In this story
The Gatsby is a long bread roll split open and packed with hot chips, a protein or two, and a sharp or spicy sauce, then cut into sections for sharing. It belongs to Cape Town, South Africa, and it is most closely tied to the Cape Flats, where it is still most widely available. A single order can run to a footlong, and the usual practice is to divide it among several people.
Its origin has a named inventor, a year, and a tidy story about a lunch that went wrong. The sources agree on the broad outline and disagree on the details, which makes the history more interesting than the sandwich’s reputation as a hangover cure suggests.
Video: Meet the creator of South Africa’s most iconic street food, the Gatsby, Eat Out South Africa
The 1976 origin story
The most repeated account credits Rashaad Pandy, owner of the fish-and-chip shop Super Fisheries in Athlone, a suburb of the Cape Flats. Daily Maverick reports that he had hired four men to clear a plot in 1976, had no food left at home, and cut open a round Portuguese loaf to fill it with chips, polony and atchar. Briefly gives the same year and place and adds that the sandwich was cut into four pieces so that each worker received one.
The next day
According to the same Daily Maverick account, Pandy made a few more the following day to sell, and they went quickly. Later, he switched from the round loaf to a long one because the longer shape was easier to share. Wikipedia summarises the same shift, though the encyclopedia is best treated as a pointer to the reporting behind it rather than as a source in its own right.
Who gets the credit
The attribution rests heavily on Pandy’s own recollection. Asked how he could be sure no one had made the sandwich before him, he gave a short answer, as Daily Maverick records it: “Nobody else came forward.” Culture Trip says he is widely believed to have invented it and adds that claims about the sandwich’s origin lack solid proof. A separate piece from Matador Network calls him the “undisputed creator” yet also points out that Super Fisheries is the only shop that claims the invention.
Every account consulted places the story in Athlone and names the inventor as Pandy. None of them mentions a Salt River restaurant as the birthplace, although Salt River does have its own Gatsby shops.
Where the accounts disagree
The core of the story holds steady, but the supporting details drift from one telling to the next.
What was on hand
Daily Maverick says there was no food at home. Saveur has Pandy running out of fish while feeding day laborers, with fried bologna in the roll. Snack Stack reports that the original contained leftover chips, polony and homemade atchar, and that no fish was involved. These could all be true at once, since a fish seller might have had no fish and still had chips at the end of a shift, but the sources do not reconcile them.
The name and the film
In Pandy’s telling, a worker called Froggie (spelled Froggy in some sources) tasted the sandwich and shouted “Gatsby smash.” Atlas Obscura writes that the name echoes the F. Scott Fitzgerald character, whose excess the sandwich is said to resemble. Saveur ties the name to the film having played at the Athlone Bioscope, and also says the round loaf resembled the newsboy cap worn in the movie. Briefly places Froggie at the Athlone Theatre. Tasting Table says the workers named it after the 1974 film.
Daily Maverick flags a timing problem. Pandy refers to the Robert Redford version, while the Jack Clayton adaptation came out in 1974, so the film and the 1976 date are not obviously aligned. The article suggests the film may have reached Athlone cinemas later. Matador Network takes a looser line, saying only that the origin dates to the mid-1970s and that the meaning of Froggie’s remark is unknown.
An older, anonymous version
Daily Maverick also cites a tourism blog that describes Cape Flats residents filling long rolls with leftover meals to feed several people. The article notes that this account does not explain the name. A piece from 2 Summers goes further, noting that the Gatsby, like Johannesburg’s kota and Durban’s bunny chow, is believed to have emerged under apartheid, when segregation kept workers of colour from eating near their workplaces and left them needing cheap, filling food they could carry.
What goes inside
Pandy’s original had three components: chips, polony and atchar. Polony is a sliced processed meat similar to bologna, and atchar is a pickle of Indian origin, described as curried in the Saveur account. Chips here means fries, and the local term “slap chips” refers to soft, vinegary ones that are not crisped to a hard finish.
The modern menu is far wider. Eat Out lists a base of a Portuguese-style roll, hot chips, sauce and a protein of chicken, steak, fish or calamari, with extras such as polony, atchar, cheese, eggs, salad and a mayonnaise-based sauce. Its catalogue of variations includes masala steak, viennas, goulash, boerewors, lamb curry and chargrilled rump. Culture Trip adds Russian sausage with egg, chicken mayo, mutton in an oriental-style curry, and grilled chicken in barbecue sauce, and it credits one Athlone shop with about thirty varieties.
The full house
The name for the loaded version is the “full house.” Eat Out describes it as steak, eggs, cheese, chips and salad piled together, while Taste gives masala steak, fried eggs and cheese as its core. Atlas Obscura uses the term for a version built on Vienna and Russian sausages, which shows that the label is not fixed from shop to shop.
Sauce and bread
The sauce does much of the work. A Salt River shop visited by the 2 Summers writer is described as having a tangy, chilli-based sauce as its key ingredient, and the owner would not reveal how it is made. Taste specifies a soft, fluffy French or baguette-style roll rather than a crusty one, so that the bread absorbs the flavours. The same page carries a recipe by Cariema Isaacs from Modern Cape Malay Cooking, in which the soaked potato chips are deep-fried, the polony or viennas briefly fried, the chips tossed in the sauce, and everything layered into the roll. It is rated as serving six.
Seafood versions are common. Snack Stack reports that calamari Gatsbys sell well at Super Fisheries, although the original polony version remains the cheapest and most popular. Some vegetarian and plant-based Gatsbys are also on offer, according to Matador Network, which names a vegan restaurant east of the city center.
A footlong made for sharing
The standard format is long. According to Eat Out, a regular Gatsby is a footlong, and several outlets also sell half portions at about half the price. Its listing includes a polony Gatsby starting at R60 that can be shared among up to five people, along with an advisory to prepare to share.
How many cuts
Taste says vendors typically slice the roll into four or six pieces, and up to eight on request, so the sandwich can feed four to six people. Daily Maverick describes staff at a central Cape Town shop asking how many cuts a customer wanted when taking an order, and notes that the author found even a half portion enormous. Culture Trip observes that cutting the roll into four makes it easier to eat by hand.
The middle piece
The cut-up roll produces a built-in dispute. Both Atlas Obscura and Daily Maverick report that the middle piece is the most sought after, and the former says the contest for it can lead to arguments. The same Daily Maverick article records a nickname for a regular-sized Gatsby, the “AK47,” for the way it can be cradled in one arm.
The shape also explains some of the appeal. Matador Network says a Gatsby can feed a family of four or two hungover friends, and the American hoagie, sub and grinder occupies a similar physical space, a long split roll holding a heavy filling. The difference lies in the chips, which go inside the bread rather than beside it.
Oversized and reworked Gatsbys
Size has become a competitive sport. Daily Maverick reports that a Waterfront event in 2013 produced one measuring over 8 metres. In July 2024, Africanews covered Annie’s Ladies Bar, in Cape Town, which assembled a Gatsby about 3 metres long and weighing 65.27 kg, built from three 1-metre rolls joined together. The report lists roughly 20 kg of meat, about 10 kg of chips in three layers, a calamari layer, onion rings and several sauces, and it says the build took more than four hours and fed about 140 people. The restaurant’s own count is the only source for the number of diners.
A healthier version
The 2013 Daily Maverick article also described a “heart-healthy” Gatsby. In that version, oven-baked chips replaced deep-fried ones, baked beans and lean red meat stood in for polony, and a wholewheat roll replaced the white French loaf.
Debate over the word sandwich
The 2 Summers post carries a correction after members of a Gatsby Society objected to calling Gatsbys sandwiches, and the author apologised for the error. The point is a small one, but it shows how firmly the dish is held as its own category.
Status in Cape Town food culture
Several publications place the Gatsby near the center of the city’s food identity. Culture Trip calls it a cultural symbol of Cape Town and the city’s answer to a greasy fry-up, and observes that it is especially popular after a night out. Matador Network describes it as an identifying foodie symbol and links its communal eating to the idea of ubuntu. Taste goes further and calls it part of South Africa’s heritage cuisine and national identity.
Where it is sold
The sandwich turns up widely in fast-food shops, particularly on the Cape Flats and in parts of the city center, according to Daily Maverick. Matador Network adds that it is often found in less affluent areas and near train and bus stations. Established names in the sources include Cosy Corner in Wynberg, described by Eat Out as widely regarded as making the best in the Mother City, Aneesa’s, which Culture Trip says was founded in 1976, and the Golden Dish in Athlone. The 2 Summers post describes a visit to Continental Take-Aways on Victoria Road in Salt River.
Price and reach
Eat Out’s listing put polony with atchar at Super Fisheries at R40, with fish and calamari versions a few rand higher, while a masala steak full house at a city center outlet ran to R180, so the sandwich spans a wide range of prices depending on filling. Snack Stack reports that Pandy was selling 250 to 300 Gatsbys a day as of 2020, and adds that rivals had begun using the same name once his version spread.
The oldest question is still open. Nothing in the fetched sources verifies Pandy’s claim independently of his own account, and the film-date mismatch noted by Daily Maverick has no published resolution.
Sources:
- Daily Maverick, In search of Cape Town’s own Great Gatsby: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-10-09-in-search-of-cape-towns-own-great-gatsby.md
- Atlas Obscura (Gastro Obscura), Gatsby: https://atlasobscura.com/foods/gatsby-sandwich-cape-town
- Saveur, The Great Gatsby: https://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/The-Great-Gatsby
- Eat Out, 5 great gatsbies in Cape Town: https://eatout.co.za/article/5-great-gatsbies-cape-town/
- Wikipedia, Gatsby (sandwich): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatsby_(sandwich)
- Matador Network, Gatsby sandwich, South Africa: https://matadornetwork.com/read/gatsby-south-africa-sandwich/
- Taste, The iconic Gatsby: https://taste.co.za/recipes/the-iconic-gatsby/
- Culture Trip, The Best Gatsby Shops in Cape Town: https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/the-best-gatsby-shops-in-cape-town
- 2 Summers, Eating Gatsbys in Salt River, Cape Town: https://2summers.net/2022/09/21/eating-gatsbys-in-salt-river-cape-town
- Africanews, South African restaurant crafts a nearly 10-foot Gatsby sub: https://africanews.com/2024/07/12/south-african-restaurant-crafts-a-nearly-10-foot-gatsby-sub
- Tasting Table, Cape Town’s Great Gatsby-Inspired Sandwich Has A Little Of Everything: https://tastingtable.com/1168667/cape-towns-great-gatsby-inspired-sandwich-has-a-little-of-everything
- Snack Stack, The snack that gets the green light: https://www.snackstack.net/p/the-snack-that-gets-the-green-light
- Briefly, Gatsby Sandwich: Cape Town’s Most Beloved Food: https://briefly.co.za/18419-gatsby-sandwich-cape-towns-most-beloved-food.html
- Eat Out South Africa on YouTube, Meet the creator of South Africa’s most iconic street food, the Gatsby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skjc9GYrEHU
