The dispute arose because the Panera Bread Companys Shrewsbury location has a clause in its lease that prevents the White City Shopping Center from providing space to any other "sandwich shops." In what was either a highly clever exploitation of a legal loophole by talented lawyers or a failure to read the lease, White City signed a lease with Qdoba Mexican Grill. (Considered but rejected at this point: a number of joke analogies to current immigration controversies.) Panera sued to enforce the sandwich-exclusion clause, which placed the issue of what constitutes a "sandwich" squarely before Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke.
"A sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos, and quesadillas," wrote Judge Locke, since the latter "are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans." As I have not yet read the decision itself, the use of the word "choice" may indicate some anti-sandwich bias on the judges part or it might simply be a description of the evidence, which was extensive. Judge Locke received testimony on the issue from expert witnesses including a Cambridge chef, a "former high-ranking federal agriculture official," and a number of other unnamed "food experts," as well as consulting Websters Dictionary.
Expert chef Chris Schlesinger may have turned the tide for Qdoba with his dramatic affidavit testimony. "I know of no chef or culinary historian," he stated, "who would call a burrito a sandwich. Indeed, the notion would be absurd to any credible chef or culinary historian." I doubted there was such a thing as a culinary historian until I remembered France, but this testimony still seemed vulnerable to a counter-affidavit from an incredible chef, but I guess Panera was not able to find one of those.
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