The Diablo Sandwich

May 19, 2022 3:16 AM

The Diablo Sandwich was first ordered by Sheriff Buford T. Justice at the Old Hickory House BBQ joint during a pause in his pursuit of The Bandit. It is washed down with a Dr Pepper and eaten while you are in a God Damn Hurry. Variously described as a pulled pork sandwich, an executive burger, or a jazzed-up Sloppy Joe, most variations are a combination of beef, tomato sauce and sour crème, though a forensically detailed analysis concludes with 'for the purist, one must use Trappey's hot sauce'. Recipes: Oakland County Moms, Cook Gem, Vaya. Previously.
posted by Wordshore (27 comments total)

I have never seen Smokey and the Bandit (some day...) but I love these forensic analysis pages about minutiae.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:02 AM on May 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Never seen it? Well, it's very 70s with a few moments that are 'different times' but still great fun. Cast are all fantastic.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 5:18 AM on May 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

That scene is perfection.
posted by condour75 at 5:27 AM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

I am all here for this level of recipe wonkery.
posted by bonehead at 5:58 AM on May 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Once we visited distant family while vacationing in their neck of the woods. When we rolled up they were cooking something called “dynamites”, which I always figured was a variant of the Diablo.

A)”Aw shucks, we just ate on the way over here”
and
B) I always thought people over 80 had to dial back the spiciness in their diets. Nope!
posted by hwyengr at 5:59 AM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Posts like this are what makes Metafilter great. Thank you, Wordshore!
posted by martin q blank at 6:06 AM on May 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

An "executive burger"?

Is that like saying an Irish goodbye, a Cornish game hen or a working lunch?
posted by penduluum at 6:52 AM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

I can taste the 70s crushed ice in the styrofoam cup to this day. Mmmmm.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 7:14 AM on May 19, 2022 [7 favorites]

An "executive burger"?

Almost certainly served without bread, with a a side of artisanal pickles and a zero-self awareness bootstrap-heavy lecture about ambition and fiscal policy, on a bed of lightly dressed greens and the shredded hopes, dreams and futures of the working class.
posted by thivaia at 7:23 AM on May 19, 2022 [6 favorites]

Also add hush-puppies for Junior if you do have time for that crap.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:32 AM on May 19, 2022 [8 favorites]

Never seen it? Well, it's very 70s with a few moments that are 'different times' but still great fun.

Yes it's like Caddyshack or other period comedy movies where the plot is really thin and it just hangs on great comedians dropping jokes like seeds on the ground. A surprising number of them hit. If you like improv movies you should definitely watch it. A modern version is Grown Ups, but Sandler and his pals just don't quite have the chops.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:34 AM on May 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Revisiting this a few years ago, I was surprised how well it held up. Sally Field, Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed have great charm and chemistry, and Gleeson is perfect. Compare this with Cannonball Run, which occupied a similar place in my 12-year-old heart, but which feels mean spirited and lazy now.
posted by condour75 at 7:51 AM on May 19, 2022 [4 favorites]

Compare this with Cannonball Run, which occupied a similar place in my 12-year-old heart, but which feels mean spirited and lazy now.

'The Gumball Rally" was always a better coast-to-coast race film, but of course the winner will always be 1974's classic Death Race 2000.
posted by mikelieman at 8:34 AM on May 19, 2022 [4 favorites]

Love this movie. It was playing on one of the cable services (showtime?) recently. The mini ensemble cast has something for everyone. Burt Reynolds, the literal poster boy and Playgirl pinup , a young Sally Field (although older than the Flying Nun Sally) and the Original "The Great One", Jackie Gleeson. (Gretzky is Great, but not The Great One in my book.) My favorite is Jackie Gleeson. I used to watch his variety show on I think Saturday nights with the June Taylor dancers. My mom would pop in TV dinners for me and my brothers and we would watch while she and my pop got ready to go out. Babysitter would arrive and (with apologies to JG) away we go. I still watch any Honeymooners episode I run into while turning channels. Between Lucy and Jackie, TV like it oughta be! Chef of the future!

The beauty of the Diablo (and Doc) is that you can make the sammie to be whatever you want it to be as long as it is spicy and has none of the lettuce and tomato crap on it. Pure heartburn on a bun.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:37 AM on May 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Cannonball Run or Gumball Rally or Death Race 2000? Hey, the original Vanishing Point!
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:37 AM on May 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

If you told me yesterday that today I'd be intently studying several screenshots of a glistening Jackie Gleason eating a mystery sandwich in order to divine the contents of said mystery sandwich, I'd be like "yeah, ok, I guess. I wasn't expecting it but that's sounds plausible. shit's weird all the time now."
posted by mhum at 8:50 AM on May 19, 2022 [10 favorites]

Smokey and the Bandit was my first date when I was in seventh grade. A buddy and I took two girls, sat four rows behind them, and threw popcorn and candy at them. Oh l'amour, l'amour.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:59 AM on May 19, 2022 [4 favorites]

Metafilter: Intently studying several screenshots of a glistening Jackie Gleason eating a mystery sandwich in order to divine the contents of said mystery sandwich.

Or the tl,dr version:

Metafilter: Shit's weird all the time now.
posted by dannyboybell at 10:03 AM on May 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Smokey and the Bandit does indeed hold up. I'm sorry to report, however, that the sequel decidedly does not.

It recently became available on the Peacock streaming channel and I tried giving it a watch. As a child, I actually liked it more than the original (Dom Deluise, a collapsing rollercoaster, multiple Gleasons, a friendly elephant—what's not to love?) But this time around, I didn't even make it to the introduction of the elephant. A blatantly cynical cash-grab with TV-level production values, a by-the-numbers script, and everyone sleepwalking through their performances.

And not a diablo sandwich in sight!
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:12 AM on May 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

I know they mostly filmed in communities south of Atlanta, but tried to give the impression of crossing the entire southeast. I wonder if the Diablo sandwich was a thing in another part of the country, but since they filmed in a Georgia BBQ place they just used their pulled-pork sandwich as a stand-in?

Regardless, when we lived in Atlanta for her post-doc, Dr. indexy and I had a fun afternoon driving around and finding filming locations for Smokey and the Bandit.
posted by indexy at 10:15 AM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

'The Gumball Rally" was always a better coast-to-coast race film, but of course the winner will always be 1974's classic Death Race 2000.

You know, some people think you're cute. But to me you're one very large baked potato.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:54 AM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

'The Gumball Rally" was always a better coast-to-coast race film

Saw that in the theater. "What's-a behind me is not important" has always been a motto of mine.
posted by octothorpe at 12:12 PM on May 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Regenold calls what's served at the Dixie Pig "the finest pork barbecue in the world. I've been coming here all of my life, and I don't plan to stop." As soon as he utters those words, he turns around and orders a second pig sandwich.

This is The Dixie Pig in Blytheville, Arkansas. I think there os one in Memphis. Slow roasted, smoked pork butt, with shredded, vinegared cabbage, a clear vinegary hot sauce with a tinge of red. I have never had better.
posted by Oyéah at 12:58 PM on May 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

My idea of heaven is an eternal lazy brunch listening to YoungAmerican talk about Smokey and the Bandit.
posted by howfar at 5:41 PM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

'The Gumball Rally" was always a better coast-to-coast race film, but of course the winner will always be 1974's classic Death Race 2000.

Funny, I always thought that The Gumball Rally was the Kirkland version of the illegal coast-to-coast race movie, because it didn't have Burt in it. (It's also the only one of those that I saw.) And Death Race 2000 was fun because it's pure Roger Corman cheese (directed by Paul Bartel), complete with a pre-Rocky Stallone as Machine Gun Joe Viterbo.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:51 PM on May 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

that the sequel decidedly does not
And yet the sequel is still 10x better than the third.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 12:01 PM on May 21, 2022

A blatantly cynical cash-grab with TV-level production values, a by-the-numbers script, and everyone sleepwalking through their performances.

Remind me of a review I read once of Cannonball Run 2, described as "a movie where no one seems to want to be there, except for Dom DeLuise, who (as usual) just seems happy to have the work."
posted by delfin at 1:12 PM on May 21, 2022