Breaducation 101

Frozen Subway Bread

Millard Refrigerated Services makes and freezes dough for hundreds of Subway restaurants throughout the Northwest.

If they say their bread is fresh, then ask to see their mixer. But what does that really mean? What does it matter if a restaurant has or doesn’t have a mixer? Good questions, the exact questions we hope to answer through the re-breaducation of sandwich lovers everywhere, starting with you.

The truth is, our competitors hope that you don’t read this. They hope you are content with their dirty little secret: there is no flour, no mixer, and no “fresh” dough in the back of their restaurants. “But wait,” you might think, “I’ve seen (xyz sandwich chain) cooking ‘fresh’ bread in the front of their restaurant with my own eyes.” While this is true, and their customers do see bread rise and bake right before their eyes, it’s what they don’t see that is truly important: where did that bread come from?

“Surely they must just mix it in the back,” you might think, but we’re here to tell you, that’s just not the case. In nearly every one of the national chain sandwich shops, they use something called “Par-bake” technology. It’s the process by which their “fresh” dough is made in mass production in a factory, infused with preservatives, dough conditioners like azodicarbonamide and other toxic ingredients designed to make the bread last longer, look fresher, and of course, lower costs of production.
Breaducation, Planet Sub, Sandwich Shop

While this process is commonplace today, it didn’t used to be. Back in 1979, when Planet Sub took root as Yello Sub in Lawrence, Kansas, we made every loaf of bread the old fashioned way: mixed in the store from flour, yeast, butter, water, sugar, and salt, then rolled out by hand, then proofed and baked prior to being served.  While the recipe has changed over the years (most recently by removing butter to make our bread 100% vegan), the process has not. Making bread this way takes extra: extra labor, extra time, extra room in the kitchen to store ingredients, and extra craftsmanship. After all, not just anybody could be tasked to make the beloved recipe, and there was also a sense of pride in even being able to “roll out a batch”.

We are here, through this breaducation process, to tell you that this principle is alive and well at every single Planet Sub restaurant. We’ve always made our bread by hand, from scratch, and we always will.  It’s laughable to know that there isn’t a single cup of flour in the back of our competitors restaurants. It’s frustrating to know that they have some people fooled, that the frozen bread icicles they serve might actually be passed off as something fresh, or even healthy. It’s like taking a TV dinner from the freezer section, serving it up at Thanksgiving dinner, and then telling your guests that you slaved all day to make the meal fresh. Lies!

In fact, the word fresh is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as: Newly produced, made, or gathered. Not preserved by being frozen, canned, etc. How can a company freeze their product, and turn around and call it fresh? Easy: marketing dollars and celebrity endorsements. Well, good friends, it’s time to redefine fresh, breaducate the masses, and start spreading the word.

-Planet Sub

Planet Sub opens new prototype featuring drive-thru service

Sandwich Shop, Drive-through, Drive-Thru, Planet SubPlanet Sub has opened their first new drive-thru prototype location in North Sioux City, marking their first store in South Dakota. The franchise group who opened the new store earlier in July of 2014 has extensive restaurant experience within their portfolio, and being new to the Planet Sub franchise family were eager to be a part of the prototype development.

“We jumped at the opportunity to launch the new prototype alongside a group with such strong operational experience,” said Director of Franchising, Ryan Joy. “It is always exciting to add new technology and revenue streams to our systems.”

In addition to the new drive thru model, the location offers extended hours to allow for fresh-made breakfast options. The concept will use it’s famous bread made from scratch for hot breakfast sandwiches along with a variety of made to order breakfast burritos, and cinnamon rolls.

“We are excited to be adding a new layer of convenience to the guest experience,” said Trevor Forssell, Director of Marketing. “First, we are capturing an entirely new revenue stream, but also we are reshaping what it means to get a sandwich on the run. Until this point the options in the sub category have been very limited for those seeking a quick and convenient option that offers a healthy and satisfying meal. Nothing beats our oven baked subs, granted I’m biased, but the smiles on the faces of our drive-thru customers don’t lie.”

The store located just off I-29 in North Sioux City has both freeway access and visibility, which has led to an influx of new patrons eager to try something fresh and new. Customer interaction and service is a priority to Planet Sub’s branding philosophy, and guests are now able to enjoy this same experience from the comfort of their cars.