Dominoes is vastly improved, yes. It’s still got too much sweetness in it for me. The kids love it, though.
It is of course the fundamental antithesis of weight loss, but whatchagonnado?
Limit your intake to once a month! And make sure you get cheesy breads
Gonna quote the requisite … NICE!
The son of one of our friends works at Jersey Mikes and is on his 5th year there. He’s probably their lead worker outside of the manager/owner. On a typical weekend lunch he can make well over 100 sandwiches, but get this … 60-70 of those will be online orders that some driver is coming to pick up. He said the added online ordering system upped business in a huge way.
Jersey Mike’s is great and definitely captures what a gazillion local hoagie shops around Philadelphia have been providing for years before them.
Dominos also essentially exists as a tech and logistics company now as well.
Those are the things that keep them going pretty strongly when UberEats and DoorDash have utterly crushed Pizza Hut’s and even Papa John’s market share.
Adding to the “nice!” sentiment, but it reminded me that that same summer was my “fast food” summer - I worked at Wendy’s. I did not get picked up by a 20-something and get to go with her to see Independence Day; instead I recall getting pink eye the day before the movie opened and going to see it anyways.
Sounds like your summer of '96 was much better than mine, though I will vouch for Wendy’s food preparation methods. The burgers are actually fresh not frozen, and an entire crew (me included) were there by 6:30AM (no breakfast at Wendy’s at that time) to prep the food since they didn’t really use much, if any, frozen items besides nuggets and fries. The burgers were actually cooked somewhat to order on the grill, as there were always burgers going on and off in a sort of just in time delivery system. If it got slow and the burgers on the grill hit the over-cooking point they became the chili meat, which I found totally fine. I recall some thinking that the chili meat was something awful, but it really is just well done hamburger.
You’re right about the logistics and tech being an investment that very much paid off for Dominos, but also Pizza Hut and Papa John’s are freaking trash food. Even compared with other bad fast food, they’re trash.
I’m talking NYC. We have real pizza here.
Astonishing as it may be, a company can be successful in a wide sense without being successful within a specific market.
I didn’t know Subway had such a negative reputation, but then I thought about it and realized I’ve only been there a couple times in the last 5-10 years, and only recently because my kids somehow got it in their heads that they want to go there. I thought it was fine. I prefer Jersey Mike’s but I’m now realizing I don’t even consider them in the same category like I would when it comes to selecting a pizza option.
I’m very disoriented in general right now about Subway.
When you have only $7 and need a fresh hot pizza, Dominos is good enough!
I mean, I live near Philly and am in Norristown regularly now and there are a LOT of great pizza places here thanks to a significant Italian population in and around the city so there’s great pizza all over the area. Domino’s is still of good quality after their now years ago rework of everything they do.
Subway I think had an entire market segment to themselves and just got flabby. Cut corners on everything from ingredients to location placement to store maintenance and cleanliness.
And that left the door wide open for lots of someones to do “Better Subway”. Charge more, for sure; but make sure the difference is notable. It’s the Five Guys exponential chain growth method.
I’m sure it’s great for what it is, but not compared to real pizza.
I agree with that @triggercut. No one else had anything remotely like Subway when they had Jared and $5 footlongs. Ducks even ate for free there!
They just totally lost the plot and have never really attempted any kind or rebrand.
My brother still uses them as a goto and I can’t figure it out. That’s the only time I ever go anymore, while traveling to Indiana for the 500.
Primo Hoagies are my go to when on the outskirts of Philly. They migrated up to the Lehigh Valley and parts of NJ also now.
Dat Schwartzie <3
They’re good, but definitely hit some of the locals. So many Italian immigrants in Philly with great sandwich shops.
I like to go a little beyond standard with Primo. Try the Abruzzi or the Suprimo.
It’s notable that they’re yet another Subway competitor that’s way better.
Oh I have good sir, a solid 25 pounds of my body is due to their menu. :D
Anecdotally, Subway is (or was) the most common fast-food restaurant in rural areas and small towns. Whenever I had to drive long distances, I tried to avoid interstates to ‘see’ more ‘interesting’ places and it seemed nearly every small town had a Subway and then either a McDonald’s or a regional chain. It’s been a few years since I’ve had to do that with any kind of regularity though—and when I do, I just take interstates where feasible to save time—so I wonder if that’s still the case. I remember hearing that they used to have a relatively low franchise fee and operating cost so that was probably part of the reason.
I also can’t remember the last time I ate at one.
😂
We still haven’t gotten one in Reading but there’s one in Lancaster and I’m not far from a bunch of them if I go southeast of course. I’m curious if they have bigger plans given the success of Jersey Mike’s.