The Philadelphia hoagie is one of America’s most famous regional cold cut sandwiches and it may have started in Chester, writes Alex Mitchell for The New York Post.

Today, DiCostanza’s is a sandwich shop in Boothwyn, but back in 1925, the family had a grocery business at Chester’s West End.

According to the DiCostanza website, a group of gamblers were playing cards in a pool hall about four doors away from the grocery. One of the men walked to the grocer to get some cigarettes. 

“Mom was cooking in the back kitchen and the aroma penetrated through the store,” the website story stated.

 The gambler asked for a sandwich and wanted it loaded up with everything they had in the case.

He received a Vienna loaf rolled down with olive oil and sprinkled with oregano and salt, filled with prosciutto, capicola, salami, ham cudighino, provolone cheese, tomato and onion. Then she added a few sweet and hot peppers.

He left with the sandwich and an hour later the store was filled with hungry gamblers asking for a sandwich. The rest is hoagie history.  

Read more about this and other possible places where the Philadelphia hoagie may have originated in The New York Post.