A local shop has taken the debate for the best bread to hold a hoagie in a whole new direction. It replaces the traditional roll for the classic meat-cheese-lettuce-oil lunch with a pickle. Peg Quann barreled through the backstory of this reinvention for the Bucks County Courier Times.

Michael Favoroso, co-owner of Giovanni’s Dillicious Pickles in Croydon, got the notion to transform hoagies from a lunch with a date. She ordered fried pickles; he had an Italian hoagie. Sharing bites, Favoroso was taken by pairing’s zesty flavor.

Recently in need of a job, he circled back on the flavor combo and opened a restaurant/take-out service anchored by pickles.

Word of the sandwich taste sensation caught fire on social media, and the fan base for nontraditional hoagies holders is growing.

The shop also has a pickle pizza that Favoroso said is “ridiculously good.”

More on Giovanni’s Dillicious Pickles is at the Bucks County Courier Times.