Is a burrito a sandwich?
The Panera Bread Co. bakery-and-cafe chain says yes. But a judge said no, ruling against Panera in its bid to prevent a Mexican restaurant from moving into the same shopping mall.
Panera has a clause in its lease that prevents the White City Shopping Center in Shrewsbury from renting to another sandwich shop. Panera tried to invoke that clause to stop the opening of an Qdoba Mexican Grill.
But Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke cited Webster’s Dictionary as well as testimony from a chef and a former high-ranking federal agriculture official in ruling that Qdoba’s burritos and other offerings are not sandwiches.
The difference, the judge ruled, comes down to two slices of bread versus one tortilla.
Qdoba, owned by San Diego-based Jack in the Box Inc., called food experts to testify on its behalf.
Among them was Cambridge chef Chris Schlesinger, who said in an affidavit: ”I know of no chef or culinary historian who would call a burrito a sandwich. Indeed, the notion would be absurd to any credible chef or culinary historian.”
So, bite me, actus. And you, too, monkyboy.
Related?
What’s the worst that could happen if we sent a Citizen Journalist to chronicle Rosie O’Donnell’s charity cruise?
But what about quesadillas? They can have one tortilla or two depending on how they’re prepared. And what about stuffed pizza?
Mark my words, this will go to SCOTUS.
Chairman Me–
It may well, but I was more interested in the ontological argument. For example, there’s such a thing as an “open faced” sandwich, which would seem to introduce difficulties, since there’s only one piece of bread involved, as with a burrito. At what moment, then, does a burrito become a burrito? Only at the moment that it’s rolled? If so, would selling an unrolled burrito constitute a violation of the privileges accorded to Panera by contract? If a burrito eater on premises were to unroll his or her burrito before consuming it, would that, apart from being gauche, be tantamount to consuming a sandwich?
When it sneaks across the border in a closed-up box trailer towed by a big rig, then is abandoned, while locked still inside, in the desert without food, water, ventilation or Xbox.
Because of the HYLOMORPHISM!
Too bad that Borat feller didn’t get a broken jaw.
The world would be a better place with his mouth wired shut.
Doesn’t anyone know the difference between “legislative” and “judicial?”
You’re right, Pete. Sorry. It’s just so mind-boggling that this decision was reached in Massachusetts.
If it had been legislative, a) it wouldn’t be called the White City Shopping Center, and b) diversity foods would be given preference in any case.
Well, both federal branches make laws, right?
At least lately, anways…
Mexican food is really all the same. Each dish is just given a different name, depending on how it’s folded.
TSI–
That’s just nuts. That’s like saying that origami’s . . .
Nevermind.
I know I said this elsewhere, probably on Volokh, but it seems to me that the real significant difference is that a sandwich involves a completely sliced piece of bread.
Thus both regular and open-faced sandwiches are sandwiches, but neither burritos nor hot dogs are.
Since that matches the common-use of the term, it sounds like a winner to me.
In any case, the word, even if it cannot be defined top-down without a laundry list of Wittgensteinian family resemblance markers, does have a “normal” meaning, and that meaning doesn’t include the delicious burrito.
It is delicious, isn’t it?
How would a bologna bend-back fit into all of this, what I want to know.
What about the short irons – one of them is rumored to be an open faced club – sand wedge?
Ben Hoagie?
Sorry, meant Bent Hoagie, as in left open and sliced.
tw: member59
At what moment, then, does a burrito become a burrito?
And what about The Tostada Exception (which I think was a Ludlum title)?
And pizza. Isn’t a pizza just a giant open-faced sandwich? And what about calzones? Would you deny sandwich status to this wholesome member of the Italian community?
And what about pitas? Are you now eating, or have you ever eaten, anything in a pita, Mr. Collins? Answer the question! Don’t wait for the translation, just answer the question!
Sandwich, shmandwich, can’t you guys talk about anything other than sex?
There are other things to talk about? I did not know that.
I once folded over a Mexican pizza, then deep fried it in an attempt to make a Mexizone. It came out shaped like Texas.
Well, Chairwoman Schultz, seeing as the Italians deny the pizza and the calzone full sandwich status, I’d have to answer, yes.
My lawyer: “Madame Chairwoman, my client respectfully invokes his Fifth Amendment privilege not to answer, on the grounds that his response might be incriminating.”
Hmmmm.
But I regularly use flour tortillas to eat sandwiches, hot dogs and hamburgers even. I find the flour tortilla is much easier to handle and less apt to dump the contents thereof into my lap.
Now what about a “manwich”? Is it really a sandwich? Can I sue someone for selling me a manwich that isn’t actually a manwich but rather is a sandwich? What it if comes in a tortilla? Perhaps with a tasty fruit juice and alcohol concoction with a small umbrella?
Sorry. Still not a sandwich, although it may seem more like a sandwich after 4 or 5 such concoctions. In the morning, you’ll still have to admit that it wasn’t a sandwich. Trust McGehee on this.
Sure, you neocons just keep arguing about sandwiches and burritos.
Your grandchildren will be eating egg rolls, mark my words.
I like eggrolls….
Damn.
The Chinese have already won.
And to further stir up the pot, I declare the burrito to the be Mexican equivalent of the sandwich. They both package meat, cheese, and various other things in a form made from flour which allows the contents to be transported from a plate to your mouth. Anyone who disagrees with me is obviously a racist and a cultural snob.
Messkins never actually discovered the sammich.
A taco would be about as close as they got.
Pizzas are technically pies.
Calzones are also pies.
Hmmmm.
Ahhh! But that implies that the perception of reality can be altered by the judicious application of outside forces. By invading with the intent to liberate the freedom-loving burritoes and to combat the anti-burrito sandwich-nazis, I believe it is possible to exchange the perception of reality *with* reality and thereby trump all naysayers of ex potentia sandwich masses!
Attica! Attica! Attica!
…
I’ll take a half-dozen more of these concoctions and a plate of pitted olives.
I never claimed the drink was a sandwich. I said what the two strippers made out of me was a sandwich.
Duh,ask McGhee about the Beer Goggles.
Okay, well what the fuck is this thing?
Well, Chairwoman Schultz, seeing as the Italians deny the pizza and the calzone full sandwich status, I’d have to answer, yes.
But shouldn’t America—the shining city on the hill—be better than that?
What it if comes in a tortilla? Perhaps with a tasty fruit juice and alcohol concoction with a small umbrella?
You find a way to get fruit juice and alcohol and umbrellas into a tortilla, dude, and you’ll make a fortune. Maybe if you froze it? And make that a chocolate tortilla.
I forget whether someone has posted this sandwich news.
So, bite me, actus.
Funny, that’s what the sandwiches said.
Your grandchildren will be eating egg rolls, mark my words.
Why? Has China become a democratic state?
People often say quite dumb things about what it is and is not that courts should be doing. Usually they forget that it is quite normal that courts arbitrate disputes just like this one.
I’d hate to have to decide where the delicious Korean concoction Poodles ‘n Noodles falls in this spectrum.
Can I get a nice Jack Spaniels to drink?
And for desert….mice cream.
You know what I want?
I want actus to be the main ingredient in an Aztec sandwich.
I guess that should be an Aztec burrito.
Sorry.
Only a Massachusetts lawyer would decide that a burrito is a sandwich.
A San Diego lawyer would never try that shit.
Charlie? Charlie Trie? Is that you?
Let’s not forget Original Intent.
When the Earl of Sandwich called for two slices of bread and a slice of meat, he didn’t say, “Make that one slice of bread–no wait, make it a corn tortilla. Oh, and shred the meat, and then simmer it in a chili pepper sauce. And Garçon…? Do you have any sour cream?”
No sir, the man asked for two slices of bread, and a slice of cold meat. THAT, by God, is the food item he invented, and THAT is a sandwich!