For some New Trier High School students, playing with their food might just earn them an A+.
Students in the Sports and Entertainment Marketing course had the opportunity to create — and then sample — sandwich ideas for Capt'n Nemo's Subs' Winnetka location on Tuesday as part of their unit on product development.
"The students create their ideas, they do market research [a survey of other students] on what they'd like in a sandwich and they submit their final ideas to me," Teacher Melissa Duffy explained.
Duffy then submits the ideas to Capt'n Nemo owner Steve Ragusi, who makes the sandwiches on one afternoon, and the students rank them on appearance, name, creativity, taste and texture.
The winning sandwich — as decided by the students — will be on the menu at Capt'n Nemo until the end of the semester.
"[The students] love it," Duffy said. "There's definitely a buzz created by it."
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Out of the two sections of the class, there are 15 sandwiches created, running the gamut of style, taste and creativity. Sandwiches sampled on Tues. included the "Duff Attack" (which was french bread, chili, turkey, shredded cheese, sour cream, crushed crackers and jalepanos) and the "EGB," a breakfast wrap made of cheddar cheese, bacon and hardboiled egg.
"As long as we have the ingredidents, it works," Capt'n Nemo's owner Steve Ragusi said. "The creations are good."
Chris Valvassori, a senior from Glencoe, named his group's sandwich after his dog, Rocky. "The Balboa" — an early crowd favorite — contained turkey, ham, bacon, lettuce, tomato and buffalo sauce.
"I think it's a good experience," Valvassori said. "[Ragusi] is a good and generous guy, a good business owner."
Valvassori played for the NTHS football team for four years as a tackle on the offensive line, and enjoyed learning about sports marketing.
"Sports marketing is a good career and it's something that's always relevant," he said. "Sports gets me through school."
Check back at Capt'n Nemo to sample the winning sandwich idea, and read more about the restaurant online on their website here.
