Firehouse Subs
An equipment package and true-to-life theme have made this fast-casual concept an increasingly important player in the popular sub sandwich category.
By Toby Weber, Contributing Editor -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 12/15/2005
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It is not unusual for a restaurant chain to have some sort of theme, some sort of hook in order to distinguish itself in customers' minds. In the case of Firehouse Subs, the theme is more than a marketing gimmick — it's a genuine expression of the founders' lives.
The Jacksonville, Fla.-based chain was started in 1994 by a pair of brothers/firefighters, Chris and Robin Sorensen. "I was with the fire department for 15 years, my dad for 43 years and my brother for 2 years," Chris Sorensen says.
According to Sorensen, while everyone loves to eat, both he and his brother have a passion for cooking that led them to enter foodservice. Prior to the chain's founding, the two had toyed with the idea of opening a restaurant for a couple of years, but were limited by a tight budget. These financial restrictions ruled out any concepts that would have required fryers and the accompanying — and expensive — hood systems.
Sub sandwiches, then, became a clear option, given their relatively small equipment packages and their emphasis on quality ingredients.
"We put it on paper and it just started to click," Sorensen says. "Sandwich names [like the Hook & Ladder and the Engineer] were easy to come up with. So, in October 1994 we opened the first Firehouse with Robin's mother-in-law's charge card and a little bit of money from the Fireman's Credit Union."
To further establish the firehouse theme, the company decorates its units with model fire trucks, firefighter hats and related memorabilia. In addition, the company has artists on staff who paint customized murals in each restaurant that depict the unit's city and display a firehouse-related theme.
While to outsiders it may seem that foodservice and firefighting don't mix, in reality, Sorensen says, much of the life inside a firehouse is built around food. "I was raised in a fire station. My first haircut was at a station. You go on a Sunday and they're eating Sunday dinner," he says. "You're on 24-hour shifts, so you don't go out and sit at restaurants. You make breakfast, lunch and dinner there. It makes for a tight team. It's part of what you do, so it was natural for me to bring that here."
A big part of transporting that firehouse culture into a commercial venture, Sorensen says, involves high-quality ingredients in large portions. "Firefighters are not going to be worth much doing that type of work if they don't eat well."
Instead of baking bread on-premises, which would require an investment in ovens, proofers and other equipment, the chain has a baker in Atlanta bake its sub rolls, which each unit receives three times a week.
Firehouse Subs, therefore, does not serve processed meats formed into loaves, but instead relies on whole muscle meats. And these meats are served generously. A medium sandwich from Firehouse has four ounces of meat, while a large sandwich is served with a full half-pound of meat.
"Our theory is to give them good portions and food quality and charge a fair price for it," Sorensen states. "Our food costs are high. We could give them boiled ham and cheaper meats in the same quantities, but customers can tell."
This approach has served Firehouse Subs well. The chain now has 200 locations, primarily in the southeast United States, with about 165 of them franchised.
The number of restaurants, Sorensen asserts, is far fewer than it could have been, but the company has intentionally taken a measured approach toward franchising.
"Most chains rent hotel rooms and convention centers to try to sell stores. We don't follow that path. It has to feel right and the person has to have a good plan. We've seen so many companies get a little too lax on who they let in."
The chain's current growth plans call for the company to expand north along the Atlantic Coast over the next couple of years, eventually moving up to New Jersey, New York and Boston. Firehouse Subs, though, will franchise out of areas covered by its immediate growth plans should the right partner come along.
One of the qualities that makes a potential franchisee a good partner in Firehouse's eyes is the ability to develop multiple stores in a given area. By doing this, Sorensen states, the company limits the chances of different Firehouse units cannibalizing each other's business and different franchisees entering into conflict.
And even when Firehouse signs a franchisee to open many stores, the company makes sure this is done at a reasonable pace. According to Sorensen, Firehouse will encourage franchisees to slow their development if they are not ready to open additional units.
Part of the attraction of becoming a franchisee of Firehouse Subs is undoubtedly the low price tag of its equipment package. According to Mark Cowan, the chain's director of purchasing, the opening package runs around $25,000 to $30,000.
Firehouse units have equipment in both the front and the back of the house. In the back is where staff perform most of the prep work. Sitting on top of a worktable is the main piece of equipment for sandwich preparation, an electric slicer.
Firehouse staffers use the slicer on a daily basis to cut their units' meats and cheese. In addition, employees cut vegetables in the back of the house on a daily basis, as well.
Also in the back is a single-door reach-in freezer, where the chain stores frozen cookie dough, chili, meatballs and other items. Near the upright freezer is a three-door reach-in refrigerator where meats, cheese, vegetables and other perishables are stored.
The front of the house features a horizontal merchandiser with a single door accessible to staff only. The chain uses the merchandiser to display its salads, as well as its unsliced whole muscle meats, which emphasizes the freshness and quality of its ingredients.
Next to the merchandiser sit two sandwich prep tables, one with two doors undercounter and one with three. Both units hold meats, cheese, vegetables and sauces in refrigerated wells, with extra ingredients stored undercounter to replenish the wells.
When a customer orders a sandwich, a staff member working along the refrigerated rail places the appropriate meat and cheese on a piece of wax paper and passes them to another staffer working along the front of the house's back wall. This employee puts the meat and cheese into a hand-pump steamer, one of five or six with which each unit is equipped.
According to Cowan, typically a single employee is in charge of operating all the hand-pump steamers at a given time.
"They can be steaming the meat and cheese for 10 to 12 sandwiches at once, so they have to be skilled in operating and understanding where they've put the different ingredients for the sandwiches they're trying to make," he says.
While the meat and cheese are being heated, another employee slices the sub roll and places it in a conveyor toaster that sits along the back wall, as well. When both are complete, they are sent back to the refrigerated sandwich tables, where employees add the veggies and condiments.
During slow periods, staffers bring the finished sandwiches to patrons' tables. During busier periods, diners retrieve their meals through a number system.
The entire Firehouse package — the food, the theme, the service and equipment lineup — work together to build what is undoubtedly a bright future for this chain. "We're not big advertisers, but if you give somebody good food and a nice portion, that builds by word of mouth," Sorensen says. "That's what has kept us going all these years — giving people their money's worth."
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