Behind Long Island's love for bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches

A few steps from the busy Mineola LIRR station, a commuter in an overcoat and earphones stares hard at the menu board at the Station Plaza Coffee Shop & Diner as co-owner Peter Vatakis waits with a pad. “Two eggs, scrambled, and ham, on a roll,” the customer finally says. “Can you add tomato?”

“Sure. You want salt and pepper, ketchup?” The man nods, and the order disappears into the back, where the grill hisses and steams. A few minutes later, the order appears, tightly wrapped in foil and wax paper: A toasty-warm sandwich with oozing golden innards and the tang of cured pork, melded together in timeless harmony.

We may have some of the most frenetic, fast-paced lives in the country, but Long Islanders are blessed with a practically endless supply of bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches (aka BECs) to keep us going, cheesy buoys of all-day sustenance constructed to withstand train rides, car commutes, and any other kind of rushing we get up to in the morning. Deceptively simple at first glance, BECs have almost infinite possibilities, and that decision making begins the moment you order one: How would you like your eggs cooked (scrambled, over-easy, even baked)? What kind of cheese (American, usually) and meat (bacon, usually) would you like, and are you gonna have ketchup on that, and salt and pepper? And, most importantly, will that be a roll, bagel, or English muffin?

The structural integrity of a BEC owes much to its default bread, a sturdy poppyseed-showered kaiser roll, and how and why the BEC become the lingua franca of Long Island mornings is enmeshed with the history of those hard rolls. These 18th century crisp-on-the-outside, airy-on-the-inside baked wonders migrated to New York, just as bagels did, via Jewish bakers — namely Charles Louis Fleishmann, a former Vienna resident who debuted hard rolls at the 1876 World’s Fair in Philadelphia and later launched mass production around New York, including on Long Island. (He is also the guy who founded Fleischmann’s Yeast).

“Sausage and eggs on a roll,” said Guy Wolynski simply while waiting for a train in Mineola that same early afternoon. Wolynski, who works a later shift on the LIRR and so has his sandwich in the afternoon, did not elaborate. “Must be a slow news day,” he called to a reporter (me) as he ran for a train.

Wolynski might be in the minority when it comes to BEC simplicity. “I’m a ham, egg and Swiss guy, with a little hot sauce or ketchup. Eggs scrambled or over easy — depends on how messy I want to get,” said Marc Warner of Medford, who also helps administers a Facebook page called Long Island Foodies and so thinks about food a fair amount. If Warner chooses the bacon route, he has another requirement: It better be crispy. “So many places, the bacon falls short of expectations and I’m left wanting a better sandwich,” he said. Some might agree that floppy or tough bacon has ruined many a BEC.

Tisa Cassidy, a freelance photographer and production coordinator from Huntington, adores the BEC on a Cheddar biscuit at Kerber’s Farm (also in Huntington), but doubles up on pork for another of her faves, eggs, ham, bacon, melted Cheddar and avocado from Gabby’s Gourmet Bagelatessen in Woodbury. “They are really good at having my cheese perfect,” wrote Cassidy in a text. She’s thoughtful about how her BEC will travel. “I ask for my eggs over-medium. So it’s a little drippy, but not too messy.”

At Ruland Road Deli in Melville, there are at least 14 variations listed on the chalkboard menu. “We sell 200, 300 a day,” said co-owner Matt Garry, who started the deli with his brother, Tom, two decades ago. For most of that time, one of the most popular combos has been the R.K., named for an early customer: Eggs, bacon, cheese and potatoes on a kaiser roll for $6.50.

At Southdown Coffee in Huntington, owner Mark Boccard said their twist on a classic BEC, called the Famous, “came together randomly.” The sandwich was first offered with modular choices, from cheese to meat, and only on the weekends. “We were experimenting with possible toppings, like pickled onions, and we initially just had a lot of options and people were like ‘I’ll take everything.’”

That “everything” includes eggs from a Kings Park farm, Cabot Cheddar, Niman Ranch bacon, arugula, tomato butter (from a Boccard family recipe) and, perhaps most saliently, a roll baked especially for the task by nearby Buttercooky Bakery.

Sort of like the Force, the web of BECs that surround us is always ready to be tapped at will, and in myriad forms. Let us count the ways.