NEW YORK — A sandwich, on a narrow sidewalk in the West Village, is now, in the specific, a three-hour line, and the line, per the people in it, is the point. The sandwich is a French dip. The shop is called Salt Hank’s. The price, which the line has, in the specific, “decided is fine,” is $34, and the people who have stood in the line for the $34 sandwich are, per the people who have been in the line more than once, “a group now.”

The shop, which the founder built on the back of a sandwich recipe he shared on the internet until the sandwich, in the words of the regulars, “became a thing,” has, per the people who opened it, “kind of gone off the rails,” and the rails, it turns out, are the line, and the line is, per the owner, “a group now,” which is the phrase the shop uses to describe a queue that, as of this week, has, in the specific, “a meeting.”

"We got here at 11:30 and the line was already forming." — a regular, on the line, which, in the specific, is now the thing

The sandwich itself, which the owner describes as a French dip made, in the words of the recipe, “with a broth that takes a while,” is, per the people who have had it, “worth the wait,” which is the sentence every customer gives, and then, per the people who have been in the line twice, repeats on the walk home. The $34, which the line has, in the specific, “argued about,” is, per a customer who paid it, “the number you pay to be in the line, and the line, as it turns out, is the thing you were paying for.”

The regulars, who have, per the shop, “started to know each other,” are, in the estimation of the people who have been in the line most, “a group now,” and the group, per a customer who has been in the line on a Saturday and a Sunday, has, in the specific, “a thing.” A food writer who has covered the shop for a season described the line as “the only part of the sandwich that everyone agrees on.” “You can argue about the meat,” she said. “You can argue about the roll. You cannot argue about the line, because the line is the part of the sandwich that you are, in the specific, standing in.”

THE DIP: ODDS & OUTCOMES, AS THE LINE SEES IT

  • The sandwich: A French dip, $34, a number the line has, in the specific, "decided is fine"
  • The wait: Three hours, a figure the regulars describe as "about the length of the song they are not playing"
  • The shop: Salt Hank's, which the owner describes as "kind of insane at first" and now, per the owner, "a group"
  • The line: A queue that, per the people in it, "has a meeting" and, as of this week, "a thing"
  • The broth: A broth that, per the recipe, "takes a while," which is, in the specific, the wait, which is, in the specific, the thing

A man who has been in the line for the sandwich four times this month, and who was, as of this writing, in the line a fifth time, put it the way the group does. “I came for the sandwich,” he said. “I stayed for the line. And the line, as it turns out, is the sandwich. You pay thirty-four dollars, you stand in the line, and the line, at the end of the line, hands you the sandwich. It is, in the specific, a very efficient sandwich.”

At press time, the line was, per the shop, “forming,” the $34 was, per the regulars, “the number,” and the sandwich, which was, until this morning, a French dip, was, as of the fifth person to pay it, in the specific, a thing.