Interesting facts about subway (restaurant)

Subway is a restaurant chain specializing in submarine sandwiches.

It was founded by 17 year old Fred DeLuca and financed by Peter Buck – in 1965, Fred DeLuca borrowed $1,000 from friend Peter Buck to start “Pete’s Drive-In: Super Submarines” at 3851 Main Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and in the following year, they formed Doctor’s Associates Inc.
to oversee operations of the restaurants as the franchise expanded. The holding company derives its name from DeLuca’s goal to earn enough from the business to pay tuition for medical school, as well as Buck’s having a doctorate in physics.

The restaurant was renamed Subway in 1968, and a franchise operation began in 1974 with a second restaurant in Wallingford, Connecticut. Since then, it has expanded to become a global franchise.

The first Subway on the West Coast was opened in Fresno, California, in 1978.

In 1983 Subway restaurants began baking bread in their stores, a feature that would become a central part of the company’s image.

The first Subway outside of North America opened in Bahrain in December 1984.

The first Subway in the United Kingdom was opened in Brighton in 1996.


In 2002 subway became the largest fast-food chain in the United States, measured by number of outlets.

In 2004, Subway began opening stores in Walmart supercenters and surpassed the number of McDonald’s locations inside US Walmart stores in 2007.

In 2006, the first kosher Subway restaurant in the United States opened, in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio in the Mandel JCC of Cleveland.

Subway ran a product placement campaign in the US TV series Chuck since its first season. As ratings dwindled in the second season, a campaign to “save Chuck” was launched for fans, encouraging them to purchase a footlong sub from Subway on April 27, 2009, the date of the season finale.

In the second decade of the 21st century, there were more than 40,000 Subway restaurants worldwide. By then, all stores were owned by franchisees.

DeLuca died in September 2015, after which day-to-day control of the company passed to his sister, Suzanne Greco. The company remained privately held.

The company operates in more than 100 countries. Headquarters are in Milford, Connecticut.

A submarine sandwich is made by filling a split Italian roll with various sliced meats, cheeses, vegetables, and condiments. The name derives from the shape of the sandwich. This type of sandwich is also called a hoagie, a hero sandwich, a poor boy (or po’ boy) sandwich, an Italian sandwich, or a grinder.

Subway’s best-selling sandwich, the B.M.T. (short for “Biggest, Meatiest, Tastiest”), contains pepperoni, salami, and ham. The name originally stood for Brooklyn Manhattan Transit.

Submarine sandwich originated in several different Italian American communities in the Northeastern United States from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. The popularity of this Italian-American cuisine has grown from its origins in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island to most parts of the United States and Canada, and with the advent of chain restaurants, is now available in many parts of the world. Edwin Eames and Howard Robboy identified thirteen different terms for the submarine sandwich in the United States.

Unlike much of the fast food sold by restaurant chains, Subway products are typically not fried and are liberally garnished with fresh vegetables. Subway therefore is able to position itself as a purveyor of healthier fast food. The company made a minor celebrity of Jared Fogle, who claimed to have lost more than 200 pounds (90 kg) on a diet of Subway sandwiches while a student at Indiana University. Fogle served as a Subway spokesman from 2000 until 2015, when a scandal and criminal charges ended his career.

Subway is the second-biggest fast food advertiser in the United States, behind only McDonald’s.

Subway serves 5,300 sandwiches every minute, which is roughly 320,000 sandwiches every hour. Or think of it like this: 7.6 million subs every day, Business Insider reported in 2014. That’s enough to feed every person in Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago combined.

The record for the most people making sandwiches simultaneously was achieved on 15 August 2012 by Subway (USA) at TimesCenter in New York, New York, USA. 254 people came together to make the sandwiches and set the record. The sandwich artists were led by New York Giants American football player Justin Tuck. Each sandwich consisted of four slices of turkey and roast beef, with two slices of ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and avocado spread.

The most northerly quick-service restaurant is the Subway located at 71.2884 N 156.7836 W in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, USA. The sandwich outlet is c. 530 km (330 miles) north of the Arctic Circle.