The North Shore 3-Way

by Jim Behymer · Published September 30, 2024 · Updated September 30, 2024

There are a lot of great roast beef sandwiches across the US. Some of them we’ve covered already: Upstate New York’s Beef on Weck is an all-time great, and of course Chicago’s Italian Beef is one of my personal favorites. Maryland’s Pit Beef sandwich is a delicious option we haven’t explored fully enough here at the Tribunal, and there are plenty of hot beef sandwiches–whether they’re called Manhattans or Commercials or simply hot beef sandwiches–across the Midwest and the Great Plains. Roast beef–rare and sliced thin or shredded and well done, served with horseradish or with plenty of gravy, is an American staple.

It was only a few years ago that I first learned about the Roast Beef sandwich native to the north shore of Boston. I’d heard of it before, naturally: Kelly’s was one of the locations mentioned in the documentary Sandwiches That You Will Like that was among the inspirations for this site, after all. But knowing that there was a well-loved restaurant on the beach north of Boston that sold roast beef sandwiches was different, somehow, than understanding that there is an entire culture built around these roast beef sandwiches, that there are people who roam the North Shore of Boston seeking out roast beef sandwiches, assessing them, adding them to their spreadsheets and other assessment tools–that there are people who are as fixated on a single sandwich type as I am upon learning everything I can about every sandwich type–this was news to me.

And the North Shore Beefs instagram account was kind enough to give me some advice before my trip to the Boston area earlier this year, and let me know which spots I should be hitting. I only really listened for one of those places, but it was a highlight of the trip and one of the best sandwiches I’ve had in my life, so credit where credit is due.

First, though, I had to get to my bucket list spots, which include every place Rich Sebak visited while filming the documentary Sandwiches That You Will Like. In this instance, Kelly’s Roast Beef Sandwiches on Revere Beach north of Boston.

The North Shore style beef sandwich features roast beef that is cooked nicely rare, and the “3-Way” presentation is the default at Kelly’s–rare beef with mayonnaise (Cain’s, generally, the Extra Heavy variety mainly available in Food Service packages); American cheese (generally white American cheese from my experience–it seems like the farther East you go, the more people get freaked out by the turmeric or annatto based coloring used to make cheese appear like anything other than what it is, milk under some controlled state of rot); and barbecue sauce, universally James River barbecue sauce–any other sauce would change the character of the sandwich. Kelly’s sandwich is very close to the Platonic ideal of the North Shore roast beef, but for the bun–it uses a sesame seed bun rather than a larger Kaiser roll topped with grilled onions like the best-of-breed standard sandwiches use.

Kelly’s was a bucket-list stop. There was no possible universe in which we didn’t get a sandwich at one of the places featured in Sandwiches That You Will Like while we were in the Boston area. But it was not the only North Shore Beef we got while we were there. On our first evening in town we ended up getting dinner at Mike & Patty’s Hot Box in Bow Market. I ordered their take on the North Shore Beef, while Mindy got a South Shore style pizza featuring pickles .

Kelly’s and Hot Box’s sandwiches were both fine. Kelly’s suffered a bit from us driving back to our hotel before eating it, and Hot Box’s suffered from us eating it outdoors on a cold late-winter/early-spring evening. I think either sandwich would fare much better under more ideal conditions. However, even under the most optimal conditions, neither sandwich would live up to the best North Shore style roast beef sandwich we had while visiting boston–the 3-way from The Modern Butcher.

The Modern Butcher only does beef sandwiches on Saturdays, and those beef sandwiches sell out early, as we were warned. We arrived in downtown Danvers, MA at around 9:30am on a Saturday in early March, over an hour before Modern Butcher opened for the day, to find ourselves already 10th in line or so. As we waited, the line filled in behind us and by 10:30, the line was around the block. Many of those before and behind us seemed to be regulars, and having tried the sandwich, I can attest that if I lived in the area I would regularly be waiting in line on a Saturday morning as well.

I wrote about this sandwich back then, in March, and I wish to quote myself here so that I’m not magnifying the experience in retrospect–it truly was a game-changing roast beef sandwich:

The Modern Butcher comes on a well-toasted onion roll, and it is constructed like this: the bottom roll goes down, gets cheese and a handful of beef. Barbecue sauce is poured over the beef. Another handful of beef. Another pour of barbecue sauce. Another handful of beef. Another pour of barbecue sauce. Then a swipe of mayo on the top bun and the sandwich is complete. While one person constructs the sandwiches–and they are making a lot of sandwiches; many of the people in line ahead of us were ordering 4 or 6 sandwiches and taking them to go–Warren slices roast after roast, translucently thin, so that the beef is impossibly tender, and this massive wedge of meat bites through cleanly–if you can fit it in your mouth. Now don’t get me wrong: it is swimming in barbecue sauce and no chin will go unwiped while eating this sandwich. Copious use of napkins is advised. This was, quite simply, the best roast beef sandwich I’ve ever had, and I am already looking for excuses to return.

DIY

But of course, now that the time comes to write about the sandwich, I must make it myself. I make some damn fine sandwiches, but I will be the first to admit that my versions often do not, cannot live up to the originals, made by people who came up in the cultures that produced the sandwiches, people who live and breathe the sandwiches. As much as I seek to live like a local, to present to you sandwiches as they are appreciated by the people who live in the cultures that produced them, sometimes my versions are…

_inadequate.

But here goes. The defining characteristics of the North Shore Roast Beef sandwich are this: it is made from a lean cut of beef, top round or bottom round, roasted rare, sliced very thin–shaved, even–and served still warm on an onion roll–that is, if you are ordering a “super” roast beef sandwich. If you are ordering a “junior” roast beef sandwich, it may be served on a standard hamburger bun instead. The “3-Way” style of beef is served with 3 accoutrements: American cheese, generally a white American cheese as is more common in the Northeast; mayonnaise, specifically Cain’s Extra Heavy mayonnaise, which is available only in supersized catering containers; and barbecue sauce. The barbecue sauce must be James River brand barbecue sauce–anything else would simply not taste right.

But as someone who has tasted the James River barbecue sauce, someone who has enjoyed it, someone who has several bottles of it at home waiting to be used in roast beef sandwiches, I’ll tell you this: it’s very similar to the Arby sauce from Arby’s. It’s tangy, vinegar-forward, only mildly sweet, and doesn’t feature warm spices as prominently as many competing barbecue sauces. It would be a fantastic companion, in face, for a horseradish cream sauce, except that horseradish is entirely excluded from the North Shore 3-Way model–a “Spicy 3-Way” might be recognized by some vendors, which would add horseradish to the traditional 3 condiments, but generally speaking, horseradish is not an expected component.

So I bought a beef roast–eye of round rather than top or bottom round, which was all I could find, honestly. Eye of round is not as bloody, as red a cut as top round or bottom round. It is a leaner cut, less marbled, lighter in color than the more picturesque cuts that grace many a North Shore beef sandiwch. But roasted medium rare, sliced translucently thin across the grain, it still makes for a great roast beef sandwich.

To build the North Shore 3-Way: start with a toasted onion roll topped with a slice of American cheese. Top that with 6 ounces or so of fresh, still-warm-from-the-oven rare (or medium rare, or the best you can do) roast beef. Spread Cain’s mayonnaise on the top bun and drizzle James River barbecue sauce over that stack of beef. It should look something like this:

Full disclosure: Cain’s mayonnaise is awful. I’m sorry, I just can’t get into it. The cheese I used here was Cooper’s Extra Sharp American cheese, and it may have been a little too much for this sandwich as well. If I made it again, I’d stick with Land-O-Lakes White American instead. To me, the main draws of the sandwich are a great pile of well-seasoned, nicely-roasted, lean, rare(ish), juicy roast beef and that vinegary, savory, very mildly sweet James River barbecue sauce.