The Full Story

It all started back in 1983 with a single sandwich. One day, Dave Bassett was strolling through Reading Terminal Market looking for a good turkey sandwich but it was nowhere to be found. His son, Roger Bassett, at the time was working at Bassetts Ice Cream just down the aisle. He asked Roger if he knew of anywhere to get a good turkey sandwich, he unfortunately did not but he did not want to disappoint his father so he went around to other merchants and found the ingredients to make a fresh roasted turkey sandwich for his dad. Cooked a small turkey in a little oven he borrowed from another merchant, sliced some fresh baked bread from a bakery next door and got some lettuce and tomato from the produce stand. As Dave was sitting down eating that sandwich a stranger came up to him and asked where he got that sandwich, “My son at the ice cream counter made it for me” was his response. The next day Dave came back with some of his friends to get another one of those sandwiches and what do you know so did that stranger from the day before. At that point Roger knew he might be onto something and started to develop the very first and only turkey only food concept in the United States. Now almost 40 years later the rest is history all thanks to that one sandwich.