ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 4, 1996 TAG: 9612050001
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDY LIN\NEWSDAY
It looks like a giant egg roll and weighs about a pound and a half. It's usually made with a tortilla, but it's not Mexican food.
It's called a wrap, or a twister, or a high roller, and it's the latest food craze from California.
These sandwiches are made with tortillas or other flat breads, such as pita and lahvosh. They're filled with hip food like ginger coleslaw, roasted vegetables, couscous and sun-dried tomatoes. And they're bundled on one end with foil or paper to make them easier to hold.
``What it is is a new way of packaging,'' said Sean Connolly, owner of Wrapp Factory, the first wrap-sandwich shop in New York City. ``The wrap is another name for burrito. These are gourmet burritos.''
The wrap frenzy is the latest outgrowth of America's love affair with the tortilla. Sales of the Mexican flat bread last year totaled $2.5 billion, exceeding those of all other ethnic and specialty breads combined - including bagels, croissants, muffins and pita bread - according to the Tortilla Industry Association.
The restaurant Turtle Crossing in East Hampton, N.Y., is wrapping shrimp with pineapple, corn and coconut salsa in a flour tortilla for $7.50. The TGI Friday's chain makes a hot Philly Cheesesteak Wrapper rolled in wheat flat bread. At Sutton Place Gourmet, a new food emporium on Long Island, the sandwich board touts a tortilla-wrapped California Starz, filled with avocado, cheese, sprouts, sun-dried tomatoes, grilled vegetables and lettuce; and a Wild Turkey Burrollo.
``We call them high rollers,'' said manager Laura Leffler, who added that the wrap is one of the store's most popular types of sandwiches, ``especially if you don't want to eat a lot of bread.''
Executive chef Patrick Clark of Tavern on the Green in Manhattan put a lahvosh-wrapped pork sandwich filled with potatoes, caramelized onions and rosemary/garlic mayonnaise on the restaurant's menu this spring.
Ira Freehof, owner of the Comfort Diner in Manhattan, added grilled Portobello/spinach and Cobb salad wraps that he said he will never take off the menu. ``They're just too popular,'' he said. ``Customers see our wrapped sandwiches almost as American burritos, but healthier versions.''
The wrap craze was dreamed up by four friends - two of them graduates of Harvard and Stanford's business schools - who had vacationed in the Mexican resort of Cancun and figured they could do for the burrito what Ben and Jerry did for ice cream and what Starbucks did for coffee.
``We believed we could take a product that people liked and do something different with it - gourmandize it,'' said Matthew Blair, one of the original partners of World Wrapps, all of whom were under 30.
They brought in chef Aaron Noveshen, who developed a menu with burrito fillings that were definitely un-Mexican: roast duck, couscous, hoisin sauce and sauteed tofu. He combined Thai chicken with jasmine rice, ginger coleslaw and peanut sauce, and red snapper with rice, avocado, ginger coleslaw and mango salsa and wrapped them in spinach tortillas.
The group opened its first shop in San Francisco in February 1995 to rave reviews, catering to a young and hip crowd. A legion of imitators followed, opening fast-food joints called Daily Wrap, Rocket Wraps and California Wrap.
Today, World Wrapps operates eight stores, five in the Bay Area and three in Seattle. There are hints the chain will move east soon, to Washington, D.C.
Following are a few variations on these popular sandwiches to help you entertain, save time in the kitchen and otherwise wrap up loose meal ends during these hectic holidays.
recipes for:
SONOMA COBB SALAD WRAP
COBB SALAD SANDWICH
SONOMA MOROCCAN WRAP
SUTTON PLACE GOURMET CALIFORNIA STARZ
TORTILLA ROLL-UPS
WILD TURKEY BURRITOS
- FOOD EDITOR ALMENA HUGHES CONTRIBUTED INFORMATION TO THIS STORY
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