May 17, 2024
When the owners of Famous Taco attempted to open a franchise in a shopping mall in Fort Wayne, Indiana, their request was denied by the city’s zoning board. You see, the zoning regulations prohibited fast food restaurants, but those regulations also provided an exception for restaurants whose primary business is to sell “made-to-order” or Subway-style sandwiches. But tacos and burritos, the city ruled, were not “sandwiches.”
Famous Taco appealed, and a local judge ruled that tacos and burritos are, in fact, “sandwiches.” Allen County Superior Court Judge Criag Bobay ruled that the zoning policy “does not restrict potential restaurants to only American cuisine-style sandwiches.” This was good news for other ethnic made-to-order foods, he wrote, since “Greek gyros, Indian naan wraps or Vietnamese banh mi,” would also be allowed, he wrote in his decision.
Not every judge agrees. In a 2006 case from Massachusetts, a judge ruled that tacos, burritos and quesadillas were not sandwiches. In that case, Panera Bread sued White City, Mass., for allowing Qdoba to lease space at a shopping center, alleging that the city had violated an exclusivity clause preventing leases with other businesses “that primarily sell sandwiches.” Judge Jeffrey Locke wrote that the agreement did not explicitly define sandwiches, adding that tacos, burritos and quesadillas are not commonly understood to be sandwiches.
And just to add to the confusion, during a 2018 appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” the comedian asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg whether hot dogs should be considered sandwiches. She said that they should be.