So there I was. This guy had come up from Philly on the train to help me with a job. I dropped him off at the best deli around (Rein's - Vernon, CT) and go to the motel across the lot to get him a room. I get back to the deli and there's all these scared looking employees gathered together behind the counter staring at him with their mouths open and he's saying, "Doesn't anybody in here know what a HOAGIE IS?!?" It was a good thing I had spent some time in Scranton or I wouldn't have known either. So I had to explain grinder to him and hoagie to them.
I'm actually surprised to see some out west has heard or uses the term grinder. I thought it was a northeast thing only.
Then there was the guy I knew that had a different deli. he called it "My Hero" so the sign on the front was like this:
My Hero Sixteen Inches