The Oh Boy by Meredith Robinson
August 2001 – May 2004
Twentyish years ago, I had the good fortune of working for the owners (Mahasti and Scott) of the Tomato Head as both a server and nanny to their then 18-month-old son, Sidney. Sidney was (and is) a gem to spend time with. He has an old soul and possessed curiosity, sweetness, and an impressive vocabulary. During our time together we went on a daily pilgrimage to the Tomato Head to hang out with his folks, see some construction, and get some lunch.
Mahasti kindly made me lunch every day and she knows I love sundried tomatoes. One day she made me an awesome sandwich with chicken, bacon, sundried tomatoes, cheese, spinach, and poppyseed dressing. It was SO good that I asked her if she’d make me another, and another, and another…after a bit she started featuring it as a daily special. It took off (okay, I might be fabricating this part, because I can’t really remember how quickly it became popular).
One day she asked me what they should name it and I said, “Oh Boy!” At that particular time, Sidney was going through a phase (as children often do) of saying, “oooooo booooy!” whenever he was happy about something, which was often, because he was a happy little dude. It stuck and we’ve all been eating them readily since!