Bread heads: Miami’s Don Pan and Fort Lauderdale’s LaSpada’s are top sandwich spots

Maybe they really were invented, as the legend goes, by the fourth Earl of Sandwich, a fun-loving English nobleman who didn’t want to break to eat while he played cards.

It’s a nice story, and it made sense for Sir Sandwich: clutching a couple of bread slices with a bit of meat and vegetables can keep things tidy when you’re shuffling aces and deuces.

Regardless of its origin, the sandwich’s appeal is universal and eternal. Here are two South Florida restaurant chains that deal winning sandwiches — and more.

LaSpada’s Original Hoagies

It used to be a regional thing, before Subway had all of us calling their sandwiches “subs,” that where you lived determined whether they were hoagies or wedges or heroes or grinders, etc.

New Yorkers, for example, knew their hot sandwiches — Italian sausage with peppers and onions, eggplant parm, meatballs — as heroes.

In Philly, they’re hoagies. The term derived from a nickname for World War II-era shipyard workers in Hog Island, Pennsylvania, according to Harry Kappes, the owner of LaSpada’s Original Hoagies. Mostly of Italian descent, the workers ate lunches of large sandwiches stuffed with cold cuts. The Hog Island men were called hoggies, and their fat sandwiches became known as hoagies, Kappes said.

Sicilian native Tony LaSpada opened the family’s first shop in 1938 in Atlantic City. Several others followed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Son John continued the family practice, opening more locations in the region. His son, John Jr., moved south and introduced the first Florida LaSpada’s in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in 1973.

The South Florida locations, also in Fort Lauderdale, Davie, Coral Springs and Boca Raton, are now owned and managed by Kappes and his family. Though there may still be LaSpada’s shops in Pennsylvania and Orlando, which mostly sell mostly Philly cheesesteaks, Kappes said that his shops “honor the original.”

“We keep it authentic and craft each sandwich the LaSpada’s way,” he said.

LaSpada’s sandwiches are well constructed. Meats are freshly sliced, not prepackaged. Same with the toppings: Veggies are vibrant, tomatoes are red and ripe.

All of the offerings are cold, except the meatball marinara hoagies. And if you’re doing the low-carb thing or are looking for vegetarian options, no worries. Salads with or without cold cuts and cheese are also on the menu, and the staff will customize your hoagie accordingly.

In South Florida, the chain is mostly in Broward with a lone outpost in Boca Raton. A new shop is opening soon in Pembroke Pines on Pines Boulevard.

Might Miami-Dade soon enjoy the taste of LaSpada’s?

“We’d love to open a shop near the University of Miami,” Kappes said. “We’re big Hurricanes fans, and it’s a natural market for our hoagies.”

Don Pan International Bakery

Don Pan (the name is a bit of a brag, Godfather-style, like Don Corleone) might primarily be a bakery, but the shops also sell sandwiches and pastries that can easily serve as meals and not just sweets.

But life is uncertain, as they say, so let’s start with the desserts: Cakes are beautiful, rich and lavishly decorated. Cream-filled éclairs topped with kiwi and strawberries are visual as well as gustatory treats. There are rich cannoli, thick napoleons, tiramisus, creme brulées, trés leches cakes, profiteroles, cookies, muffins, Danishes, croissants and more.

If it were just a bakery, that would be enough. (Given the diminishing number of bakeries these days that aren’t subsections of supermarket chains, it would be more than enough.) But Don Pan sells an array of pastelitos, arepas and empanadas that are perfect for all-day snacking, a quick lunch or even dinner at work or play.

Then there are the sandwiches. Don Pan makes a classic Cuban, which includes a Tampa-preferred slice of salami; ham and cheese; turkey; chicken salad; tuna salad; and a featured Special Pepito Venezuelan street sandwich with steak, provolone, lettuce, onions and a Russian dressing-ish sauce, plus potato sticks. It’s crazy-good.

“All of our food is fully cooked at each store, and the cakes and desserts are made fresh daily at each store, too,” Don Pan CEO Carolina Gorrin wrote in an email.

The chain was founded by Spaniard Louis Gorrin, who migrated to Venezuela and opened his first Don Pan there in 1982.

The Gorrin family came to the United States shortly thereafter and debuted the first Don Pan on Miami’s Flagler Street in 1985. Current locations include Coral Gables, Doral, Flagler, Kendall, Sunrise and Hialeah, plus Tampa, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

Will there be more?

“Yes,” Gorrin said. “We’re looking at expansion in Broward, Boca Raton, Aventura, West Palm Beach and outside Florida, to other states.”

This story was originally published August 6, 2015 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Bread heads: Miami’s Don Pan and Fort Lauderdale’s LaSpada’s are top sandwich spots."