Three East Village Sandwich Shops, Two Hours, One Argument
A two-hour East Village walk through three sandwich shops, the people who run them, and a running argument about what counts.
Ben Gollan moved to New York in 2016 to practice law. A pastrami sandwich from Harry and Ida's, a deli that has since closed, talked him out of it. By 2017 he was running what he called a bar crawl for sandwiches, and he has since walked more than 30,000 people through it.
The shape has not changed much. Two hours, three sandwich shops, roughly half a sandwich at each, and a guide who has already eaten everything on the route. New York BagelFest named him chair of its Best Sandwich judging panel for 2026.
None of the listings name the three shops. What they do say is that the stops are independent places in and around the East Village, the kind you would not walk into on your own. Gollan told The Canberra Times the tour is about encouraging people to visit small independent businesses. Reviews are more specific than the listings are. One guest who walked it in November 2025 named Italian porchetta on a crunchy roll, a smash burger and a Vietnamese wrap. The lineup moves with the shops. Treat those as the range you are booking.
Seventy-five dollars a head covers all the food. Tips are not included. The company states outright that it is not a licensed food handler, which is its way of telling you to know your own restrictions before you reach the first counter.
Sandwich Tour in New YorkTwo hours, three East Village sandwich shops, all food included. Instant confirmation.affiliate.klook.comWhat Three Halves Actually Adds Up To
Three half sandwiches sounds like a tasting portion. It lands closer to a full lunch, and the pacing does as much work as the quantity. You eat, you walk, you eat again, with stories in between.
Come hungry is the company's own instruction, and it is worth following. Vegetarian works. Vegan and gluten-free do not, and that limit is published on the booking page rather than left for you to discover mid-tour.
The Argument About Hot Dogs Is the Point
Every tour runs a debate on whether a hot dog counts as a sandwich. The guides push past that into burgers, burritos, and on a good day lasagna. Gollan has taken the position onto national television in both the United States and Australia, along with radio, print, and panels.
It reads like a gimmick until you are on an East Village sidewalk defending a view you did not know you held. The debate is also the delivery mechanism for the history: who built the dish, why it took the shape it did, and what the neighborhood had to do with it.
Who Is Actually Leading It
Three names recur in the reviews. Ben Gollan leads most departures. Stefan is a playwright and actor from Switzerland who arrived in 2020 and attached himself to the chopped cheese, the bodega sandwich of griddled chopped beef, onions and melted cheese on a hero roll. Tim takes weekends around a regular job.
Stefan and Tim both worked behind a Subway counter before this, a detail the company puts on its own team page. The route is tasted before it is sold: the guides eat every sandwich on it in advance.
Before You Book
The tour runs in English and confirms instantly. Group size starts at one, so a solo booking is a real seat rather than a request to be matched with someone later.
If no listed date works, the company says to ask, and it arranges tours outside the posted calendar. Private departures exist for teams; Amazon, Google and Audible appear on the company's own site as past corporate bookings.
📍 The group forms at La Colombe on Lafayette Street, at Fourth Street. That coffee shop is the pin on this page and the only address you need to reach.
One thing to settle first: the price covers food, and drinks at the bar where the walk ends are not on the included list. Two hours later you are a few blocks east, holding a settled opinion about hot dogs and a short list of counters you would not have found.