John's Roast Pork

This guide to John's Roast Pork in Philadelphia starts with a number that never quite adds up: for fifty-five years this shack sold sandwiches from a triangle of land it never owned. You'll hear about Domenico Bucci, an Italian immigrant who arrived through Ellis Island in 1918 and first sold sandwiches to dockworkers off a parked bus before leasing this odd sliver from the B and O Railroad, and about his son John and daughter-in-law Vonda, who tore down the original shanty in 1967 and built the sturdier structure standing here today. The guide also follows Vonda's decades running the register and her long dealings with the railroad's successor over who controlled the ground beneath the grill. Grab a picnic table by the water while you listen.