Why Is Sloppy Joe Called Sloppy Joe?

[Beejus]

I'm sitting in study hall right now with a bunch of friends and this is the question that is boggling our minds for the hour...we haven't done much research on the issue at hand but I thought it'd be a good start to come here first and ask you folks...

(for the record we understand what the sloppy part of sloppy joe means...we're just trying to figure out "why joe?")

[Beejus]

Howdy Tim, I've been a little...M.I.A. lately...I've had a lot of school crap, social shizznit, and work at McDonald's to do so I haven't found much time to browse the ol' forum... But now it's the 4th and FINAL quarter of my high school experience...time to take it easy---yeehaw :tu:

Maybe a guy named Joe made it... ---kid in the studyhall

Look it up on the internet...I'm sure you'll find it --- another kid from study hall

Don't look that one up on the internet B.J.! ---teacher in study hall


still haven't found an answer...but I'm on the prowl

[slx]

(for the record we understand what the sloppy part of sloppy joe means...we're just trying to figure out "why joe?")bj...it's simple dude....it's called sloppy joe because that's what's written on the can

[Dollar_Girl]

I think because "joe" is just a very common name used for "miscelanious" purposes.

When i was in highschool, every human example, from science to english was called "joe-blow".

EXAMPLE :

"Let's say joe-blow was walking around a circle with a diametre of ..."


Thus, sloppy joe is also born.


I dont know what a sloppy joe is, but it sounds like preserved meat in a can or something. ugh.

[jcmd62]

There seems to be as many tales of the origination of the "Sloppy Joe" sandwich as there are different variations of it.

One story has it originating in Havana Cuba in the 1930's at the original "Sloppy Joe's Bar" owned by José García. The bar got its name because his place was always a mess, and the ropa vieja sandwich served there came to be known as a Sloppy Joe.

Ernest Hemingway who loved Cuba and was a regular at Mr Garcia's Sloppy Joe's had another favorite hang out in Key West Fla. that sold LIquor and Fresh Iced down seafood. Hemingway had suggested the name in tribute to Mr. García's Rio Havana club, because the floor was always wet with melted ice, and the name stuck.

Sloppy Joe's in Key West is still a popular night spot today and where some believe that not only the name but the Sloppy Joe sandwich also crossed over.

Support for the Cuban theory is the sandwich was indeed served at the Sloppy Joe's bar in Havana and that a version of it wound up on the menu at the Town Hall Deli in South Orange, N.J., in 1936, when it was (and still is) not a messy chopped meat sandwich but a triple-decker deli sandwich. Jack Burdorf, an owner of the Town Hall Deli, knew the sandwich's history. His father had worked at the deli and then bought it with a partner.

Around 1934 or '35, the Mayor of Maplewood, Robert Sweeney, used to vacation in Havana and hang out at an old saloon called Sloppy Joe's. When Sweeney returned to New Jersey, he described the sandwich he used to eat there to Mr. Burdorf Sr., and asked him to recreate it."

The result, Mr. Burdorf said, was a sandwich that to this day is called the original sloppy Joe: layers of ham, tongue and Swiss cheese topped with coleslaw and Russian dressing, served on long, thin slices of soft buttered rye bread and sliced into four squares.

If the original sloppy Joe was a giant club sandwich, what of the messy manwich of a meal so many Americans grew up eating?

Jean Anderson, author of "The American Century Cookbook" claims that her research points to a cafe in Sioux City, Iowa, where a cook named Joe made loose meat sandwiches — a Midwestern term for seasoned ground meat cooked loosely in a skillet — that eventually came to be known as sloppy Joes.

The Iowa version is more like what I always believed to be a "Sloppy Joe" unlike the club type sandwich still served in Jersey as the original "Sloppy Joe". I think like most things it originated somewhere else and we just Americanized it. IMHO

Maybe Eclectica can drop by the Town Hall Deli and give us a write up on the "original" Sloppy Joe".

[Criminal_Sniper]

the only sloppy jor ive heard of is a warm garment for the upper body
like what i call a jumper
though i dont know why i call it a jumper either
maybe cause they were made in wool or something something to do with sheep there