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Primo Hoagies' Pilgrim vs. Wawa's Gobbler
'Tis the season for bizarre iterations of the traditional Thanksgiving meal layered sloppily onto a hoagie roll and wrapped in paper like that is a good idea. We've decided to try two of the most prominent examples of this perennial style to gauge which one is a less foolish thing to eat.
Primo Hoagies' Pilgrim vs. Wawa's Gobbler
'Tis the season for bizarre iterations of the traditional Thanksgiving meal layered sloppily onto a hoagie roll and wrapped in paper like that is a good idea. We've decided to try two of the most prominent examples of this perennial style — one from Wawa and one from Primo Hoagies (we know there are more) — to gauge which one is a less foolish thing to eat.
THE WAWA GOBBLER
Location Acquired/Time Eaten: The Wawa in Fishtown. Consumed somewhere between 1:15 and 1:45 a.m. while watching Hulu in bed.
You Were Pretty Drunk, Huh? Yes I was. I'm 27.
Bread? Typical Wawa Shorti roll. Not stale at all, a lovely surprise for a late-night hoagie acquisition of this nature.
Accoutrement? Turkey, gravy, stuffing, super-sweet cranberry and my own addition of provolone cheese, all toasted in that crazy metal box by Wawa's fine sandwich artists. This a super-gravy'd sandwich — they don't skimp on the brown stuff. It got soggy as hell between Aramingo Avenue and my personal private hoagie party but that did not deter me.
Stream-of-Consciousness Impressions? Turkey is not supposed to look like that. Why does it have a jet-black exoskeleton? It looks like plastic mushrooms. This tastes like straight-up sodium. In a good way though. Dude this is shit is so good oh my goodness thank Allah I bought this I was going to die if I didn't eat something. I should've gotten Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips instead of Chewy Spree, what was I thinking? Dammit I just got gravy on my pillow. Spree are good though. I'm sleepy.
THE PRIMO PILGRIM
Location Acquired/Time Eaten: The Primo's location near 21st and Chestnut. Consumed at my desk at work around 2:45 p.m. with one hand while typing something as equally stupid as this with the other.
You Were Pretty Drunk, Huh? I wasn't until like 3:15-3:22 p.m.
Bread? Primo's bread is great. It's fresh and crusty and crunchy and always does good by my go-to Italian Diablo or Tuna Diablo. Why wouldn't it work well here?
Accoutrement? Tasty thin-sliced Thurman's turkey, shop-made stuffing (not nearly as salty as Wawa's, and cold), an off-sweet cranberry sauce and mayonnaise. No cheese and no gravy.
Stream-of-Consciousness Impressions? This sandwich is cold! Chilly chilly. Why doesn't it have gravy? Is it meant to be eaten this way? I think it is. Fuck I dropped a giant glop of mayo between the G and H keys on my keyboard. I really wish this sandwich was super-hot and had gravy all over it. I'm going to microwave it for 25 seconds in the City Paper microwave. OK now the meat and the stuffing are hot but the bread is weirdly springy-soft and the mayo is runny and melty. Miking it was a bad idea. People are looking at me weird. Someone just told me my office smells like fries. I don't smell it. What a poor decision. What was I thinking? What other recourse did I have, though? Cold stuffing sucks in this context! Life is hard. Shit I just got hot mayo on my pants.
VERDICT
Call it a copout if you'd like, but I cannot declare either of these Turkey Day hoagies the outright winner of this extremely disorganized and unprofessional tete-a-tete. If it were up to me, I would take the bread, cranberry and turkey from the Pilgrim and combine it with the stuffing, gravy and cheese from the Gobbler to form the ultimate sandwich celebrating a simpler time when all respectable meals were eaten out of ornate cornucopias at a really long table with Indians hanging out everywhere.
If you know of any other Thanksgiving-themed hoagies or sandwiches around town that we should consider before Thursday, please speak up in the comments.
Photos: Drew Lazor
At the risk of sounding like Capt. Obvious, there's the Thanksgiving balls at the Blind Pig in NoLibs (not a sandwich or hoagie though).
McNally's in Chestnut Hill does a decent Thanksgiving sandwich though called "The Dickens." It's a big one too.— hhkal- hhkal, I like those Thanksgiving Balls very much. I'm focusing mostly on the T-Day Sandwich genre though, because it's just so silly and appealing to me. — Drew Lazor
- Turducken at Jakes.— Holly Moore
- So, the Bobbie at Capriotti's (you know, the star of PW's "You're Quite the Dish" column last week) is really good. But it's cold which always bothered me! And no gravy, just mayo. Also you can only get it in Delaware. Tomorrow at work let's go to Delaware and get one and not put it in the microwave.— CarolynH
- Apparently there is one in Springfield, though that's not really that much closer than DE. — Drew Lazor
- Drew, you are adorable. I appreciate how not seriously you took this.— midtownlunchphi
- I'm not sure what you mean. I've never taken a writeup more seriously. — Drew Lazor
- I guess what's really necessary is to put the Primo's one in a panini press. And then dip it in a side of gravy as you eat it.— ethorson
- Well done Drew, but this just makes me stand by my "Turkey Terrific" rule even more. 10pm tomorrow night can't come quick enough - should be about halftime of what has the potential of being the best game all day.— Sean Hamel
- I know this is an old post, but if you want a great thanksgiving sandwich, check out the Original Turkey (in the reading Terminal). Their Turkey Stuffin' Cran sandwich is unbelievably good. Hot turkey, hot stuffing, cranberry sauce on your choice of bread. And get some gravy on the side.
I do wish they had a hoagie version with the gravy already on there, but hey... still a great sandwich.
— flyinbutrs
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