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Ecology: Home-grown Clone Sandwich New Bestseller at NY Deli

Ever since the FDA cleared cloned animals for human consumption the “clone sandwich” at Geraldos, the boutique specialty shop on the corner of 85th street and Third avenue in Manhattan, has been flying off the shelves. “We just cant make enough of them” says Frank Lutz proudly, proprietor and clone sandwich inventor. The sandwich is popular for customers not satisfied with approximations. “We are able to offer the same sandwich– exactly the same sandwich– to our customers, said Lutz, who claims he serves “the usual” hundreds of times a day. “It makes me feel like I am cloning myself handing out sandwiches,” he admits. The sandwich is also popular with the allergy-sensitive. “In a place like McDonalds or Wendys there is too much variation for the allergy-sensitive. Sometimes I have a reaction, sometimes I dont,” said Karissa Reed, an outpatient of the Tauro Infirmery in East Chester, NY, who comes to the City for food. Lutz owes his sandwich achievement to a “home cloning kit” purchased from Ipsalon Bioscience, a joint venture from Monsonto, the food giant, and DuPont, which has the marketing muscle to launch Ipsalon from its consumer product division budget. Fred Wickenberg, a spokesman for Ipsalon said that Lutz is doing “exactly the sort of thing we are looking for from our customers.” Ipsalon is looking to sell “pocket cloning stations” to retailers such as Lutz with local market saavy, wanting an edge over competition. Wickenburg notes that according to Lutz the clone sandwich has attracted a following from the “local only” crowd, which typically swirls in a vortex around the union square organic market in lower Manhattan, and shuns giants like Monsanto and Dupont. “Its a foot in the door for us,” says Wickenberg.