Sandwich Wrap - History

History

Mexicans, Armenians, Greeks, Turks and Kurds have been eating wraps since before the 1900s. Mexicans refer to them as tacos, and they come in different ingredient varieties, such as corn, flour and wheat.

The first "wrap" restaurant that offered roll-up sandwiches was in the early 1980s at The Garage mall in Harvard Square Cambridge, Massachusetts. The restaurant was called "Stuff-It's" and it was salad with a tahini dressing rolled up most likely in Armenian lavash. The Garage mall at the time was mainly head shops, Indian clothing, music and comic stores. However, sandwiches in the style of a wrap were offered as early as 1978 by a store in nearby Brighton, Mass.

The wrap probably comes from California, as a generalization of the Tex-Mex burrito, and became popular in the 1990s. It may have been invented and named at a southern California chain called "I Love Juicy" in the early 1980s. The Bobby Valentine Sports Gallery Cafe in Stamford, Connecticut is sometimes claimed to have invented the wrap at about the same time, but Valentine is diffident about it: "Well, that's legend and folklore, but until somebody disputes me or comes up with a better story, I'll say I invented the wrap." Beth Dolan of Stamford, Connecticut is the waitress credited for serving the first wrap after the restaurant had ran out of bread. Moreover, Valentine's own story dates his use of the name 'wrap' to the mid-1990s, after it is documented in California.

A wrap is different from a sandwich; a sandwich has two distinct layers, which are the top and bottom buns or pieces of bread. A wrap, on the other hand, is one piece that completely surrounds the content of the wrap.