Tavern Owner, Maker Of Famous Philly Sandwich Remembered By His Daughter
By Tim Jimenez
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The inventor of one of Philadelphia's most popular sandwiches died last Wednesday at the age of 81. KYW Newsradio spoke with his daughter who keeps the Chestnut Hill family business going.
For four decades, you'd find Hugh J. McNally behind the bar at McNally's Tavern in Chestnut Hill.
"You know, my dad could make a sandwich out of anything," says Anne McNally.
And The Schmitter sandwich is the perfect example she says. Beef, salami, cheese, onions, tomato, and a special "Schmitter sauce" on a kaiser roll. Anne says her dad started making it in the late 1960s for a regular customer who only drank Schmidt's beer.
That beer is long gone, but the sandwich remains. It's sold at the tavern and Citizens Bank Park and the Lincoln Financial Field.
Anne says her dad was stunned to learn his creation was heading to South Philadelphia.
"He said, 'Wow! Do you think you can do that?' Can you make 100 sandwiches a night?' And I said, 'Dad, you know they're talking about 400 or 500 sandwiches a night,'" Anne recalls.
But most importantly, Anne says, her dad was a good man.
"He loved his job," she says. "He loved my mother and he was a really good dad to the five of us."
