The sandwich and parliamentary democracy were made by English aristocrats and remade in America. These exports crossed the Pond around the same time. The sandwich was invented, or at least identified, in the late 1700s. It is named, as the American chain reminds us, for John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718-92). Legend has it that Sandwich, a high roller in an age of fanatical gambling, couldn’t tear himself away from the tables, so he called for a servant to bring him a hunk of beef between two slices of bread. The truth may be that Sandwich, who was First Lord of the Admiralty when the Royal Navy was the world’s biggest industrial unit, couldn’t get away from his job and ate al desko.

The sandwich remains to the British Isles what sushi is to the Japanese. An obsession, an art form, a national treasure and part of the furniture. One of the few truly democratic aspects of English life, it can be wolfed as a chunky cheese and pickle in a pub with a pint as readily as it can be taken in crustless triangles lined with paper-thin cucumber or smoked salmon with afternoon tea ($150 per person at Claridge’s, with Champagne and cakes thrown in). 

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Always at your elbow and often in your hand, the English sandwich yuppified in the 1980s. You knew the good times were back when Marks & Spencer launched the prawn mayo. Today, Pret a Manger (founded 1983) defines upper-middle English sandwichery: cranberry and brie, falafel, salt beef on rye. But “Pret” and its ilk make puny English sandwiches, thin and underpowered. The mighty American sub surfaces in England only in grubby Subway franchises in tourist locations. The real American sub, a succulent monster assembled by an artisanal stacker of deli meats and square cheeses, only hit the Old Country when Tommy’s Sandwiches opened in King’s Cross, central London, in January 2026.

Tommy Ady came to London three years ago to work in tech. Feeling homesick for real food, he invented a proper job as the impresario of Tommy’s Sandwiches. Tommy is on a........

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