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    Drive-thru Gourmet

    Jersey Mike's new East Coast-inspired Stickball Special sub is a real hit

    Ken Hoffman
    Jun 26, 2019 | 10:30 am
    Jersey Mike's Stickball Sub
    Swing by Jersey Mike's for this hit of a sub.
    Photo courtesy of Jersey Mike's

    This week, I reached out for a Stickball Special sub at Jersey Mike's, a "sub above" for sure, with 2,000 restaurants coast-to-coast.

    To clarify, when Jersey Mike's says "a sub above," they're talking about quality, not their prices compared to Subway. While Jersey Mike's subs do cost a little more than Subway's, they taste infinitely better.

    I go to Jersey Mike's a lot, usually on Thursdays after wrecking the Charlie Pallilo Show on ESPN 97.5 FM. Almost always, I order the No. 17, Mike's Famous Philly, which I swear rivals Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's Steaks in Philadelphia. Trust me, it's true.

    But last week, I went with the No. 11, the Stickball Special, at Jersey Mike's. That's because I read Jersey Mike's sandwiches now use pork products that are antibiotics-free, hormone-free, and steroid-free. (The only thing that isn't free is the sandwich.) Plus the pork is sourced from U.S. family farms that don't keep their pigs in crates.

    Here's the Stickball Special breakdown: ham, provolone, and salami on a freshly baked sub roll. I asked for mine "Mike's Way," with sliced onions, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, salt, and "The Juice" (red wine vinegar and olive oil).

    Total calories: 880 (for a seven-inch "regular"). Fat grams: 49. Sodium: 2,175 mg. Carbs: 69 g. Dietary fiber: 2 g. Protein: 36 g. Manufacturer's suggested retail price: $6.95. A 14-inch "giant" is $12.95.

    I'm a Jersey Mike's fan because the quality is over the tip-top. When you order a sub with roast beef, your friendly sandwich-maker slices the roast beef right in front of you. The roast beef is medium rare and bright pink and juicy, not slices of dried-out shoe leather that's been lying in a paper tray for hours at Subway. All the meats and cheeses are sliced to order at Jersey Mike's. That's a big difference, worth every penny of the bump in price.

    I also went with the Stickball Special because of its name. I played stickball growing up in New Jersey, about an hour from Point Pleasant, where Jersey Mike's was founded. If you're not from the East Coast, you might not know about stickball. There are two basic styles of the city game.

    In New York, kids play stickball in the street. The bat is a broomstick, and the ball is a pink Spalding High Bouncer rubber ball. The pitcher bounces the ball to the hitter. If the batter hits the ball past, say, the blue Chevy, it's a single; past the mailbox, a double; past the manhole cover, a triple; and across the intersection, a home run. If you break a window, run!

    We play stickball differently in Jersey. We paint a strike zone box on a wall. The pitcher throws the High Bouncer, which is about the size of a cue ball and almost as hard, as fast as he can. A grounder past the pitcher is a single, over the fence or over a line in the outfield is a homer. If the pitch hits inside the box or is swung on and missed, it's a strike. Three strikes, you're out. Let me tell you from experience, getting hit by a High Bouncer fast ball is no fun. You don't show the black and blue mark to your mother because she might not let you play anymore.

    I used to play stickball at School No. 23 on Westminster Avenue in Elizabeth. Stickball is a great game. All you need are two kids, a broomstick, a rubber ball, and a place to play where some old grouch won't call the cops on you. Fun fact: one of the legendary stickball players of all time is the great comedian Richard Lewis from Curb Your Enthusiasm. When I was in high school, I often snuck into the Improv comedy club in Manhattan where I watched Lewis perform. He became my role model, eventually my friend. He was so smart and brilliant, often quoting lines from famous novels and plays like Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire.

    I know this is supposed to be a fast-food review, but let me tell you a funny story about Lewis. Several years ago, Lewis was performing in Houston, and I invited him on my radio show. I told him, "We play a little trivia game, it'll be you against a pair of 6-year-old kids." Lewis said he didn't want to do it, he didn't play well with children, it wouldn't be enjoyable for the listeners, a hundred other excuses. I convinced him to do it anyway. He didn't know that I fixed the game to surprise him.

    First question I asked Lewis: "What is the square root of 1,754,034?" Or some stupid, impossible question like that. Lewis said "I have no idea." Hit the buzzer. Wrong.

    Okay, on to the 6-year-olds.

    "In what play will you find a character named Stanley Kowalski?" In a squeaky child's voice, Pete (my friend Brent Bechtol's kid) said, "That's easy, A Streetcar Named Desire."

    Lewis was stunned and asked Pete, "How could you possibly know that?"

    Pete answered, "Who doesn't know that? I starred in my kindergarten production of Streetcar last year. I played Stanley. Duh."

    Lewis looked at the kid, then at me, and broke up. He knew we got him.

    Back to business: The Stickball Special at Jersey Mike's is really darn delicious, a star in the fast food lineup, and well worth the price.

    ---

    Ken Hoffman reviews a new fast food restaurant item every Wednesday. Have a suggestion or a drive-thru favorite? Let Ken know on Twitter.

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    game, set, zina.

    Best of Ken Hoffman: Interviewing Houston's greatest tennis icon

    Ken Hoffman
    Aug 29, 2024 | 12:30 pm
    Zina Garrison, tennis player
    ITATennis
    Garrison, a tennis legend, is now the tennis director of Houston Parks and Recreation.

    Editor's note: After the sudden death of beloved columnist Ken Hoffman on July 14, CultureMap is republishing some of our favorite "Hoffman's Houston" columns. In honor of the U.S. Open, here's Ken's interview with Houston tennis legend Zina Garrison; it was originally published on June 27, 2022.

    As a child, Zina Garrison learned how to hit a tennis ball on the public courts at MacGregor Park during the 1970s and became, simply, the most accomplished player ever from Houston.

    She developed into a Grand Slam champion, a Top 5 ranking in the world, Wimbledon finalist in 1990 with 20 tournament titles, Federation Cup captain, and Olympic gold medal winner and later Olympic coach.

    Now Garrison is back where she started, only this time she’s devoted to making Houston a great place to learn and play tennis … again. Like she did.

    “I am now the tennis director of Houston Parks and Recreation,” Garrison tells me. “I’m over all the public tennis programs and facilities. The job came open recently and I applied for it.”

    Wait... she’s the greatest champion this city has ever produced — and she had to apply for that job?

    “To be honest, I was more interested in the benefits than the money. As you get older, you start thinking differently,” she shares.

    Unlike the major sports leagues in America, tennis doesn’t provide any healthcare insurance or assistance once a player, even a legend, retires.

    “They’re working on it,” Garrison, 58, notes. “But as of now, nothing.”

    Garrison said her first priority as Houston’s tennis director is to repair the public courts.

    “I want to bring the public tennis facilities up to where I’d be proud, where everybody would be proud, to bring people to use our courts. There are cracks in the courts. Nothing’s really been done in the last 20 or maybe 30 years,” she says.

    “I’ve traveled to Florida and some other places and they have really nice public courts. Tennis in Houston was really thriving for a while and we had nice courts and people could play in the parks. We had junior programs. We flourished. That’s my main goal.”

    While I had Garrison on the phone, I served up some questions:

    CultureMap: Wimbledon is on. You’re familiar with that tournament, right? Who are your picks to win the men’s side and women’s side?

    Zina Garrison: Yes, I’m familiar with Wimbledon. I have my alarm set for the early morning so I can watch. I have a weird pick, a more personal pick, for the men.

    I would love to see Rafael Nadal keep going on, but it’s going to be tough for him. The guy from Italy, Matteo Berrettini, I watched him play a couple of weeks ago and I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people. And I am absolutely in love with that little guy, Carlos Alcaraz, from Spain. He’s made me watch tennis again.

    On the women’s side, I don’t think it will be Iga Swiatek. I think it’s just too hard to keep a streak like hers (35 matches in a row including the French Open title) going in today’s game. It’s really wide open. I don’t really have a pick, it’s just who comes in and plays well at the right time.

    CM: What do you think about Natela Dzalamidze, the doubles player from Russian who switched her nationality to Georgia so she could play Wimbledon, which has banned players from Russian and Belarus this year?

    ZG: I don’t like that she was able to do that. I was just on the phone with (former pro turned broadcaster) Chanda Rubin talking about what’s going on in tennis these days.

    First of all, there is the human rights stuff that’s going on in Russia and Ukraine. We have to start forcing accountability for actions. A lot of people didn’t agree with what Wimbledon did, but I think they had to take a stand.

    CM: The women’s GOAT is easy — it’s Serena. But who do you think is the men’s GOAT?

    ZG: Wow, that’s a hard one. If you had asked me earlier this year, I would have said Roger Federer because of everything he’s accomplished. But right now I’m going to have to go with Nadal. Nadal has taken tennis to a whole ‘nother level, of getting people to watch, coming out of the pandemic, where he has matches and you think he can’t come back and he’s still grinding no matter what.

    For me, he is the epitome of what we need in this world right now: Never give up but not be selfish about helping others. I know it sounds clichéd, but that’s what I’m going through right now.

    CM: When I first met you, you were painfully shy. It was hard to get an answer out of you. Now you’re a TV commentator and a regular chatterbox. What happened?

    ZG: I was an introvert but I had always been intrigued by people of wisdom. A lot of it came as I developed confidence in myself. I had always been told at a very young age, if you really knew me, I spoke a lot. If you didn’t know me, I would be quiet. I would only speak about things that I was extremely passionate about.

    As I’ve gotten older, because of my experiences. I feel like I can help people so I’m not afraid to say what I want to say.

    CM: Starting the week after Wimbledon, coaches will be allowed to communicate with men players during matches. Up to now, that’s only been allowed in the women’s game. Every other sport allows coaching. Do you think tennis should allow coaching, too?

    ZG: I don’t think coaching should be allowed. That’s one of the great things about tennis. That’s a part of the sport, that you grow and figure things out. You learn to think for yourself.

    There’s always been little signals from coaches, but now you have these full blown conversations. Another bad thing about allowing coaching is it gives the players the opportunity to blame a loss their coach. That’s not good for the sport.

    CM: You were known for wiggling your butt when receiving serve. Did you know you were doing it? Did you do that on purpose?

    ZG: It started off as kind of a joke with my coaches. They said, we need you to move your feet. I said, you mean like this?

    So, it started as a joke but I realized that it helped get my feet moving: Okay, I’m going to keep doing this.

    I’ll never forget that year after I got to the Wimbledon finals, 1990, I went over to Japan and there were 1,200 people there … and all of them started wiggling!

    CM: What was the first extravagant thing you bought for yourself when the tennis prize money started rolling in?

    ZG: It was 1982, and I bought a candy apple red Volkswagen convertible with a white top.

    CM: You were on the Biggest Loser, the show where contestants compete against each other to lose weight. Let’s just say you didn’t win. Are you happy you went on that show, or do you regret it?

    ZG: I was one of the first who had to leave the competition. (No, you were THE first.) It was an experience, but I probably shouldn’t have done it. I think I regret going on there. It wasn’t what I thought it was.

    It was reality TV and at the time I didn’t know what reality TV was .I was more ready to get out of there than anything else.

    CM: Now here’s the big question, Zina. For years, I’ve had a running disagreement with ESPN 97.5 FM morning host John Granato about which is a more demanding, tougher sport – golf or tennis?

    Granato says it’s golf, because the tournament winner has to beat every other player that week, while in tennis the winner just has to beat seven players at most. And, each week, golfers have to contend with a different course.

    But, I say it’s tennis because players have to be in top physical condition, while nearly anyone in any shape can win a golf major.

    Plus, in golf, players have a caddy helping them make decisions. In tennis, players are on their own.

    In golf, you can have a bad day on Thursday and still win the tournament. In tennis, if you have a bad day in the opening round, you’re on a plane out of there.

    In golf, it’s the player against the course. There’s no defense in golf. In tennis, there’s a human opponent trying to beat you.

    In golf, the ball is lying still. In tennis the ball is coming at you at 140 mph.

    So which is the tougher sport, golf or tennis? I’m right ... right?

    ZG: Are you serious? Who is this guy who says golf is harder? The answer is tennis and it’s not even close.

    You’re playing against someone. You’re only controlling the ball when it’s on your side of the net. You can’t control what the other player is doing. It’s almost like a boxer coming at you.

    You have to have both the physical and mental capacity to win. In golf, if you have a bad day, it’s because you’re having that bad day. There’s no opponent competing with you. So, I’m saying it’s tennis.

    CM (note to John Granato): I win. Granted, it might have been the way I asked the question. Also, Garrison is a former tennis pro.

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