http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_25241309/quiznos-preparing-file-bankruptcy-protection
Between the government push for “healthy” food, Obamacare and pressure for a $5 minimum wage, fast food for the masses is a risky business.
I think I’ve been in a Quiznos twice. They used to advertise on radio – there was one within probably 500 feet of my condo in Connecticut (but impossible to get to on foot because of no sidewalks)
I walked in to the place and it was empty. The guy behind the counter was exuding contempt that a customer had come in and was making him work. He was probably an unemployed Yale dropout – right at home working at a book store deliberating hiding Limbaugh’s books and listening to NPR. No eye contact, piercings on his face – he likely was even a vegetarian. My memory is the sub was okay, but way overpriced for what it was.
Quizno’s was good and overpriced. I am not sure what the issue was but I remember some of the strangest advertising ever was done by them. Little alien poof balls singing some unintelligible jingle at one point.
Kudos to the accurate depiction of Connecticut employees in any service business.
The franchisees had launched a class action lawsuit that the parent company was overcharging them for supplies. This is Quiznos’ second trip through reorganization – they’ve already lost about 3/4ths of their outlets.
Last night, someone mentioned fire house subs, which I’ve driven past in Chicago and one a few miles from me here. They seem to be at the same target market, upscale sub sandwiches. That strikes me as a bit odd, since subs started as working class sandwiches that people took in their lunch boxes to the factory. Lots of calories, cheap low quality meats and cheese – not broiled chicken with honey mustard, avocado spread and arugula.
Art,
Change the chicken to Turkey and you have one of the sandwiches at Panera. Another upscale fast food place. I will keep an eye out for Firehouse.
Of course, you’re referring to the Quiznos ads featuring the “spongemonkeys”. The mice-like creatures that would scream about what a great value the tasty subs are. I defy anyone to come up with a more bizarre ad campaign than this. It is a wonder that Quiznos did not go out of business – the very next day after these aired. I’ll forever love the ads for the risk they took in airing them, and their originality…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePP7jPYl-pg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHsHVyumoE
wow… I’m not sure what is worse … how awful those ads are or the fact that someone got paid by a national chain to create them!
There was a Quiznos over in Blacksburg VA , that wasn’t bad at all. It was an all girl band every time we went in there for lunch. Tan legs ! They would wear a hats when working with the food. So nice ! Man that was the place to get a mediocre sub : )
Hmmmmm Quiznos,, Toasty, Closed down like two years ago,
I guess they went the way of Blimpie subs
parrott
I ate at Blimpies twice in my life. The visits were in two different cities and separated by 20 years. I got food poisoning both times. Needless to say, I don’t miss Blimpies.
Unrelated, I would add that Panera Bread has added overpriced pasta to their menu in the past year, to combine with their overpriced sandwiches and soups.
https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/menu-categories/pasta.html
There are nine Panera locations within 10 miles of me. I’ve never been to one. They’re pretty representative of the “new” North Carolina with its national brands.
I’m growing pessimistic that K&W will last much longer. A good slogan for the chain would be “more walkers than children”. At 58, I’m probably one of their younger customers. Cafeterias require volume to keep the food hot but not overly cooked and dried out. They’re losing that battle. They offer nothing targeted at the tastes of younger people.
Hate that about K & W. My inlaws absolutely love the place. They frequent the one in Roanoke Va a lot.
The end of the cafeteria chains will definitely mark the end of an era, but not one that I will personally miss. My parents and their friends were of the ‘cafeteria generation’. I can remember as a 6-12 year old being driven an hour or two to exotic places like Raleigh or Greensboro with the main purpose of the trip being to eat at one of those ‘fancy’ cafeterias. Even as a small child, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. Cafeteria food to me always tasted either flavorless or way too salty.
It seems that people that grew up with cafeterias in schools don’t go out and seek them as adults.
I miss Morrisons and Lubys…. none here in NJ.
Art, you may be forced to start locating some mom ‘n pop places to eat. I did that years ago after the cafeteria style food places lost their quality. There was a really good Chinese all-you-care-to-eat place that consistently ranked #1 year after year. Really good food! Then all of a sudden the quality started dropping off and it was due to a change in ownership.
I suggested to my niece that a Chinese buffet might be a good compromise as a place to eat. I’m not that familiar with Chinese food, and it’s a way to ease into it without committing to a full “order” of something I don’t like.
She didn’t know of any, and her iPhone app couldn’t find one. There is one near me that costs like $22.95 and includes all you can eat crab legs, not quite what I had in mind.
The other day, I drove past one that matches what I was looking for – it’s on the seedy edge of downtown. I haven’t gotten around to checking it out. Daylight Saving Time starts this weekend, so that opens my ability to go out for dinner, since I consider it too risky to drive after dark. I took a picture of the sign out front while stopped at the traffic light so I would remember the name. I’ll try to embed it in a comment, which requires trickonology
No one is more up-to-speed on trickonology than are you!
Here is a link to the place
http://www.chinakingcharlotte.com/
Two problems now that I see the details – no American food as a fallback, and the buffet is “one plate”, not all you can eat – meaning I can’t take small portions to find out what I like and then go back for more.
So those of you familiar with Chinese food, what on their menu do you like? The main thing for me is I don’t like hot spicy food. You can see the place is easy walking distance from the LRV station and the NASCAR hall of fame. I see a road trip shaping up.
Being the landlubber that I am, Sweet and Sour Shrimp would be my choice along with 2 Spring Rolls.
Here is another more upscale one in the South part of town – in the same shopping center as the evil Walmart (boo!) where I shop regularly
http://www.cherryblossomchinese.net/cherry_blossom.pdf
The mom ‘n pop Chinese place that I love makes a very good version of Chicken with Cashews. I alternate between mild and spicy. Mmmmm-mm good!
Here is another place in the same shopping center. It has a local pedigree, but has morphed into a franchise operation. I’m skeptical but worth trying
http://www.sonnysbbq.com/media/Menus/February%202014%20Menus/Take%20Out/Website_ToGo_Tubel_Store211.pdf
Damn Foyle, I see why you are exactly able to remember when you ate at Blimpie ! I tried them once, luckily nothing traumatic to report. Good thing since I was two states away from home.
Yeah Panera bread is overpriced, back when they opened a store around here several years ago, the ‘trendies’ rolled in and used free wifi all the time, and tables occupied. I think we tried their Boilie(sp) breads. It was good if you got a fresh one. Had cheese in it and went well with a pasta my wife use to make. But it was roll of the dice if you got a fresh one. It had to be bad for yah.
parrott
Panera Bread is a good place for free WiFi. They even have 120 V outlets so you can plug in.
In the town in NC where I used to live Panera Bread was right next door to a Starbucks. In the days before Starbucks had free wifi the Panera always had a half dozen or more ‘customers’ sitting in the restaurant with their laptops and their cups of Starbucks. I always found it hard to believe that Panera management put up with these cyber-squatters.
Probably a lot of people at Starbucks were connected to the Panera Bread WiFi.
Once during a power outage when I was working from home. I drove to Panera Bread. It was so crowded with people like me that had the same idea that the parking lot was full of people working on their laptops in their cars using the Panera Bread wifi.
I know I returned for lunch quite a few times in the weeks afterward as my way of saying thanks.
You gotta get in your 11 hrs/day somehow
Hmmm… I wonder if it is no coincidence that most major public libraries are open 11 hours a day (10 am – 9 pm).
There are still some Blimpies, I believe. I’ll take a look to see if they are still there.
Your story reminds me of a visit the the “Five Guys” hamburger chain. I went in there once and it was 4 woman with one woman on break. I asked, “what did you do to the five guys?” lol there were not any guys working there.
Five guys is a customer of that food distributor I worked for in Chicago. They are a bit different in that at least for some stores, the deliveries happen in the middle of the night – the delivery truck lets themselves in after turning off the alarm, takes the food and puts it into storage and leaves the unsigned receipt in the office.
I’ve been to Five Guys maybe 4 times. It’s pretty good, but expensive for a burger place. Don’t order a large French Fry serving unless there are three people sharing it. Another tip: the free peanuts may contain peanuts.
Pizza chain Sbarro is also going under
http://us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303824204579421870260213220?mg=reno64-wsj
I kept hoping Sbarro would be good, but it is dreadfully tasteless lifeless pizza designed to stay under hot lamps for 4 hours. I won’t miss it for a moment.
I also won’t be shocked if Cracker Barrel goes under. There used to be long lines to get a table, now the employees are standing around with nothing to do. Between the “healthy” menu and the sign by the front door declaring you a racist for eating there, they stuck the knife in themselves. Glenn Beck was going after them big time a day or two ago – but I missed the why part.
http://secfilings.nasdaq.com/filingFrameset.asp?FileName=0001140361%2D14%2D009457%2Etxt&FilePath=%5C2014%5C02%5C25%5C&CoName=CRACKER+BARREL+OLD+COUNTRY+STORE%2C+INC&FormType=10%2DQ&RcvdDate=2%2F25%2F2014&pdf=
Sales are flat – in comparable year to year results, customer traffic is down, being made up for by price increases – usually an excellent approach to fly your company into the ground.
While we are on the subject of food, has anyone else noticed really young kids with weird and/or rare diseases? There is no question that children nowadays are less fit, less healthy, and more overweight than their parents. Same thing is happening in Britain.
I raised the subject of what is the cause of this outbreak of allergic reactions to peanuts among children with my niece. Her answer was that they have an anophelactic reaction that floods their lungs with fluid, even at just the smell of peanuts or thinking about peanuts. She completely missed the point, confusing symptoms with causation.
My suspicions are along the lines of overuse of antibiotics, overly antiseptic household (see: cause of asthma), reaction to other medications, psychological disorders, parental psychological issues.
If it turns out the pathology is real and a child can die just from the smell of peanuts, are we really doing society as a whole a benefit by not letting them die? (Yes, I do have some sympathy toward eugenics)
Smells fishy.
There could also be some correlation between the thing I hate most about modern food, the GMO food culture of Monsanto and others of their ilk. Plus, as you point out, allowing the weaker members to die an early death, or at least prevent them from procreating, could help sustain the health and vigor of the species. I could point out that Charles Darwin and his wife Emma were first cousins. Darwin’s grandparents were cousins too.
That is old news. Michelle has fixed that:
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/current_research_shows_improvement_in_obesity_rates_of_preschoolers
On sub shop that no one has mentioned, ‘Jimmy Johns’.
maybe they are not worth mentioning? There is a few of those hanging on around here.
They always ask if you want bean sprouts with your sub. Bread was always fresh. A friend of mine always liked their ‘Starkist Tuna’ sub.
parrott
I went to one in Chicago, I think – and they exist here. My memory is it was okay – I think I wrote a blurb at the time the place having 8 employees and 2 customers and trying to figure out how that works. Lunch rush was over – it was maybe 1:30, but for whatever reason the people stayed until 2, even though there was nothing to do.
Sbarro officially filed today, nothing official yet about Quiznos
K&W was dissappointing again today. Menu said Country Style Steak, but I was served “mushroom steak”, which was institutional quality – about what I could buy at the Supermarket from Oncor. Food was not proper temperature, meat server was Hispanic man who didn’t understand English, steam table for vegetables was fogging the food guard so you couldn’t see the food, missing labels identifying each item. Dining room staff didn’t acknowledge anyone in the inning room, no offer to refill water glass…
Quiznos did file for bankruptcy. This is their second trip.