Subway Debuts New Deli Heroes Featuring Freshly Sliced Meats
It’s the next step in the chain’s move to "elevate" its menu.
Photo courtesy of Subway
Almost precisely one year ago, Subway introduced its streamlined Subway Series menu of a dozen signature subs that could be ordered by name or number — a major move toward curation that was enthusiastically embraced by customers, spurring the chain to record-setting sales.
In May, the chain expanded the Subway Series lineup, adding six new sandwiches with generous meat and double the amount of cheese.
Now, Subway is taking its next step toward “elevating” its menu, a process that began in 2021, with the arrival of freshly sliced meats in all U.S. restaurant locations. The transition to freshly sliced meats — facilitated by new deli meat slicers that have been rolling into the restaurants — was first announced back in February. Now, it’s a done deal.
To celebrate the slicers’ official arrival in all locations and the advent of the era of fresh slicing, Subway is expanding its Subway Series menu again, this time introducing a new category of sandwiches, big piled-high deli subs it’s calling Deli Heroes. And yes, you can order the new sandwiches by name and number. (So easy.)
“The addition of freshly sliced meats … gives our guests a better sandwich – raising the bar even higher for the brand that defined fresh,” Trevor Haynes, the president of Subway, North America, says in a statement. “We can’t wait for America to taste the difference and see how far we have come on our journey.”
The culmination of a two-year process, the official debut of freshly sliced meats at U.S. locations was, the chain says, “one of the most complex changes the brand has ever made,” requiring changes to Subways supply chain and the addition of the slicers in 20,000 restaurants nationwide over nine months, which works out to a new slicer being added every five minutes. The deli meat slicers were “gifted” to all U.S. Subway franchisees — costing the chain more than $80 million.
Photo courtesy of Subway
The new Deli Heroes come with double cheese and are all served on Subway’s freshly baked Artisan Italian bread. The Titan Turkey (#15 — turkey, double Provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions and mayonnaise) and Grand Slam Ham (#99 — ham, double Provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions and mayonnaise) both feature 33 percent more meat than regular subs. The Beast (#30 — pepperoni, salami, turkey, ham, roast beef, double Provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, mayonnaise and MVP Vinaigrette) features fully half a pound of meat. Garlic Roast Beef (#17 — roast beef, double Provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, and roasted garlic aioli) rounds out the lineup.
We had a chance to try the Titan Turkey and it was meaty, tasty and super satisfying.
“For about two years, the team’s been working on ‘How do we elevate our deli sandwiches?’ They’re such a big part of our menu,” Subway Senior Vice President of Culinary & Innovation Chef Paul Fabre tells Food Network. “So we did a lot of consumer focus groups and taste tests and it really came up that working on freshly sliced deli meats would really elevate our sandwich deli game.”
While there was some initial trepidation among its franchisees at adopting the new approach, once they had a chance to try the freshly sliced meats, Fabre notes, they could “see the difference and taste the difference. It really makes our sandwiches a lot better.”
You can judge for yourself on Tuesday, July 11, between 10 a.m. and noon local time, when Subway is giving customers a first taste of its freshly sliced meats by offering up to one million free six-inch Deli Heroes subs at participating restaurants across the country.
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