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I worked for a Stewart Sandwiches franchise in Spokane Washington in 1974, the year of the World’s Fair there. Quite the experience, the whole thing. I was a dope-smoking, heavy-drinking, hippie, bum, Marxist (having just returned from a year on a kibbutz in Israel), with an unfinished University education. I needed a job, applied, the owner somehow liked me and I got hired. I was to start the next morning, so I went right out, drank a bunch of beer, stole a car, drove to Moscow ID to pick up some boxes I’d left in a hotel there, drove back to Gonzaga University where a priest had let me sleep in an empty dorm area, drop off the boxes, and I returned the car from where I’d taken it.
Haha, good lord, what memories. Anyway, I eventually became a route salesman delivering frozen sandwiches all over Spokane, eastern WA, northern ID, and western MT, driving a huge, heavy-duty pickup truck with a walk-in freezer box on the back. I often stepped over passed out American Indians sleeping at the entrance to bars at 7am at my first stops downtown Spokane. (Nothing derogatory meant about the Indians as I was a bit of a drunken mess myself.)
I drove all over some of the most gorgeous countryside ever. The majority of my customers were bars, but I also sold to hospitals, small grocery stores, etc., all the way out to Libby and Noxon MT, north to Bonners Ferry and Porthill ID on the border with Canada, whew. Out to Addy, Colville, Northport, and Republic WA.
Our sandwich manufactory in Spokane included me as the oven repairer and inventory guy before I became a route salesman. The ingredients were perfectly good quality with which the owner was understandably proud. One of my tasks was to take the finished, sealed sandwiches that the sandwich ladies placed in open cardboard boxes, placed in large metal trays that I would then take and stack in the huge walk-in freezer. Once a week, I would inventory that freezer, counting all the trays/sandwiches – taking maybe a half an hour to do. When I quit the job a year later, completely amicably, the owner, over beers (a regular thing at the end of the day every Friday), told me that in his 10-15 yrs of owning the company he never had anyone do a worse job of counting. I never have been a detail man!
The sandwiches were indeed very good. I never have bought a single one.
In 1974 or so my local store by Hardy Lake, Indiana ,sold these sandwiches. I still remember how good the Cheese soy burger, ham and cheese and small pizza was. As mentioned, clear brittle package, toasted a few minutes and bliss.
I loved em’, moved in 78 and always had fond memories and a look out for more. In 1987, in Dallas TX by Lake Lavon I found Stewart cheeseburgers in the store. I told my buddy, also from Indiana and he didn’t believe it. We bought three burgers each and they were just as good as my taste buds remembered. That was the last one I ever had but would gladly pay $10 for any one of their sandwiches or pizza. Never had any frozen burger even close, something truly special. They are legendary with people I grew up with for their unique authentic taste, Thanks Stewart !
I’m Michael Stewart…the grandson of the founder of Stewart Sandwiches…It’s so great to hear from everyone that loved them…you’ve made my day!..contact me: wheretoplaygolf@charter.net
I had a very lengthy rural route with a freezer truck filled with dozens of Stewart Sandwiches.
In fact on a weekly basis i had one stop at the officers beach site (Air Force, Destin,FL) that averaged buying 500-700 DOZEN Sandwiches per week! True Story! I used to sell as much as 2000 plus dozens weekly. Folks loved those Sandwiches. They were prepared fresh, sealed in the wrappers and flash frozen immediately. Then trailered to the various branch offices for their drivers to deliver on the various routes. I did very well financially while with this company. Very well indeed. I just got tired of the driving and the overnight demands.
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What do you think “vegan” means?
You’ve been wooshed. He’s saying that they were gross and had no meat despite claims to the contrary.
Welcome to the board!
As mikeb693 noted about 11 years ago, Stewart’s In-Fra-Red Sandwiches became Deli Express. Doesn’t look like they’ve ever had actual meat extenders/soy protein in the sandwiches (unless there was some kind of vegetarian version at some point?), but if you didn’t like them, hey, you didn’t like them! I can certainly see how having to eat one for lunch every day for twelve years would really wear out their welcome.
Why didn’t you just brown bag it? (Or, and I mean no offense by this, could you not afford it?)
I worked at Stewart’s Infrared in West Sacramento, Ca 1975. We made sandwiches and hand sealed them for our distributors who stocked the mini markets from the Bay Area to The mountains.
I just. I’m tearing up. I love this thread.
There will come a day, someday, where someone will make the last post to this thread. I suspect that post will be made by a future, non-human dominant species hundreds of thousands of years from now.
Now you are giving me dark thoughts about the inevitable future passing of the Last Living Consumer Who Remembers Eating Original Stewart’s In-Fra-Red Sandwiches.
Unless somebody reconstructs it like the current plans for the woolly mammoth, that sensation will have vanished forever from human tastebud memory.
Wow… stumbled upon this. My dad worked for stewart sandwiches for years…was the manager in Wilmington nc. When i was in high school (early 80s), he would pay me to take sandwiches to the route man that ran low. When i went to college, he bought a car the company had that became mine. It was a white Ford Fiesta with the stylised s that looked like a sandwich on the doors! I loved it!
At that time, the headquarters was in Norfolk va. They would have managers meetings for a week in the summer and the families would go. We stayed at military circle mall, which had a big hotel in the middle. They had great activities for the kids - house back riding, roller skating, movies, picnics, etc etc
And yeah… some of the sandwiches were pretty good! I remember the hot ham and cheese very fondly
As do I. It was my go-to when I was stationed at March AFB.
A close friend’s family owned the New England franchise, beginning in the 1950s, and finally sold it in the 1980s, after the Oil embargo, when the economy took a nose dive. Quality of the sandwiches was absolutely paramount for the owner, and it showed. Fresh, and top cuts, at every level. Quality of Service, Quality of equipment, ALL of the highest order, nothing was left to chance. I remember the infrared ovens were EVERYWHERE, and very popular, warming the sandwiches to perfection.
The owner died last night, he was 99, a successful, but mostly very well loved man, business man, family man, friend.
Wow, 99. Sorry nonetheless for your and his family’s loss, but that’s a good run, not even counting the achievement of sandwich legend status!
The human herd still flock to the blog post where I shared my fond remembrances of the mighty Stewart Longhorn sandwich. That incredible edible is, sadly, just a fond memory of a time long gone. Sniff.
My Dad worked for Stewart out of Needham Mass…
A lot of his route was the Army, Air Force and NIKE bases surrounding Boston…
He drove a ford Country Squire station wagon and all the rear seats were down and the back was packed with Stewart’s brown “cooler” boxes…