly wet sandwich so I got it on the side; this sandwich is juicy enough sans jus and will already be leaking through the bag by the time you’re out the door. Also adding to the amount of wet is of course the mutz! We were kindly given very generous chunks to taste while ordering and I promise I’m not exaggerating when I say it was like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. Soft, slightly sweet, with a nice salty zing. The mutz lines the bread like soft little pillows for the roast beef to rest its head on before any other toppings are piled on; Tara recommended the sun-dried tomatoes and I’m so glad she did because they were fucking fabulous. You could also get roasted peppers, olives, tomatoes, or anything else but be warned that anything you get will be garlicky enough to keep the vampires at bay.
Once our sandwiches were acquired, we hoofed it back to Tara’s place to sit down for a proper meal because Fiore’s creates mutz, not seating. These are not neat sandwiches to eat - juice will drip, toppings will fall, and you will open your mouth wider than is deemed cute. So grab ya girls, grab a roll of paper towels, and settle in for your feast. Folks, this might have made me and Italian sandwich convert. The absurdly thin slices of roast beef, the salty cheese, the tangy tomatoes, and the meaty jus are simply perfect. And though I’ve neglected to mention it until now, the bread is as much a star as anything. It’s sourced from Amato Bread and is soft but sturdy enough to hold its own without being so hard that it cuts the shit out of my mouth.
This sandwich is well worth a PATH trip to the state that formerly housed Kingda Ka (RIP). But don’t take it from me - Fiore’s is loved from 30 Rock to Sesame Street. In the 30 Rock Sandwich Day episode, the Teamsters bring back sandwiches from a “deli in Red Hook” that was long rumored to be Defonte’s, but is actually Fiore’s. Even Babish filmed an episode to recreate the famous sandwich. And when Cookie Monster needed to make a Caprese salad, he took a drive to Fiore’s to get the goods.
Toynbee Tiles
Found in: Primarily Philly, NYC, Atlantic City, but as far as Kansas City and even South AmericaI remember when I found my first Toynbee Tile - Jan 24, 2015. I was walking from Herald Sq to Pioneers Bar, probably to celebrate Ashley’s birthday. As I was walking down 6th ave I stopped on the corner of 31st St and there it was, an original Toynbee Tile. I had recently stumbled upon a documentary about these tiles and this was my first time finding one out in the wild. It was exhilirating.
Nowadays we see shit embedded into the pavement all the time - the Shoreline Marker from last week, the Geographic Center of NYC marker, and even now there are tons of Toynbee Tile homages floating around by House of Hades. But these tiles were something else - no one has claimed ownership of them, they’ve appeared in multiple US cities (and some in S America), and they reference some weird ass shit. So strap on those tinfoil hats because I’m going to give you a very brief overview of the tiles. I won’t connect all of the dots because that would be an entire newsletter on its own, but I hope these bread crumbs will encourage you to watch the amazing documentary Resurrect Dead or listen to an episode of my fave podcast, SYSK.
Sometime in the 1980s, these tiles began appearing in the street, mainly around Philadelphia. They’re generally about the size of a license plate, though a notably larger Manifesto Tile and some others of assorted sizes have also been found. The letters are made of linoleum and the tiles themselves are fully embedded into the road’s asphalt. It’s believed that whoever laid the tiles drove around with an opening in the bottom of their car and dropped them onto the street. As subsequent cars drove over them, the top layer of asphalt would wear off and expose the tile. All of the tiles contain one main message, with some smaller messages often arranged alongside.
TOYNBEE IDEA
IN MOViE `2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPiTER
Is your tinfoil hat tingling yet? Wtf does this mean? Toynbee likely refers to philosopher Arnold Toynbee. In Toynbee’s book Experiences, he discusses the idea of the soul resurrecting after death. The film 2001: A Space Odyssey also explores the idea of resurrection, notably on the planet Jupiter. The combination of these two ideas suggests that once someone dies on Earth, their soul sticks around and can be brought back to life to populate Jupiter. So it would seem that our mysterious tiler took these ideas to heart and felt the need to spread this message far and wide through a truly unique medium.
The tiler attempted to get the message out via other media, too. They called into Larry King’s radio show multiple times from 1980-83, but were generally laughed off the air. In 1983, a man calling himself James Morasco contacted multiple newspapers and talk shows to share his theory of colonizing Jupiter with the dead inhabitants of Earth. A short blurb about one call was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer. None of these experiences was the glowing press he might have hoped for. This and other unsuccessful run ins with journalists seem to have made the tiler suspicious of the media and it’s worth noting that some tiles contain antisemitic rhetoric that ties into the whole “Jewish media cabal” conspiracy. Oh also, there is no James Morasco.
Interestingly enough, David fucking Mamet fits into this whole picture somehow. He published a play called 4am in 1985 that explores the exact ideas expressed on the Toynbee tiles. Was the Glengarry Glen Ross guy the Toynbee tiler?? Sadly no; he likely heard one of the tiler’s calls on the Larry King Show as he admitted he listened in often. It’s likely the idea lived in the back of his mind and he accidentally reproduced it while writing 4am. You’ve gotta read an excerpt from this play though because it’s wild how similar it is:
Caller: In the movie 2001, based on the writings of Arnold Toynbee, they speak of the plan…
Int: Excuse me, excuse me, but the movie 2001 was based on the writings…
Caller: …all human life is made of molecules…
Int: …based on the writings of Arthur C. Clarke…
Caller: In the writings of Arnold Toynbee he discusses a plan whereby all human life could be easily reconstituted on the planet Jupiter.
So…who was the Toynbee Tiler? Although no one has officially claimed credit for placing the tiles, various internet sleuths have investigated the tiles over the years and have come to an accepted conclusion of the tiler’s identity. I didn’t even get into who some of the other suspects were because there is just so much lore out there. I really must insist that you watch the documentary or listen to the podcast because there’s just the whole story is absolutely captivating.
And if you live in a city that’s known for having Toynbee tiles, try finding them by using this map! It is very old and outdated, but it’ll at least give you a place to start. The tiles are unfortunately ephemeral due to their construction materials, so very few originals exist anymore. But if you do manage to find an original tile (or even one of the newer homages) I’d love to see it! I literally have a folder in my photos app where I collect Toynbee Tile sightings, that is how obsessed I am with this topic.
Lazy Suzy is hosting a special Dinner and Tea service on March 29! If I didn’t already have dinner plans that night I would go absolutely ham on the sourdough w/ dips and basque cheesecake. RSVP to let them know you’re comin!
March 29 is also Maple Day at the Union Sq Greenmarket. Taste maple sap, test your maple trivia and tree tapping skills, and, if you arrive between 11am-1pm, you can try some fluffy pancakes from @eggrestaurant!
It never even occurred to me before that I could make my own incense but of course there’s an Incense Workshop that exists. At $95 it’s a little pricey, but I feel like it could be a fun experience! Right now they have openings on March 29 and May 10 - sign up here.
I don’t drink, but I really wish I drank sake. It just feels like a cool thing to drink and I wish my weak ass stomach could handle it but it cannot. If you’re a stronger person than me, head to Joy of Sake on April 10. This is another pricey one ($130pp) but the ticket includes apps from really great restaurants (Rule of Thirds, Cha-An, Wayla) and unlimited sake tastings, so if that’s your thing then it might be a really good value!
I can’t decide if I love this or hate this but Portillo’s is coming to NYC with a High Tea Popup via Chain. I kind of just want an actual Portillo’s so I can devour a Chicago dog and a slice of cake; I don’t need it fancified or expensive, but I guess I’ll take what I can get. You’ve gotta sign up for Chain’s text list to possibly get invited because of course it’s one of those.
I’ve been following a ton of people on Substack and while my feed is usually a mish mosh, I actually managed to come across a local event!
of is having a Pastry Popup on March 29 at KYO in Bed-Stuy. Jordan, if you’re reading this - please please please save me a slice!In Omakase news, Shinn East will be temporarily closed (😢) as of March 25, but they’ll be offering BOGO Omakase at their Shinn West location until East reopens! That’s $69 total for 13 courses for you and a friend. Have a I mentioned that I can be your friend?
If you’re looking for another meal deal, Hell Gate just released this map of $20 Dinners around the city! I can personally vouch for their Bushwick picks because I am always a bitch on a budget when it comes to cheap eats near me.
Also hey, psst, have you listened to me on
’s podcast yet?
Wanted to come back and say that I found a tile by 4 and 5th and I had never noticed it! Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece!
I don't believe in push presents, but I do believe in unrestricted sandwich consumption when you're postpartum. The Saturday special was my big after-birthing-Adrienne treat. It is the stuff of dreams!!!!