Dictionary

toasted special en · NOUN

Etymology

Used in the 1980s by companies supplying pre-wrapped sandwiches to pubs for toasting.

Meanings

1. (Ireland) a toasted sandwich of sliced pan bread and a filling of ham, cheese, usually onion, and often tomato, typically served as a pub lunch
   • To sharpen the appetite try an excellent peppery Bloody Mary (£2.22), then a choice of thick home-made soups with brown sodabread and butter (75p) followed by a "toasted special" — a Ryan's concoction of melted cheese, ham, tomato and onion sandwich (£1.20). 1988 April 7, Walter Hemmens, “Guide to the good old pubs of Dublin”, in The Irish Times, Dublin, page 17:
   • Being a self-styled connoisseur of pints of stout and toasted specials, I had always just assumed that there was no finer marriage of beer and food. 2023 October 9, Patrick Moynihan, “The seven things I have learned since moving to Amsterdam”, in The Irish Times, Dublin:
   • I stopped near Ballydehob, at a tiny lino-and-Formica pub with a niche market of dung-encrusted farmers, and dined on the Irish national pub dish, the Toasted Special – a sandwich of ham, cheese, onion, tomato, and anything else that's in the fridge or on the worktop, all served at the temperature of lava. 2000, Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey Of Discovery In Ireland, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 50:
   • I decide not to have a pint? I want to keep my mind clear and anyway it's only, like, one o’clock in the day. I order, like, a toasted special and a coffee and the two boys order whatever. 2013, "Ross O'Carroll-Kelly" (Paul Howard), Downturn Abbey, Dublin: Penguin Ireland, →ISBN, page 377:
   • He closes his eyes and conjures up a toasted special, the cheese dripping out between the crusts, the ham salty and soft. 2016, Annemarie Neary, Siren, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 205:

Forms

Relateds

breakfast roll