toasted special

Used in the 1980s by companies supplying pre-wrapped sandwiches to pubs for toasting.^[1]

toasted special (plural toasted specials)

1. (Ireland) a toasted sandwich of sliced pan bread and a filling of ham, cheese, usually onion, and often tomato, typically served as a pub lunch
   • 1988 April 7, Walter Hemmens, “Guide to the good old pubs of Dublin”, in The Irish Times‎^[2], Dublin, page 17:

     To sharpen the appetite try an excellent peppery Bloody Mary (£2.22), then a choice of thick home-made soups with brown sodabread and butter (75p) followed by a "toasted special" — a Ryan's concoction of melted cheese, ham, tomato and onion sandwich (£1.20).

   • 2000, Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey Of Discovery In Ireland, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 50:

     I stopped near Ballydehob, at a tiny lino-and-Formica pub with a niche market of dung-encrusted farmers, and dined on the Irish national pub dish, the Toasted Special – a sandwich of ham, cheese, onion, tomato, and anything else that's in the fridge or on the worktop, all served at the temperature of lava.

   • 2013, "Ross O'Carroll-Kelly" (Paul Howard), Downturn Abbey‎^[3], Dublin: Penguin Ireland, →ISBN, page 377:

     I decide not to have a pint? I want to keep my mind clear and anyway it's only, like, one o’clock in the day. I order, like, a toasted special and a coffee and the two boys order whatever.

   • 2016, Annemarie Neary, Siren‎^[4], London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 205:

     He closes his eyes and conjures up a toasted special, the cheese dripping out between the crusts, the ham salty and soft.

   • 2023 October 9, Patrick Moynihan, “The seven things I have learned since moving to Amsterdam”, in The Irish Times‎^[5], Dublin:

     Being a self-styled connoisseur of pints of stout and toasted specials, I had always just assumed that there was no finer marriage of beer and food.

• breakfast roll