{"id":69558,"date":"2026-09-09T13:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/69558\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T13:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:11:16","slug":"a-38-sandwich-is-taking-over-the-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/69558\/","title":{"rendered":"A $38 sandwich is taking over the US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Walk onto the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and you\u2019ll eventually find your way toward the food court area, where on most days during this year\u2019s U.S. Open you\u2019ll be met by a long line of fans waiting to get their hands on a $38 sandwich that has been the talk of the tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So what has compelled U.S. Open goers to wait on line \u2014 for some, that has been a 15-20-minute investment of their day at the tournament \u2014 to get their hands on the prime rib sandwich, topped with onions, aioli and provolone? That depends on who you ask.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For 64-year-old Brooklynite Rob Carlson, the decision to hop on the line has been <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/24\/lifestyle\/heres-whatll-be-served-up-at-the-us-open-for-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">due to the buzz he\u2019s heard from other people.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Lines form for a Salt Hank\u2019s sandwich outside of Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Queens, NY.  Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing is that when you hear about somebody who had it, say, \u2018You know what? It\u2019s really good,\u2019 and then you see the line, [those are] two facts that actually say, OK, you know what? It\u2019s worth the wait,\u201d he told The Post after just getting off the line. \u201cWhen people really like it and they want to wait in line and you see other people validate it. Sure, why not [wait]?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Allie Struda, 24, and Emma Barrett, 28, both live in the city and are familiar with the \u201clore\u201d of Salt Hank\u2019s, they explained moments after securing their French dip sandwich.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For those unfamiliar, Salt Hank \u2014 real name Henry Laporte \u2014 gained fame on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic through his viral cooking videos. It led to followers, brand deals and a cookbook before last year, when he opened up his own brick-and-mortar shop in the West Village.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The $38 sandwich has become quite popular at the U.S. Open. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n<p>The shop became an instant success, serving just the French dip sandwich that is now a hit at the U.S. Open.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re from the city, so we know the lore of Salt Hank\u2019s and how good it is,\u201d Struda explained. \u201cWe have not had the chance to try it, so we\u2019re like, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes the line draws you in,\u201d Barrett added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSocial media is the reason,\u201d Barrett went on, noting the constant social media posts about the sandwich. \u201cLiterally, that\u2019s it, and I\u2019m f\u2013king hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Salt Hank shows off his sandwich before the U.S. Open Tamara Beckwith\/NY Post<\/p>\n<p>While the USTA doesn\u2019t have a total count of how many sandwiches have been sold through the U.S. Open thus far, Daniel Zausner, the chief operating officer of the national tennis center, has said that Salt Hank\u2019s has sold threefold daily what they would sell out of their West Village shop on a given day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt hasn\u2019t surprised me that the interest was going to exceed everyone\u2019s expectations,\u201d Zausner told The Post. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve been very pleased about, not surprised, but pleased, is that doing for them three times the volume of what they do in their space, they\u2019re able to maintain that consistency and that quality of the 1,500 sandwiches as good as the first one is during the day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Zausner and the USTA would certainly like to have Salt Hank\u2019s back after this year\u2019s tournament, but he also hopes that it has worked out for them as well.<\/p>\n<p>Lines form for a Salt Hank\u2019s sandwich outside of Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in Queens, NY.  Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n<p>Salt Hank\u2019s closed its West Village shop for the three weeks of the U.S. Open to focus on the stand on the grounds of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m at the stage now where I just don\u2019t want them to feel like they made a mistake to give up that commitment to their flagship location,\u201d he explained. \u201cBecause I\u2019d like to see them come back. We just want to see them be really successful, feel really good about what they\u2019re doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walk onto the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and you\u2019ll eventually find your&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[26961,50,1652,28,463,616],"class_list":["post-69558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us-open","tag-sandwiches","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-tennis","tag-us-open","tag-us-open-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}