NEBA & MIKE'S SUBS
LAKE GEORGE
According to Mike Davis, creator of the NEBA chain, the arrival of fast-food roast beef sandwiches in the early 1960s was a sign of an upward-bound middle class able to afford its beef sliced rather than ground to bits. His sandwiches cost 69 cents as against the 15 or 20 cents for a chain burger.
Indeed, sliced beef was big. Despite being first into the beef sandwich market, by 1967 NEBA faced competition from Arby’s, Beef Corral, RoBee’s (soon to become Roy Rogers), Heap Big Beef (with its odd Indian theme), and others. Burger King and McDonald’s were testing roast beef in some of their units and Minnie Pearl’s was poised to add roast beef to its chicken menu.
Davis began his fast food career with submarine sandwiches, branching into roast beef in 1960 because it was easier to produce in quantity and not commonly found in chain restaurants. There are various ideas about where the odd name NEBA came from. Almost certainly it was not an abbreviation for “Never eat burgers again.” As strange as it sounds, it’s likely that NEBA was chosen because it was the name of a dog once owned by Davis, as he said in a 1969 interview. Another possible explanation is that it was named after the New England Beef Association. “Nicest Eating Beef Around,” sometimes used as an advertising slogan, may have been a back formation.
The first sandwich shops in the NEBA chain were in the Albany NY area, the company’s headquarters before moving to Hollywood FL. In 1965 a Mike’s Submarine and NEBA Roast Beef unit opened in Pittsfield, the first in Davis’s home state of Massachusetts. Franchised units eventually opened in Florida and southern states but the chain never made it to the West.
since his miserable childhood in which he earned up to $100 a week by organizing a crew of boys to deliver newspapers. Reportedly he used the money to pay rent and buy food for his brothers and sisters in an attempt to make up for parental neglect. Dropping out of school after 8th grade, he was apprehended for breaking into houses and stealing money in his teens and spent time in a reformatory. Described as “tight-lipped” and “compulsive,” he confessed he felt inhuman and never laughed.
The NEBA chain reached its peak in 1969 when there were 70 units in the U.S. Having sold the Canadian branch, Davis, 35, was said to be worth $15 or 20 million at that time. In 1970 he resigned as chairman a month before the corporation declared bankruptcy. With 400 units by then, Arby’s had become the competition-busting roast beef leader.
As late as the mid-1980s a few of the original NEBA sandwich shops, in upstate New York and Miami FL, remained in business under new owners.
I don’t know what happened to Davis after he left the company. I’d like to think he found some degree of happiness.
© Jan Whitaker, 2013
A Classic SUBMARINE SANDWICH
WHITE HOUSE SUBS
ATLANTIC CITY NJ
A NEBA ROAST BEEF SANDWICH
Neba is an acronym for "nicest eating beef around," a claim that is substantiated by perfectly seasoned meat that is sliced wafer thin and takes limited effort to chew. The meat is salted and retains hints of sweet vinegar, almost as if it were cooked in a brine. Looking at recipes online, garlic and tomatoes seem like possible inclusions in the cooking liquid for the beef.
I opted for the Super Neba, which comes with bacon and cheddar cheese. The bacon is cooked to be the same texture as the meat -- not too chewy, not too crisp. Its presence is almost unnecessary, save for the slightly smoked flavor it imparts. The neon orange color of the cheese (harkening to the signage of the former Albany location?) and viscous texture points to jarred cheese sauce. It's not an exquisite inclusion, but it doesn't deter from the flavors of the sandwich and points to the nostalgic nature of the sandwich. (Plus, a little cheese-product everyone now and again won't kill you.)
Sesame-studded rolls come from Bella Napoli's bakery in Troy. The warm nuttiness from the seeds are really what sets this sandwich apart from fast-food versions of roast beef sammies, and the texture is just soft enough to be bitten into with ease (and not torn with the teeth like a wild dog descending on fresh kill).
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