Dagwood Sandwich Becomes A Reality
The comic strip character whose eating habits are legend will lend his name to a chain of sandwich shops. Dagwood Bumstead's real-life creator, Dean Young, will be opening a chain of sandwich shops soon, reports the St. Petersburg Times.
Young, who works from a studio on Clearwater Beach, has had a team of 15 fast-food restaurant veterans quietly working in their "secret hideaway'' for months on Dagwood's Sandwich Shoppes. Bumstead, the comic strip's bumbling son of a railroad tycoon who was disinherited and sentenced to a modest life after he married a libertine flapper named Blondie in 1933, has been synonymous with sandwich-building for decades. He's always piling up cold cuts and cheeses precariously balanced in one hand. In fact, the Dagwood sandwich is a word common enough to be found in many dictionaries.
Dagwood's licensed cartoon face appears on everything from lunch boxes to coffee cups. He has done endorsement duty for A&W root beer, Sargento Cheese, FedEx and a line of cold cuts. There's even a small Blondie's theme restaurant at the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando.
Individual stores will be small, 32-seat affairs decorated with themed characters from the Blondie strip. The menu is dominated by $4 to $5 fresh-made sandwiches and wraps including a signature pressed Cuban, New York deli-style pastrami, New Orleans roast beef "Po' Boy" and a chicken curry sandwich on toasted raisin swirl bread. All the breads are partially baked, then finished on site.
Started in 1930 by Young's father, Chic Young, Blondie today appears in 2,300 publications in 35 countries that have a potential audience of 280-million. But Dagwood's entry in the fresh-made sandwich business will be in the fastest-growing segment of the quick-serve food business. It's a corner already jammed with Subway, http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/index.aspx and Quizno's. Other entrepreneurs are flocking there, too, including some of the creators of Hard Rock Cafe. Their entry enlisted the British Earl of Sandwich for their Earl of Sandwich that opened recently in International Plaza in Tampa.