Peacemaker Sandwich: Origin Story

At Hero or Villain, we're always striving to bring our customers new and delicious monthly specials. As part of our creative process, we often will start with a character that we have an affinity for and try to figure out how to describe that character in a sandwich. Since we’re always on top of the latest and greatest Super Hero news, when we heard earlier this year that John Cena would be playing Peacemaker in the newest Suicide Squad move (and was rumored to be getting a spin-off show) we knew that we needed to create a Peacemaker sandwich!

After a bit of research, it turns out that the Peacemaker sandwich has been made for over a century! Ancestor to the Po'boy, the Peacemaker was created in New Orleans in the 19th century, with the first recorded account of the sandwich occurring in 1838, in one of the first American cookbooks by Mrs. Mary Randolph, titled The Virginia Housewife: Or, Methodical Cook (1). The sandwich that Mrs. Randolph describe was called an 'Oyster Loaf'.

Above Image: An ad in 1880 where the name Peacemaker was suggested.

In 1901, an edition of The Picayune's Creole Cook Book printed a recipe for an Oyster Loaf and referred to it as "the 'famous Peacemker' in New Orleans." The reference seems to suggest that the name Peacemaker had been a colloquial term frequently used by New Orleans natives to refer to an Oyster Loaf. The recipe consisted simply of buttered French bread & 2 dozen oysters (2).

Typically, modern peacemaker recipes call for oysters and shrimp with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and an option of different sauces including creole Tatar sauce, hot sauce and remoulade. After many practice runs, we at Hero or Villain decided to do a seafood mix including shrimp, squid and scallops, rather than oysters. Although this deviates from the original interpretation, we felt it allows for more accessibility to this sandwich. Sticking with our good friends at Knickerbocker Bakery, we also decided to go with an 8" ciabatta bun, rather than French bread. Our Peacemaker is dressed with cheddar cheese, romaine lettuce, sliced tomatoes and remoulade sauce.

The character that inspired us to create this sandwich was first written into Charlton Comics in 1944, later to be acquired by the prestigious DC comics in the mid-1980s (3). In the comics, Christopher Smith is a self-proclaimed pacificist, who is willing to protect peace at all costs. The headstrong, self-righteous Christopher Smith got his name after being involved in the Peacemaker project after his time in Vietnam. (4).

Before the current Suicide Squad movie, Peacemaker was a lesser-known character of the DC universe. The character has made minor appearance in huge comic book events like Doomsday Clock and Crisis on Infinite Earth and eventually was rebooted in 2011 with the New52 DC event (5). Now we looking forward to seeing even more of John Cena as Peacemaker in the spinoff series expected to premiere in January 2022.

In a serendipitous way, our ambition lead us to the perfect special for this month. The Peacemaker sandwich has long rooted origins as does its comic book namesake. This special is only around for another week. Check our calendar to see when you can pick yours up, only available of the OG truck.