Hot Brown or Devonshire?

[Robin Garr]

In the realm of food-trivia curiosities, after the Bobby Flay Hot Brown Throwdown, I got E-mail from a couple of folks in Pittsburgh informing me that an Iron City specialty called the Devonshire Sandwich appears to be a dead ringer for the Louisville treat.

Googling reveals that the Devonshire was the creation of Pittsburgh restaurateur Frank Blandi, who had a place on the city's Mount Washington called the Lemont Restaurant. He introduced the sandwich in 1934 and named it after a nearby street.

According to most accounts, Chef Fred K. Schmidt at Louisville's Brown Hotel created The Hot Brown sandwich during the 1920s (I've seen references to 1923 and 1926) as a midnight snack for patrons after the hotel's then-popular dinner dances. This suggests that the Hot Brown came first.

Anyway, have any of you worthies ever encountered a Devonshire?

I find it rather interesting that the apartment community Lyndon Crossing (formerly known as DEVONSHIRE Apartments) is located less than one mile from R Place Pub...R Place Pub is the headquarters for Louisville area PITTSBURGH Steelers fans...

And if I should ever visit The Iron City, my first meal will have to be a Primanti Brothers sandwich...I recall seeing Primanti Brothers profiled on one of the Food Network shows and all I could think of was..."I must have that sandwich!" ...

I was raised in the Pgh area and I remember it having a really cheesy sauce compared to the the Hot Brown Of course, we did not eat out much, so I am remembering my Mom's or Grandma's rendition. The recipes i have seen call for cheddar cheese, a lot of it, for the sauce. I prefer the Hot Brown, but maybe we chould have a Devonshire - Hot Brown Throw Down!

There was a segment on a show on either the Travel Channel or the Food Network showing the Devonshire sandwich. Very similar. I do think the cheese sauce is different and the bacon is under the cheese sauce.