Eight years ago, Rose Burke-Morgan walked through the doors at Laspada’s Original Hoagies in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea as a scrub-faced 17-year-old. By 18, she had worked enough to be trusted as a “slicer,” the meat cutter who launches sandwich innards through the air to the other end of the counter.
Just last month , Laspada’s opened its fifth location in Broward County on the 17th Street Causeway, and Burke-Morgan puts her experience and her Hospitality and Marketing degree from FIU to work as the manager of the new store.
The menus at all five locations are the same. An eight-inch Italian special hoagie loaded with meat and cheese goes for $6.95. There are a dozen eight-inch sandwiches on the menu which cost less than seven dollars.
Laspada’s is the sort of local joint that a Quizno’s or a Subway tries to copy. Not that I have anything against the food at either of those places, but why not go for the real thing?
And then there’s the show. General area Manager Phil Kappes, son of owners Harry and Gale Kappes, said the idea of throwing the insides of the sandwiches across the counter was born of necessity.
“it was just the fastest way to get the food down the line,” he explained.
“And it became part of the show.”
So much so that all five of the Broward stores have kept up the practice, even the newest Causeway shop which is spacious and lacks the cramped conditions of the original tight quarters of the Seagrape location which gave birth the now-famous meat toss.
Not everybody is makes the cut, to make the cut. “Either you do it or you can’t,” said Kappes. Burke-Morgan agreed. “It’s my favorite part,” she said. And the skill she learned at 18 had brought her a long way. “You can’t make it this far if you can’t throw it,” she said.
-Joe Cavaretta
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INFORMATIONAL BOX:
4346 Seagrape Dr., Lauderdale-by-the-Sea
954-776-7893, laspadashoagies.com
Open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday.
Other locations at 1495-D SE 17th St., Fort Lauderdale, 954-522-3483; 2645 S. University Dr., Davie, 954-476-1099; 7893 W. Sample Road, Coral Springs, 954-345-8833 and 2240 NW 19th St., Boca Raton, 561-393-1434.
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