The music was rocky at Lumpy’s, and loud. There was that usual feeling of disorientation you get when you make your first visit to a fast food place. You have to learn the game plan.
At some submarine shops, it’s tough. It wasn’t too bad at Lumpy’s, because a young woman with an orange Lumpy’s T-shirt and a matching cap gave me a little sheet of paper listing all the ingredients in a Lumpy’s sub. “All you have to do,” she said, “is cross off what you don’t want. Then we’ll make up your sub the way you want it.”
“I like everything.” I said. “And I’m hungry.”
She said, “OK.”
So, I checked wheat bread. I checked small for a $2.39 size sandwich. I could have had a medium for $3.59 a large for $4.79 or a giant for $9.99. But that feeds six people. Then, there’s a 3-foot sandwich for $19.99 and a 6-footer for $39.99.
When CC arrived, he ordered the same thing as I had. It’s easier that way. We sat down and looked over the place while we waited for our submarine sandwiches. We remembered when the building opened as an Auto Dine in 1966. After that, we remembered it was a Pizza Patrol. It also has been an ice-cream shop. And now we have Lumpy’s.
Our sandwiches were ready in a short time. Then we started chewing in earnest. There were thin slices of the meats—pastrami, roast beef, corned beef, turkey, salami, ham and bologna. There was American, Swiss and provolone cheese. Also lettuce, pickles, tomato, onion, mayonnaise, alfalfa sprouts, black olives and Lumpy’s special dressing. This is my kind of food.
CC said, “Half of this would have been enough for me.”
“Not for me,” I said, although I must admit I was almost on full when I finished.
I noticed signs around the place about macaroni and potato salad, taco salad supreme, side salads and chili. A sign said you can buy a Lumpy’s T-shirt for $12. Another said you can get a soup and sandwich special every day for $3.50.
Todd Philbrick was cleaning tables and checking supplies. He’s the owner of the Lumpy’s franchise. Lumpy’s is a rather new regional operation, with headquarters in Watertown, S.D. The originator is Jerry Laqua, who started out selling ham sandwiches in his Teen Center. One thing led to another, and soon he was making submarine sandwiches. So now, Lumpy’s is stretching out. There are two in Brookings, S.D., one in Fargo and one in St. Cloud.
Philbrick learned about Lumpy’s while working as a route man for Frito-Lay out of Grand Forks. Before that, he had put in six years on a Coca-Cola route here. So, he knows the eating places. He thinks submarines, with their low fat content, are the food of the 90s, and he’s proud of the bread, which is baked from the Lumpy’s recipe.
He likes the Lumpy’s concept of offering everything that goes on a sub instead of offering the basics and charging extra for ingredients.
“Well,” I asked, “what do people most usually mark off that they don’t want?”
“Provolone cheese,” he said. “I don’t think they know how good it is. And sprouts. Some people just don’t want sprouts.”
Marilyn reports that Lumpy’s Subs is “long gone from the downtown scene.”