Business is Booming at The Grinder

I went in for a 6-inch sub at Grinder's, a little hole-in-the-wall (literally) sandwich shop in Montclair.

The Sandwich Nazi has been well chronicled. The tall, eloquent business owner will yell at you if you don't know what you want, and wants orders boom-boom-boom! If you're smart, you'll take his suggestion and put your name and order into his computer. That way, you walk in, look him right in the eye, state your name, and he'll read your "usual." You say yes, and his assistants get to work.

I asked him today how business was. Surprisingly, he said it's the best it's ever been. "People want a low-price sandwich these days," he told me. He also surmised that fewer people are going to Tahoe on the weekends. "They can't afford to go out-of-town, so they stay here."

Apparently Channel 5 was just in the shop yesterday to interview him to find out why his business is doing so well. He laughed when he told me they had a tough time squeezing the camera into the pencil-thin shop.

He's laughing. That's a good sign.