Turkey Club

The Turkey Club evolved directly from the original Club Sandwich invented at the Saratoga Club House in upstate New York in the late 1880s. Early club sandwiches were made with chicken, but as American turkey production scaled up after World War II, particularly with the rise of mass-produced sliced deli turkey breast in the 1950s, turkey gradually replaced chicken as the standard protein. The Turkey Club, with its lighter meat and identical construction, became the default version on hotel and diner menus by the 1960s. The sandwich's triple-decker format, frilly toothpicks, and diagonal quartering remained intact, simply with turkey substituting for the original chicken. Today, when most American restaurants list a Club Sandwich, they actually mean a Turkey Club. The original chicken version still appears occasionally, but the turkey iteration has so completely taken over that many younger diners don't realize it was ever called anything else.

The Turkey Club has become the go-to lunch order for diners who want something substantial but not heavy, the sandwich equivalent of ordering grilled chicken instead of a steak. It's a fixture of country club dining rooms, hotel room service menus, and casual American restaurants across the country. Its slightly virtuous reputation (turkey is leaner than ham or roast beef) has made it the default lunch order for business meetings and ladies-who-lunch settings, even though the bacon and mayonnaise undercut any actual nutritional advantage. The sandwich also serves as a useful menu placeholder, if you're at an unfamiliar restaurant and don't know what to order, the Turkey Club is almost always a safe bet. It's hard to do badly and even harder to ruin.