New Jersey’s original Sloppy Joe? Town Hall Deli serves up the sandwich that started it all
At Town Hall Deli in South Orange, it means a triple-decker cold-cut sandwich layered with meat, Swiss cheese, coleslaw and Russian dressing.
More Stories
If you're from North Jersey, a Sloppy Joe can mean something very different from ground beef on a bun.
At Town Hall Deli in South Orange, it means a triple-decker cold-cut sandwich layered with meat, Swiss cheese, coleslaw and Russian dressing.
The deli traces its version back to the 1930s, when Maplewood Mayor Sweeney visited Sloppy Joe's Bar in Havana, Cuba, and returned home asking the deli to recreate a sandwich he'd eaten there.
"So in 1927, the Town Hall Deli opened," owner Matt Wonski said. "In the mid-'30s, the mayor of Maplewood, Mayor Sweeney, went to Havana, Cuba, and he ate at Sloppy Joe's Bar. He had a very similar sandwich to what we call the Sloppy Joe today, and he asked us to recreate it."
The deli has moved over the years, and Wonski's family took over in the early 2000s, but he says preserving the experience has been a priority.
"My goal is just to make sure that everything here is exactly as everybody remembers it from when they were a kid," Wonski said. "The same smells, the same tastes, the same looks, the same feels."
Each sandwich starts with three pieces of bread cut lengthwise.
Roast beef and turkey are the most popular combination, along with coleslaw, Russian dressing and Swiss cheese. A little butter helps keep the bread from getting soggy.
"Everything on the sandwich is curated and made specifically for this process," Wonski said.
Town Hall Deli's Sloppy Joes have become so popular that the shop ships them to customers across the country.
One longtime customer says the sandwich has always been part of the New Jersey experience.
"I grew up thinking that the three-layer Jersey Sloppy Joe was the Sloppy Joe," the customer said.
More than a century after Town Hall Deli opened its doors, Wonski says the original New Jersey Sloppy Joe remains hard to copy.
"We're often imitated, never duplicated."
