Maid-Rite Sandwich Shoppe

I recently moved to Greenville. I had never heard of Maid-​Rite but was told by nearly everyone I met that I HAD to go. Now i’m the person telling everyone they need to check this place out. Its a very unique sandwich one that I have come to love at first bite. I work less than a mile from the restaurant so its a frequent lunch stop for me. My Personal Favorite is the Big Jim with onion and cheese, and a strawberry milkshake.

Pretty good sandwiches albeit different than I’m used to. Be sure to get a second or some chips and a milkshake to go with or you’ll leave hungry. Limited seating for sure and restrooms in another building. There aren’t a lot of these around so I wanted to try it out just to say we did it. It does pair nicely with the Garst Museum if you are making a trip from out of town like we did that day.

Absolutely amazing. This place has a one of a kind charm to it that only a small town can pull off. Small building that sort of feels like a mix between and old diner and a rundown café (but in a good way). Food is delicious and quick, staff is always friendly, and the milkshakes are pretty good too!

Worth checking out. Cash only. Super friendly service. Small restaurant, serving tasty Sloppy Joe sandwiches. Shaved ice for the Coca Cola products was a plus. I ordered the Maid-​Rite (with mustard, onion and pickles) and the Cheese-​Rite, along with a Mr Pibb. They are also known for Egg Salad, Chicken Salad and Ham N Cheese sandwiches. Fresh made Malts and Sundaes. Small beer selection and a variety of chips to choose from. Drive thru service available.

There’s nothing special about a loose hamburger meat sandwich with mustard, pickle & onion!

Best sandwich in town! I prefer a «maid rite everything» — meaning mustard pickle and onion. Egg Salad is also very good as are their milkshakes. We locals also think they have the best Diet Coke in town and the best ice! It’s the one place that people flock to when returning to their hometown. All the gum on the outside walls seems gross to people going there for the first time… adds to the ambiance.
Highly recommend.
Note…if you like catsup or mayo you better bring your own, you won’t find it here.

This is a local must go! And make sure to put a pice of gum on the wall it’s good luck. Milk shakes are great and you half to get a Vanilla Coke there they have the best. CASH ONLY!!!

A friend recommended this place and we were so excited to try it. The menu is very limited. The sandwiches are almost like a Sloppy joe mixture.
They have bottled beer which is nice. Bags of chips as sides and milk shakes also.
The joint is very small. Only a few places to sit but lots of outdoor seating as well. They do not accept credit cards, cash only. This was very inconvenient as I never carry cash.

Maid Rite is a reason to drive through Ohio. A sandwich… Burger… Sloppy joe… There’s nothing to call it except a MAID-​RITE. The beef if ground and sweet like a sloppy joe but without the sauce. We get cheese, mustard, onions and pickles. The buns are steamed and soft. The cheese is melted. They are DELICIOUS. We live in Atlanta and my boyfriend, who has been coming to visit his grandparents in New Madison, Ohio for the last 27 years, has been eating maid rites ever since. I’m going to dream about these bad boys for the whole next year until we can come back up to New Madison to eat more Maid Rites!!!

How can you not love maid rite? It’s amazing and so simple! Love going there and putting a huge wad of gum on the side of the building! Great place!!!

This place has a fantastic small business feel combined with big time flavors. The simplicity of the menu is something that is coming back into vogue these days.
A much needed hangover cure after a rough night.

This is a must have on any trip to Greenville! Yes it is a small menus, yes it is loose meat, yes it has gum stuck to the outside (that is so you don’t miss it). When ever anyone visits this is where we take them.
You can get a maid-​rite anyway you want. Comes with meat, cheese, pickle, onion, mustard. Seriously, 3 bites and it is gone and you need another! Do yourself a favor and try it. What are you waiting for?!?

Maid Rites is an institution. Might I add, one of perfection. Nothing in this world is like a Maid Rite… it’s indescribable, until you have one. But, nay, not just one… many. I always order at least four. You’d be wise to do the same. You’ll be wanting more than one.
What is it about this place that makes it so worth driving to? From Cicero, Indiana, where my family and I live, it’s around two hours to Greenville. And yet, it’s worth it. The experience is a reminder of the older days of American dining… usually not something I get too thrilled about, as I am all about the new wealth of foreign restaurants in America. But this, here, is a reminder of the old days… and it’s delicious.
This isn’t exactly the cleanest restaurant, admittedly. This is obvious as soon as you see the place… a squatty, run down looking building right off the street… covered in gum. Nor does it have the greatest atmosphere… nostalgic, for sure, but… nothing too enthralling.
What makes it worth the trip, then, is simply the sandwich. That most un-​recreatable, unique of sandwiches… multiple times, I have seen attempts to remake this masterpiece, and all these efforts have been in vain. It can’t be done. The recipe is hardly a secret, and yet nowhere I’ve ever been truly can reproduce the delicious treasures that are sold in this shop.
Some people claim that Maid Rites are boring, just another sandwich. But, no. They’re something else entirely. I think it’s totally worth the two hour drive. You can’t get these ANYWHERE else. There are other, similar restaurants… the original is supposedly an Iowan creation, and there is a small chain of Maid Rites in Missouri (which, by the way, are a complete waste of time). I wonder sometimes how far people really do go out of their way to get here… when we admit that we take two hours to get here, there is no sympathetic reaction from anyone. Perhaps people venture here from three, four hours away. I probably would. You should too… it’s epic.

Back again! It’s been a few years since the last stop. My mother was born and raised in Gville, so the family has been properly introduced to the lil sandwich gems. Man oh man oh man, these suckers are to SAVOR!
First, I should state: this establishment is the original; family owned and operated since 1934. It’s a tiny restaurant. Five booths. Four counter stools. They have a drive-​thru, but it’s only on one side of the super-​small building. The clincher? Gum «signature». Huh? It’s a tradition to stick your wad of chew on any of the four exterior brick walls. Every so often they have to scrap the walls do to gum overload! Best memories ever
This time, I went a tad wild, and, instead of just originals all the way, I got a few Cheese-​Rites. It’s the original (chopped onion, a few dill pickle slices, and mustard), and add a slice of American cheese. Naturally, they only enhance. These loose-​meat burgers stand out not only because there’s no patties, but the combination of their secret mix of seasonings/​spices leave the meat with a slight sweet taste. The onions/​pickles/​mustard give a phenomenal contrast — sweet and sour.
If you’re eating in, the burger is traditionally served on a steamed bun. Soft. It usually takes 3 – 4 to fill me up. I always eat here, and take plenty to go (some for the family and friends)!! It’s usually a multiple-​dozen-​kinda-​thing!

The crown jewel of Darke County.
People say there are other Maid Rite’s out there somewhere in the country, and it’s forever followed with «they aren’t like this one.» Understanding the loose meat delicacy is to be done through experience alone. The recipe having been published repeatedly over the years in local papers, kitchens across the county failing to replicate it; it’s a must-​try-​for-​yourself kinda place. Appreciate that when you order it with everything that means mustard, pickle and onion. You’ll still need to tell them whether or not you want cheese, and there just isn’t any ketchup, tomatoes, mayonnaise, or lettuce on this sandwich. I once broke off a relationship with an otherwise fine young lady (she’s not from around here), because after taking her to Maid Rite, she couldn’t ever wrap her head around why it didn’t have lettuce and ketchup on it; true story.
As a small child when I was sick, two plain and a chocolate malt was my comfort food. In high school, my best friend and I would burn our entire recess getting across the park and back to grab the lunch special. During holidays, the Great Darke County Fair, or any other draw for out-​of-​towners the drive through line will begin to stretch back toward the town circle where mischievous soap suds may bubble from the fountain.
This is no hamburger. This is not a sloppy joe. This is steamed beef grinded off that half slaughtered cow you just saw them carrying to the basement. Some call that gross; in a day and age when the beef in your bun has likely traveled hundreds of miles further than you have to eat it, I call that fresh. You’ll taste the difference. Try it with BBQ chips and a chocolate malt. Or, if in the mood for a beer, have a Little Kings; like I did with my dad to celebrate my 21^st birthday.

Quintessential American dining! Real, honest food at low prices! A regional institution for generations, their signature menu item is the Maid Rite sandwich, loose spiced beef with pickles and onion served with mustard. Other menu items are just as delicious, so there is something satisfying for everyone.

To boyfriend: Yes, they want you to add gum to the exterior walls of the building. It’s encouraged, seriously. Go ahead — add yours to the years and years of dingy pieces of brown gum hanging on those brick walls.
This is one of the many reasons people line up and down the block to visit Maid Rite Sandwich Shop in Greenville, OH. The simple yet tasteful and inexpensive sandwiches wrapped in white paper is the other key ingredient. Maid Rite’s is known for their no– frills approach to dining: Want a side? Here’s a bag of Mike Sells. Sandwich options: Maid Rite, Cheese Rite, Egg Rite, Ham and Cheese. Take your pick. Slurp it all down with one of their three to four milkshake options.
Lastly, this business also serves as a time capsule. The booths, bar, wood paneling and «wall artwork» have been the same since 1765. Okay, not that long but pretty close.

On a trip to Greenville, I learned that one must stop for Maid Rites before leaving. I made it past the gross (but awesome?) wall of used chewing gum into the shop, ordered my Maid Rite and cream ale, and waited to be amazed.
Well, the Maid Rite was just what you would expect from a drive in burger joint of this sort. Basic meat sandwich, basic toppings, basic bun. It was nice to have the tiny cream ale with the sandwich, and the place sure has a hometown feel.
Certainly worth a stop, if only to say you’ve been there. Tasty sandwich, not the best thing I’ve ever eaten, but not bad either. Exactly how a local drive in should be.

Something about this place will forever scream «hometown goodness!» When I grew up in Winchester, making the drive to get Maid Rites was always worth the trip. It only took me about 20 minutes to get there (which may seem like a stretch) but it never detoured us from the delicious sandwiches. The Maid Rites are, well, made just right. Steamed with beer, how could you possibly go wrong? I’m not a big eater, but can always eat two of their sandwiches. The way to go about eating such sandwich is to take it while it’s still wrapped up and squish it between your hands. This ensures that nothing trickles out of the sandwich as you toss it in your mouth.
You may also notice the exterior of the building as you’re coming upon the restaurant. What’s all of that stuff on the bricks? And… you get a bit closer… quickly realizing that the building is covered with chewed gum. Ew? Depends on the person. ha I never thought twice about it and would happily add my own chewed gum to the wall pretty much every visit. It’s the thing to do, folks. I don’t think I would feel the same way about the place if it wasn’t covered in gum.
Though Maid Rites are your main «go to» as for food, you can always purchase milkshakes, beer, chips, etc. During the summer, I recommend eating outside on their picnic tables. The building itself isn’t that big, so don’t bring an army with you.

Maid-​Rite is an American casual dining franchise restaurant chain. Before it became a restaurant chain, it was a single restaurant, opened in 1926 by Fred Angell. By the end of the 1920s, there were four franchises granted; these four restaurants are still in operation.
Maid-​Rite Corporation’s CEO and president is Bradley L. Burt. The corporate headquarters are located in Des Moines, Iowa. As of April 2006, Maid-​Rite had over 70 locations, located in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Ohio. The Quincy, Illinois, location was featured in the Food Network show Feasting on Asphalt.
I really enjoyed the Maid Rite Sandwich which is a «loose meat» sandwich. While the component meat is similar, the Maid-​Rite sandwich’s meat is not formed into a patty, making it similar to a sloppy joe only without the tomato-​based sauce.
There were others on the menu that I would like to try and look forward to next time I come back.
When you get a chance, check out the «gummy walls» located on the side of the building near the drive thru. While people were waiting for their food, and had gum in their mouths, they would stick it on the wall. From there it progessed into a work of art.
Very clean, unique and nostalgic restaurant.
Staff if very friendly and helpful.