Struggletown BBQ takes a sandwich tour of the U.S.A.

John Leonard founded his Struggletown BBQ truck in 2014 and opened the brick-and-mortar Mount Sinai shop 10 years later. But, before barbecue, he said, "I had hundreds of business plans and one of them was for something called Interstate Sandwich, which served sandwiches from every state."

In January, he looked at Long Island’s dining landscape and, noting a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the country’s 250th anniversary, decided that now was the time for a state-by-state tour of America’s greatest sandwiches.

In January, the journey began in Alabama, with a sandwich of pulled chicken in a white barbecue sauce with fried pickles. The following week, Alaska was honored, with smoked salmon. While Struggletown is first and foremost a barbecue joint, not all the sandwiches include smoked meats. Case in point: Arizona represented with a deep-fried, bacon-wrapped "Sonora" dog with pico de gallo and fried jalapenos. Customers learned that California was the birthplace of the French dip sandwich, though Leonard substituted his own smoked brisket for the more traditional roast beef.

Leonard and his family took a February vacation to Hawaii — look for that sandwich in the spring — but March came in like a lion, with a Colorado bison burger and a Connecticut sandwich that honored Louis’ Lunch, the New Haven spot that claims (with justification) to have invented the hamburger sandwich. (They put it on white toast).

Delaware week kicked off on Tuesday with "the Bobbie," said to be invented in 1976 at Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop in Wilmington. The sandwich consists of roast turkey, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayonnaise on a hero roll. Um, OK, Delaware — If you want to claim that no one ever put their Thanksgiving leftovers on a roll before, I’m not going to point out the holes in that story. Struggletown’s Bobbie is $16 and comes with French fries. Get there by Sunday because a Florida sandwich (TBD) will debut next Tuesday.

How to fit 50 sandwiches neatly into a 52-week year? Leonard already lost a week in Hawaii and he's considering including the District of Columbia — or combining Dakotas. 

Struggletown is not the only Long Island eatery with the Union on its mind: American Burgers in Rockville Centre serves 50 state burgers every day. And Road Trip in Bay Shore also has a year-round mission to highlight the cuisine of every state.

Struggletown BBQ, 1028 Route 25A, Mount Sinai, 631-509-1188, struggletownbbq.com. Open Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Closed Monday.