Hoagie

Steve Butler watches yesterday's impeachment vote while lunching at Sicilia Italian Ristorante on Spring Garden Street near Delaware Avenue. He said he just wants "to see the whole thing end and the country start moving forward. "

It's tough to say which cross is harder for Phillies fans to bear: the team's performance over the last two years, or the Veterans Stadium concessions any time. Loyalty tugged me down to Broad and Pattison last week. Previous encounters with the nachos, the pizza and the dreaded chicken dogs taught me to pack a snack. A couple of hoagies from Joanne's Food Market and Deli in South Philadelphia seemed suitable. But in retrospect, I don't think I'd bring a Joanne's hoagie to a ball game again.

It was a salt assault, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Officers in the Dublin barracks in Bucks County say that a 16-year-old convenience store clerk purposely loaded an "excessive amount of salt" on a ham and cheese hoagie ordered by a state trooper late last month. On Monday, they charged the youth with disorderly conduct, which carries a maximum fine of $300. "It may not seem important to you . . . but if you were eating the sandwich, it would have a different impact," Lt. Daniel T. Worst said yesterday.

In an attempt to stem further racial hostility and to set the record straight, Mayor Goode and some of the city's top brass tried to dispel rumors about the shooting death last month of a Southwest Philadelphia man at the Wild Wild West hoagie shop at 52nd Street and Kingsessing Avenue. "What we're trying to do is make sure that people who live in that neighborhood are properly informed as to what happened and what we're doing in order to respond to what happened," Goode said at a City Hall press conference last night.

What a difference two weeks make. The Wild Wild West hoagie shop, where the Korean-American store owner's son fatally shot a black resident three months ago and sparked bitter, racially divisive demonstrations, is now called Southwest Delight. Customers appear to be returning and police have disappeared. But protesters, gone from the shop on 52nd Street at Kingsessing Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia since Aug. 31, are not saying whether the reign of quiet is permanent or if they plan to return to the streets.

The first time I saw a sign in the Italian Market for Vietnamese hoagies, I didn't give it much thought. I envisioned a regular hoagie with nuoc mam - Vietnamese fish sauce - instead of oil or mayo. I've since discovered the Vietnamese hoagie is something with a personality all its own. At the Viet Huong Cafe, inside the new Hoa Binh Plaza at 16th Street and Washington Avenue, the woman who made my Vietnamese hoagie told me they'd been invented in California. Viet Huong's excellent hoagie ($1.50)

The Whitemarsh Township Planning Commission has reluctantly approved an application to erect a sign that one member of the commission said would "set a new standard for ugly. " The commissioners voted 5-1 Tuesday night to issue the necessary building and zoning permits to John McClelland of Oreland, the owner of 806 Bethlehem Pike, site of a proposed hoagie shop. McClelland's attorney, John Hasson, told the board that the sign would be 4 feet by 6 feet. It would have a white background, red lettering and a green border.

Here's a hoagie recipe dedicated to Fast Eddie, our former mayor and future governor. Back in the summer of '99, the folks at Wawa introduced the Rendelli, a spicy sub they named after the guy they called the "number one hoagie fan in Philadelphia. " The Rendelli lasted only a few weeks on the menu board, but while it was around it sure was a hit. Like all of Wawa's sandwiches, this one was available in Junior, Shorti or Classic size. The recipe here makes a Shorti (six-inch sub)

Gary Cohen's deli in South Philadelphia is a veritable hall of neighborhood fame. As a hobby, besides making up sandwiches, he takes photographs of his customers - kids and grownups - and puts their pictures on the walls. There's hand-dipped ice cream, candy and milk shakes. Cohen says he also makes a pretty good hoagie. So what's Cohen going to do when Arby's, the national fast-food chain famous for roast beef sandwiches, starts making submarines - Arby's name for a Philadelphia-style hoagie.

About 86,400 hoagies from now, volunteers from Audubon Fire Company No. 1 will be able to kick off their shoes, relax in the new addition to their fire hall and proclaim, "We did it. " Unlike fire companies that depend on municipal budgets for capital improvements, the Audubon firefighters are paying for a two-bay addition to the cramped Merchant Street firehouse by themselves - using hoagie power. On one Saturday each month for the last 16 months, they have been selling hoagies at a 1,600-a-day clip to borough residents.

EVER BEEN SO HUNGRY you thought you could eat a ton? Then grab three and a half friends and come to Wawa Hoagie Day on July 2 at the Independence Visitor Center, because there will be a free 4.5-ton hoagie. Yes, that's 9,000 pounds of Italian meats, convenience-store cheese and Philly sammich fixins. And yes, both Mayor Nutter and Michelle Obama will give you free passes on your weight-loss regimens that day. This monster of all hoagies is part of Philly's 20th annual Welcome America July 4th festival, a weeklong affair that will feature music from John Mayer, J. Cole, Grace Potter, Jill Scott, Ne-Yo, Demi Lovato - and, of course, the Roots.

Nicholas Papanier, 57, owner of PrimoHoagies Franchising Inc., was in federal court in Camden two weeks ago, pleading guilty to tax evasion stemming from taxes he owed on hoagie shop operators' cash payments to him for salami, ham, and other deli ingredients. This week, his company was back in Camden's federal courthouse, having filed a lawsuit against one of its shop operators. The suit, filed Tuesday, says Jay Venito of Mount Laurel agreed in January 2011 to run a PrimoHoagie store on Route 38 in Lumberton.

Cash payments for genoa salami, capicola ham, and provolone led to a guilty plea for tax evasion for Nicholas Papanier, 57, who has been working to turn the Primo Hoagies chain into a successful franchise business. Papanier, who owns Primo Hoagies Franchising as well as Nellie's Provisions in Gloucester City, often received cash payments from Primo franchisees when they bought deli products from him, according to documents filed in federal court in Camden on Friday. Papanier diverted $556,664 in cash to his bank accounts during 2006, 2007 and 2008, in the amounts of, in order, $56,395, $349,264, and $151,005.

Joseph Brigandi Sr. found more than one way to serve the people of Glassboro. The first was academic; the second, gastronomic. During 24 years on the Glassboro Board of Education, the last six as president, Mr. Brigandi was a force behind several nationally validated reading and writing programs in the 2,300-student district. He was pivotal in getting a grade school built. And he negotiated teachers' and administrators' contracts. But there was another post he held nearly twice as long - behind the counter at Joe's Sub Shop.

MOST Philadelphians think of Tacony as half a bridge, said Alex Balloon, but once they discover the new Tacony Hoagie Trail, they'll keep coming back to the Northeast for "Tac-hoagies" that rival South Philly's signature deli divas. The Tacony Hoagie Trail extends for several blocks along Torresdale Avenue from DeNofa's "Homemade Sausage & Italian Deli" to Fink's "King of Gourmet Hoagies," then on to Jack's Place ("Home of the Best Hoagie in the Free World"). The marketing of the sandwich shops is about much more than feeding people, however.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - Labor Day at the Jersey Shore. It's when sun umbrellas are snapped shut with finality, this year's beach badges are transformed from currency into souvenirs, and people depart moist-eyed. For lifeguard Bob "Domino" Speca, it was the shrill blast of his own whistle Monday afternoon that signaled that his beach patrol days were nearly up - forever. Speca retired from lifeguarding after more than 30 summers protecting swimmers on the beaches of this Cape May County resort.

Meatballs in sweet tomato sauce. With pickles? And vinegar peppers? That's what Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney ordered, in a Shorti hoagie, at a Bucks County Wawa last weekend, as my colleague Tom Fitzgerald reported. Whatever that particular mix of sweet and sour is supposed to be, it's not Philly food. My mother-in-law, Eileen Schach, who grew up feeding a farm household and whose sister became one of the most feared caterers on Pittsburgh's North Side, assures me the German Pennsylvanians she grew up with don't pile those things together on their serving boards, either.