20 FORGOTTEN Sandwiches Americans Ate Every Day Before the Chain Sub Shop Killed Them

By 1955 an American lunch counter carried forty to sixty sandwiches on the board. Today the average sandwich shop offers nine — and it's the same nine in every town. This is what fell off the list. One rule: if you can walk into a normal restaurant today and order it, it isn't here. No Reuben, no French dip, no patty melt, no club. Every sandwich in this video is genuinely gone, or so close to gone you'd have to drive to one specific county to find it. Every photograph and every frame of film in this video is real archival footage — actual menus, actual counters, actual people. Nothing here is generated. CHAPTERS 0:00 The wall with forty sandwiches on it 1:50 1. Chipped Beef on Toast (S.O.S.) 3:10 2. The Denver Sandwich 4:20 3. Deviled Ham Salad 5:30 4. Braunschweiger and Onion 6:40 5. Tongue on Rye 7:55 6. Olive Loaf and Pickle Loaf 9:05 7. The Olive Nut Sandwich 10:20 8. Chicken a la King on Toast 11:35 9. Peanut Butter and Pickle 12:45 10. Banana and Mayonnaise 13:55 11. The Ketchup Sandwich 15:10 12. The Loose Meat Sandwich 16:25 13. The Chow Mein Sandwich 17:45 14. The Fried Brain Sandwich 19:05 15. The Mother-in-Law 20:20 16. The Cudighi 21:35 17. The Oyster Loaf — "the peacemaker" 23:00 18. The Elena Ruz 24:15 19. The Turkey Devonshire 25:30 20. The Hot Beef Commercial 26:45 What actually killed them SOURCES: New York Public Library Buttolph Collection of Menus · Library of Congress · National Archives (NARA) · Prelinger Archives · Duke University Ad*Access What did your family call theirs? Comments below.