I tried Fat Sal’s enormous ‘Fat Fughettaboutit Pizza Sandwich’ and I’ll never forget it
Imagine not having to choose between all your favorite fast foods, but instead, enjoying them together in perfect harmony. What the heck would you even be eating? Why, Fat Sal’s “Fat Fughettaboutit” pizza sandwich of course!
This absolute monster of a sandwich is every hungry-slash-drunk person’s dream meal. Served up at Fat Sal’s Deli - a California-based burger, sandwich, shake, and fry joint owned by a couple of New Yorkers, this cheesy, meaty sandwich is made with a double slice of New York style cheese pizza as a base, topped with a cheeseburger patty, chicken fingers, bacon, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, and fries and drizzled with ranch dressing. And why ranch? “Because you California people but ranch on your pizza,” said Fat Sal’s co-owner and New York native Josh Stone. “It’s unheard of in New York, but I wanted to give the shout out to my Cali customers.”
“This was six years in the making,” Stone said of his pizza sandwich creation. Although he had his original idea while in the kitchen of his first restaurant in Westwood, he didn’t actually utilize the crazy recipe until years later when he was featured on a Cooking Channel show called Haylie’s America (starring Hilary Duff’s sister, actress Haylie Duff), where he was challenged to make a sandwich out of carnival food at the LA County Fair.
“I’m like yo - I saw the list of what they had and they had pizza and they had cheeseburgers and they had this and they had that and I made the exact same thing!” The pizza sandwich was a huge success and Stone knew it had to go on Fat Sal’s menu. “When I saw people’s reaction at the fair, I was like, ‘Wow, people love this thing!’ And it’s delicious.”
And it was delicious - albeit enormous and messy and more than likely loaded with a higher number of calories than I have dollars in my bank account. According to Stone, the way to eat this sandwich (which is bigger than my entire face, by the way) is like a gyro. You basically have to pinch the top together and bite into it face-first.
My first bite was mainly pizza and fries, which is obviously a delicious combination. I had no idea this was a California thing, but ranch really works with pizza. If you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend. On my second mouthful, I got some chicken finger and some mozzarella stick. The chicken was crispy and the mozz was thick and cheesy - and honestly, I pulled that sucker out of there and enjoyed it all by its lonesome. As much as I was enjoying this combination of seriously every single food that I crave sober, I couldn’t help but imagine how stinkin’ satisfying it would be after a long night out.
Everything about the Fat Fughettaboutit was cheesy, fried, breaded, meaty, and delicious. Yes, my small hands eventually grew tired of eating the humongous slice like a gyro and I started eating the toppings off my flat pizza one by one; and yes, there was ranch dressing on more of my face and hands than I would like to admit, but I think I pretty much crushed it and with total glee.
If you’re looking to try Fat Sal’s Fat Fughettaboutit, you can hit up any of their California locations (or the single location in Texas). The pizza sandwich will be on menus at all Fat Sal’s restaurants until the beginning of March.
Lily Rose is The Daily Meal’s West Coast Editor. She is a big fan of putting ranch on her fries. You can follow all of her food adventures on Twitter and catch up with all of her content on The Daily Meal here.
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