Sandwiches

In this video, Bryan Voltaggio makes a muffaletta at his Lunchbox restaurant. The video was produced, I think, by a Georgetown men's boutique named Lost Boys. When you click on a Lost Boys link, at least on Friday, scary things start popping up on your computer. The sandwich looks good, anyway, and so does Voltaggio. Not sure about that jacket.    

After 19 years in the printing business, Joe Hadaway decided it was time for a career change. And in the process, the 40-year-old Forest Hill resident found a way to involve his whole family as owner of Dillweed's Gourmet Kitchen & Café in Bel Air.  Hadaway purchased Dillweed's in September 2010 after discovering the business was for sale online. The restaurant is known for its delectable breakfast options, including French toast and bagel sandwiches, as well as daily lunch specials featuring signature paninis, sandwiches, soups, salads, and more.

It's not a sandwich, it's a Yandawich.  Inspired by and named for Ravens offensive guard Marshal Yanda, the Yandawich is a take on the sandwich Yanda looks forward to on his trips back home to Iowa. That's what the folks say at Ryleigh's Oyster, who came up with the Yandawich in honor of the 315-pound, fifth-year lineman out of Cedar Rapids. The Iowa original is a pork tenderloin and pickle sandwich. The version that Ryleigh's in Federal Hill came up with subs in a corn-and-poached oyster salad for the Iowa pickle, a nice Maryland touch.  And the Yandawich's stout mustard was inspired by Yanda's drink of choice, says Ryleigh's owner Bryan McComas.

The Greek cold cut sub at Old World Delicatessen is a big sandwich. Portly. Granted, the largest contributor to its bulk is the roll, a hot dog-bun-class giant that threatens to take over the sandwich at every bite. But at $5.25, this sub begins to look like a bargain. And the really wonderful part about this sandwich is where you buy it. To build the sub, Old World takes the Italian cold cut standard and adds feta and Kalamata olives. Unless you're a major feta cheese fan, you may need to do a mining operation and either jettison some of the larger chunks or break them up and spread the cheese around some.

Jack and Zach Food has opened in the lower-level Woman's Industrial Exchange where Sofi's Crepes was until recently. Jack is Jack Neill, 22, and Zachary is Zachary Schoettler, 21. They are alarmingly young. Baltimore natives, Neill and Schoettler met while attending the Baltimore School for the Arts, where they were in the visual arts program. Jack and Zach Food doubles a cafe and a commissary/sales outlet for the guys' pickled vegetables, sausages and vegetable patties, which they've been selling at area farmers' markets.

Unemployment is high, national debt is mounting and the government appears utterly incapable of doing anything productive. The Middle East is roiled, Europe is teetering on the brink of financial collapse, and China is beefing up its military. But the real threat to America may be this: Toys "R" Us is opening at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Walmart stores will open at 10 (two hours earlier than last year), and Target, Macy's, Kohls, Best Buy and others will open at midnight. Is nothing sacred?

Savage United Methodist Church, 9050 Baltimore Ave., will hold its Fall Festival on Saturday, Nov. 12 from noon to 5 p.m. A bake sale and craft sale will be part of the festival, and food includes homemade soups, sandwiches, cole slaw and potato salad. For information, call 301-725-7630, or go to http://www.umcsavage.org.

Back in August, when news got out that the Lost City Diner had opened, a town full of cynics said, "Aw, you're pulling my leg!" But "Gee whiz!" folks sighed when they got a peek inside the new Charles North corner diner. "She's a beauty. " In development for what seemed like an eternity, the Lost City Diner stands as Joy Martin's tribute to the epitome of American interior design and to the enduring appeal of vintage science-fiction illustration. The results ravish. The interior showcases Martin's impeccable eye for salvageable material and her impressive skills at shepherding the stable of artists who have contributed original works to the restaurant.

The key to the perfect tailgating offering is impressing your fellow sports fans with foods that are flavorful and hearty. When you're a gourmet chef like Cinghiale's Julian Marucci, using fresh ingredients helps give classics a fresh spin. "You want to impress people by showing them different types of food that people wouldn't usually make," said Marucci, the 28-year-old executive chef for the Harbor East Italian restaurant. "It comes down to seasoning, execution and technique.

Schools, homes, shoes and jobs. Love. Hope. As myriad as the needs of those swept up in poverty, abandonment and disaster are the people who pour out their time and treasure to help. In Howard County, we have a commendable reputation for helping our own, but there are some whose hearts reach beyond our borders. Across the sea, in the mountains and valleys and deserts, they root their hearts in lives of strangers. What inspires them to use precious vacation time to bathe dirty orphans and erect shelters on the rubble of earthquakes?