It took lettuce, a dictionary and a Jersey Shore road trip to launch a fast food phenomenon.
Fifty years ago, three former Jersey City high school buddies — one a pots-and-pans salesman, one a Wall Street trader, the other an organizer of church dances — hopped in a then-sporty Ford Falcon for a ride down to Point Pleasant, where the three tried a sub sandwich that was nothing like they had seen before.
"Shredded lettuce and tomatoes on top of cold cuts?" Tony Conza says, disbelief still in his voice a half-century later. "The concept of a salad on a sandwich was something foreign, at least in North Jersey."
Conza, along with Peter DeCarlo and Angelo Baldassare, found the sandwich "addictive," and on the ride home decided to open up a sandwich shop.
"There was a little problem — we didn’t have any money," Conza says, laughing.
They borrowed several thousand dollars from a friend, and "with a can of paint and hammer and nails" turned a vacant storefront into the first Blimpie, which opened April 4, 1964, on Seventh and Washington in Hoboken.
"From the first day — the first minute — people lined up at the store," says Conza.
Sometimes, a wing and a lettuce-topped prayer pay off; Blimpie now has 600 restaurants in the United States and abroad.
Today, at 11 a.m., the sandwich chain will celebrate its 50th birthday by rolling out a 50-foot sub outside one of the original Blimpie stores, on Newark Avenue in Jersey City.
Everyone eats free for as long as the super-sized sub lasts.
Stores nationwide will be selling their regular-sized Blimpie Best sub for 50 cents today to the first 200 customers in each location.
"We’re thrilled to celebrate our 50th birthday with America and want everyone to enjoy a 50-cent Blimpie Best sub as our thank you to our loyal customers who helped us grow this sub chain," said Steve Evans, vice president of marketing for Blimpie.
Tony Conza in an early Blimpie promotional photo. For Conza, Blimpie amounts to an American success story, one that proves that a great idea and perseverance can be more important than capital, or lack thereof.
"Most people think entrepreneurs get an idea and then go into business," says Conza, now retired. "That’s not what happens. An entrepreneur decides to go into business and then comes up with an idea."
That doesn’t quite explain how Blimpie got its name. Once Conza, Baldassare and
DeCarlo decided to make the leap into the entrepreneurial unknown, they flipped through a dictionary searching for a catchy name for their sandwich shop. They came across the word "blimp" and something clicked.
"A blimp is an airship shaped like a sandwich," Conza explains. "Add ‘ie’ and you have Blimpie."
On the first day of the Hoboken store, they opened at 10 a.m. and didn’t close until midnight.
"I just remember making sandwich after sandwich after sandwich," says Conza, who was then 24.
There were nine sandwiches ranging from 35 cents to 95 cents on the menu. The three had done no advertising. They just put up a sign and opened the store.
"We didn’t have the money to do anything," Conza says.
They were so low on cash, they used the bags that had held bread from their baker, Baldanza’s, to wrap their sandwiches in.
An early Blimpie menu. Several months after opening the Hoboken store, the trio opened two stores in Jersey City; all three had attended Saint Peter’s Prep there.
"I think we knew immediately we were onto something," Conza says.
Neither he, Baldassare or DeCarlo are still connected to Blimpie; since 2006, it’s been part of Kahala, a franchise company with 15 "quick-service" restaurant brands.
But Conza will be at the Newark Avenue Blimpie’s in Jersey City today as part of the 50th-anniversary celebration. Later this year, Blimpie plans to launch the Hoboken Hero, a new pepperoni-topped sub that will be a homage to the birthplace of the Blimpie sub and brand.
From May 5 through June 29, Blimpie will host a contest that will send one lucky winner and a guest on a trip to Hawaii; other contest prizes including free tablets, free subs for a year and $50 Blimpie gift cards.
In the late 1980s, Conza says he briefly lost his "passion" for the business, but reignited it after setting new goals and meeting with company officials.
The word "passion'' pops up in the conversation later when the Blimpie founder is asked about the advice he’d give to someone who has a great idea but not the funds to make it a reality.
"Find something you can put your heart in," says Conza, who now splits his time between Manhattan and Miami Beach.
"Find a passion. The money will come."