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10 June 2009

Roy Passin, restaurateur extraordinaire, inventor of myriad sandwiches, hero of my youth.

"There are many ways to feed your hungry guests"

He knew them all.[More:]

Mr. Passin served in North Africa and Italy during WWII and earned a degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, then ran a deli and a grocery store before opening Roy's Place in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in 1955. He opened a second Roy's Place (called "Roy's Place Too!") in my hometown of Columbia, some time in the seventies, I guess. The place was an absolute garden of delights for a ten-year old. I remember a great big old lit-up Wurlitzer jukebox with a wild selection of tunes, walls covered (and I mean covered) with old advertisements, recruitment posters, daguerrotype portraiture, stuffed mooseheads (one with a big band-aid on the tip of his nose), great big paintings of great big odalisques, dark wood, bright lights, brass.

It was a noisy place, especially when someone ordered number 86, the Bender Schmender, a five-decker affair that would bring the whole kitchen staff out, banging pots and singing. My brother and I would take forever to choose sandwiches, always giggling at number 111, the Real Gasser (Excuse me!!). They used to have a sandwich called the Breath of Spring, with blue cheese and raw onions and I think anchovies and maybe brisket; I can't find it on the menu now but I used to love it. Other favorites included number 83, the Mean Alice (Off with their heads!!), number 121, the Chester A. Chester (A real two-breasted sandwich), and Mother's Ruin (Three sausages and a spot of gin). What fun!

The Columbia branch closed decades ago to be replaced by a string of failed Italian joints. But every year at Christmastime my brother and a few old friends and I go down to Gaithersburg, to the original Roy's Place, and recapture the time of our lives. I've always thought it would be a great place for a meta-meetup, so maybe when I get sick of sucking shit in NYC and move back to the land of pleasant living, I'll try to arrange one. I hope Roy's stays open that long.

To that end, I recommend to anyone in the area, go to Roy's Place, have a crazy sandwich in a wacky setting served to you by the best waitress in the world (she's been there forever, knows all the sandwiches by name and number and can even tell you what's in 'em; quiz her if you don't believe me). They probably need your business, and you probably need a sandwich.

Thanks, Roy. Believe it or not (and I think you believed it) your sandwiches made a lot of people's lives better, richer, and a sight goofier.
That's a wonderfully painted picture of a time fondly remembered. Made me take a step back from the frazzled world and pause to smile.
Thanks.
posted by mightshould 11 June | 06:57
Looks like fun! Pleased they have onion rings on the menu (if they are real pieces of onion, battered and fried), sorry to see cod on the menu as cod stocks are collapsed and therefore close to extinction.

Of the sandwiches (206!) I can eat one, the Nebuchadnezzar.

I assume the waitress is Teresa, 'The only person in the world who knows every sandwich on the menu.' Ironically, the sandwich named for her is vegetarian.
posted by asok 11 June | 07:04
Cod stocks have risen through careful management and international bans, but no doubt as soon as restrictions are lifted, overfishing will start again. Because of the shortages and the regulations and a system that allows for some pretty fishy naming conventions, most fish sold as cod in the US and UK is actually halibut (or any of a more plentiful variety of firm white-fleshed cold-water fish).

Numbers 204 and 206 are relatively new additions; back in the day, the vegetarian sandwiches were mixed in with the rest (which explains the funky numbering at the end of the menu). Perhaps my favorite joke on the menu was that they were all named after famous vegetarians like G.B. Shaw and S.B. Anthony. I don't know if that joke extends to Sarah or Teresa.

Asok, I bet you could also eat number 7, A Good Cold Sandwich (Because of inflation the price was raised) -- Two stale heels of bread enclosing a freshly-made ice cube*. Of course, finding the ha'penny to meet the $1.235 price tag might be tough.

* From a 1999 Washington Post review of Roy's Place, the origin of the number 7: "Once an inebriated regular refused to leave, instead demanding to be served a 'good cold sandwich.' Passin charged him 50 cents -- the equivalent of two beers -- stormed back to the kitchen, angrily scavenged some stale bread and slapped an ice cube between the two slices. Tossing a pickle beside it, he served it to the drunk, telling him 'There's your damn cold sandwich.' It's still on the menu, although inflation has driven the price of 'The Nothing Burger' up to 64 cents."
posted by Hugh Janus 11 June | 08:10
Ooooh I'm thinking that's a must-go-to next time I'm in MD.
posted by gaspode 11 June | 08:31
Next time I roll over towards that direction, I might just have to swing by there.
posted by sperose 11 June | 10:16
I just read about this || MeCha Fantasy Football 2009 is open!

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