A listener reports that in and around his hometown of Le Mars, Iowa, the kind of loose-meat sandwich that others might call a sloppy joe is known as a tavern or a tavern sandwich, a name that likely goes back to a restaurant in nearby Sioux City...
Sarah from Moorhead, Minnesota, emailed a story from her early days of teaching in North Dakota. While reading the lunch menu to her students, she was flabbergasted to see that the day’s fare included something called slushburgers. She’d grown up...
A listener from northern New Jersey says that in his part of the state, a sloppy joe was not the mashed-up ground beef sandwich many of us also know as a loose meat sandwich, spoonburger, or tavern. For him, a sloppy joe was a deli meat sandwich...
In and around Sheboygan, Wisconsin, barbecues are known as fry outs even though nothing’s fried. And a hot tamale is more like a sloppy joe sandwich. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sheboyganisms” Hello, you have A Way with Words...
Nathaniel, a vegetarian in Vermillion, South Dakota, encountered a tavern sandwich after moving from Kansas City and wondered why a word for a drinking place also names a sandwich. The sandwich is a loose-meat sandwich on a hamburger bun, familiar...

