Sandwich giant Subway is testing a more upscale format called Subway Café, which the company hopes will address the needs of franchisees looking to open in office buildings and other more high-end venues.
The test, which was launched by a Subway franchisee in an office building in Alexandria, Va., has expanded to about 15 locations, Les Winograd, a spokesman for the Milford, Conn.-based chain, said in an interview Monday. The company expects to add 10 more by the end of the year, he added.
“The landlord was looking for something more upscale and with more coffee choices in the building,” Winograd said.
The new concept is expected to help fuel Subway’s rapid growth. The chain said it has opened nearly 700 new outlets in 50 countries and 43 U.S. states since January and has plans to open a total of 2,000 North American locations this year.
While still in the early stages of development, the Subway Café is designed to be a cross between a sandwich concept and coffee bar and is “a little larger” than the average 1,200-square-foot Subway, he said.
In addition to the standard Subway breakfast and traditional menus, the café concept offers a variety of baked goods, hot and cold espresso drinks, coffee, hot and iced chai latte, hot chocolate and frozen blended beverages. Because the menu is somewhat more elaborate, operations will vary from standard Subway locations. The coffee would come from Seattle’s Best, which supplies coffee to Subway’s regular restaurants.
“Employees will need some specific training for the cafes,” Winograd said.
Winograd said the décor and signage for the café would be standardized, and would feature brick or wood paneled walls, more lounge-style seating with comfortable armchairs, and in some cases a fireplace. Lighting also would be different from standard Subway operations. He noted, however, that the design would remain flexible to allow for the development of the cafes in a variety of locations.
Subway has about 34600 stores in 98 countries.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the Subway café restaurants would offer panini sandwiches.
Contact Paul Frumkin at [email protected].
