What Is the Name of This Sandwich?

When they used to put the school lunch menu in the newspaper, and I would see the sandwich of the day was a Tavern I would always opt out of packing a lunch.

There seems to be as many names for this sandwich as their are variations of recipes.

The first time I had a Sloppy Joe's at a friends house as a kid I thought to myself "isn't this a barbecue?"

Then years later Adam Sandler released a song called "Lunch Lady Land" and the the sandwich is referred to as a Sloppy Joe, so I thought maybe all these years I had possibly been misled by my mom.

In my house growing up this style of sandwich was always referred to as a BBQ . It's hard to find a small town function, fundraiser, or sporting event where they don't have the BBQ or a similar sandwich on the menu with a different name.

I wondered if geography had anything to do with the multiple names for this one sandwich.

After a little research (i.e., Google) I found the word "Tavern" is a name actually native to folks in Iowa.

The TV show Rosanne took place in the fictional town of Lanford, Illinois. Rosanne's restaurant The Lanford Lunchbox specialized in loose meat sandwiches.

To add one more name to the confusion, my friend said she ate at a restaurant called Taylor's Maid-Rite, named after their signature sandwich - a maid right. What's a maid right?

It looks, sounds, and tastes just like a Tavern, Sloppy Joe, Barbecue, and Loose Meat sandwich. Cheers to the sandwich of a thousand names.

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