My first experience with a “grinder” was 20 years ago on a business trip to New London, CT. I wandered in to a sandwich shop just a block or two outside the Coast Guard Academy. I had an Italian, just like the one shown by Ketteract in a previous post, with a birch beer. Being from the south , I had never heard the term grinder before. Before I posted this I went on Google Earth to see if I could locate the shop, but unable to do so. My contact at the CG Academy had recommend this place for lunch and I can’t remember the name of it. Oh well, the grinder was pretty good!