Roast beef sandwich

The roast beef sandwich is a sandwich that is made out of sliced roast beef or sometimes beef loaf. It is sold at many diners in the United States, as well as fast food chains, such as Arby's and Roy Rogers Restaurants. This style of sandwich often comes on a hamburger bun and may be topped with barbecue sauce and/or melted American cheese. The roast beef sandwich also commonly comprises bread, cold roast beef (either the leftovers from a homemade dinner or deli meat), lettuce, tomatoes, and mustard, although it would not be uncommon to find cheese, horseradish, fresh/powdered chili pepper and even in some cases red onion. Roast beef sandwiches may be served cold or hot, and are sometimes served open faced.

Some trace the origins of the modern (U.S. based) roast beef sandwich as far back as 1877, with the then little known "beefsteak toast" recipe: cold beef, bread and gravy dish. In 1900, the dish was described by The Washington Post as "unattractive" and as "a tired ark in a gravy flood". The dish gained popularity in the coming years and by 1931, some critics even went as far as to describe it as "a true taste of South Dakota".

Roast beef sandwiches have been a specialty of the Boston area since the early 1950s, typically served on an onion roll with optional barbecue sauce and horseradish. Restaurants specializing it include Kelly's Roast Beef (which claims to be the original, having opened in 1951), Nick's, Harrison's, and Bill and Bob's. In Brooklyn a small handful of establishments, beginning with Brennan & Carr in 1938, have served a variant of the sandwich, and two more directly Boston-derived roast beef restaurants opened in the early 2010s.

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