For fans who’ve longed to break bread with Arnold Palmer, it’s a dream come true. And all it costs is $6.50. That’s how much it'll set you back to enjoy an Arnold Palmer sandwich at a popular string of independent Pittsburgh restaurants that are world famous for honoring local heroes.
The Arnold Palmer is ringing up steady sales at Peppi’s, according to sandwich entrepreneur Lou Bosser of Peppi’s Restaurants in Pittsburgh.
“It has a chicken breast, bacon, onions, ranch dressing and provolone cheese and people are snapping them up,” Bosser says. “It’s a popular sandwich.”
And it's named after a popular man. The sandwich debuted just weeks after GQ magazine declared Palmer to be one of the 50 most stylish men in history.
Arnold Palmer, the sandwich drew its inspiration from another increasingly popular Arnold Palmer, the refreshing half iced tea and half lemonade concoction that can be ordered online at www.arnoldpalmer.com or at www.arnoldpalmertee.com.
“A couple of my young guys were drinking some Arnold Palmers,” Bosser says, “and I told them that he’s one of the most legendary guys to ever come out of western Pennsylvania. I started telling them all about him, all he’s done and what he means to our region and it dawned on me that it was time to name a sandwich in his honor.”
Peppi’s has three Pittsburgh locations and earned national recognition when Sports Illustrated, The New York Times and major television broadcasters began reporting about the restaurant’s delicious Rothlis-burger sandwich when the Pittsburgh Steelers were advancing in 2006 toward their fifth Super Bowl.
Named in honor of Steeler quarterback Ben Rothlisberger, the sandwich is a combination hamburger, hot sausage and grilled onions topped with scrambled egg and two slices of American cheese.