Subway's Subway Club: What You Need To Know Before You Order
Not so long ago, Subway sandwiches were a go-to for anyone wanting a healthy, quick, and delicious meal. Memories of the first bite into one of its footlong subs, the crunchy crust and soft inside the bread, the perfect ratio of meat to cheese, and the crunch of the veggie toppings hit a specific type of spot in our brains and get mouths watering to this day. However, fewer and fewer people are excited by the sandwich shop's former glory, and sales have reportedly dropped over the past few years.
"We want to ... draw those people back to give us another look," CEO John Chidsey told CNN.
Subway's latest marketing move, the "Eat Fresh Refresh," which includes the largest menu change in Subway history, has been yet another entry into the saga of the restaurant chain's fluctuating reputation (via PR Newswire). Recent concerns over everything from the high sugar content of their bread to the absence of tuna DNA in the protein base of its popular tuna sandwiches have made consumers second guess their cravings for a classic footlong (via New York Times).
One of the "Eat Fresh Refresh" sandwiches that will hopefully bring old fans back into their local Subway shop is the Subway Club.
What's on Subway's Subway Club?
The Subway Club is exactly what the name says: Subway's take on the classic club sandwich recipe. It's a foundational sandwich, and all delis need their own versions of the greatest sandwiches of all time. According to The Kitchn, a club sandwich is a loose concept, likely inspired by fare served at private social clubs. The sandwich should be filling and constitute a whole meal on its own. The club sandwich should include several layers of meat, but is widely open to interpretation, with some even considering the name to be an acronym for "chicken and lettuce under bacon."
The new Subway Club doesn't have two of those ingredients, and it honestly doesn't need them. Subway's version of a club sandwich is made with oven-roasted turkey, Black Forest ham, Angus roast beef, and veggies on the new Hearty Multigrain bread (via Subway). It sounds like it has all the club sandwich bases covered, would taste absolutely delicious, and would stand on its own as a meal.
The return of roast beef
The new Subway Club sandwich will certainly be a hit with fans who are returning to the restaurant for the first time since the original Subway Club sandwich was discontinued (via Eat This, Not That). Due to the high cost associated with roast beef and slimmer budgets as restaurant businesses began struggling after the start of the pandemic, the meat was taken off the menu (via Business Insider). The old Subway Club recipe also included roast beef, so it also disappeared for a while. The popular rotisserie chicken was also discontinued.
Subway customers were upset. A Reddit thread in response to a modified version of the Subway Club that was made with bacon instead of roast beef was full of unhappy lovers of the classic sandwich. They were lost without their favorite menu item and seemed much less likely to visit the restaurant. Hopefully by bringing roast beef back to the menu and the including the Subway Club in the "Eat Fresh Refresh" will draw some former customers back in to try the latest incarnation of the sandwich.
How much will the Subway Club cost?
There is no price listed on the website, and since Subway's Subway Club sandwich isn't available yet, we don't know exactly how much the sub will cost. However, we can guesstimate by comparing it to similar sandwiches on the menu and in the "Eat Fresh Refresh" rollout that are available at Subway restaurants.
While we all remember and long for the days when a footlong sandwich from Subway was only $5, and the chain did reintroduce a version of the $5-footlong in June 2020, the average price of your meal at the restaurant is significantly higher than that (via PR Newsire). The price of the sandwiches included in the new menu varies by location and any additions you may make. It seems like the new Turkey Cali sandwich goes for $7.29 for a 6-inch and between $12 and $14 for a footlong, while the Steak Cali costs $8.49 and 13.99 for the two sizes. The Subway Club will probably have similar prices to these sandwiches.
Nutritional information for the Subway Club
Subway and its status as one of the healthier fast-food restaurant's is debated, so how healthy are the new sandwich options? Nutritional information for the new Subway Club is not yet available on the Subway nutrition grid. However, we can consider the nutritional values and healthiness of the original Subway Club, which was made with similar ingredients. We can also consider the values of the new Hearty Multigrain bread.
The original Subway Club had a reputation for being healthy and was included on lists of the healthier options at the restaurant by Healthline and Business Insider. Healthline also included the nutritional facts that assumed a 6-inch sandwich on multi-grain bread and a healthy portion of vegetables: The Subway Club had 310 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 24 grams of protein, 8 grams of sugar, and a concerningly high 850 grams of sodium.
According to the Subway nutrition grid, the new Hearty Multigrain bread has 3 g of sugar, 8% daily value of iron, 190 calories, and 310 grams of sodium. Overall, the new Subway Club seems like it will be fairly healthy as long as you are aware of the high sodium levels.
The rest of Subway's Refresh
While you can't order the Subway Club just yet, you can visit your local Subway restaurant and check out the rest of the "Eat Fresh Refresh" menu changes. With several new sandwiches available with new toppings like avocado spread, even though the roast beef and Subway Club aren't available, there are some new options to try.
However, the new items and the marketing ploy as a whole are not landing smoothly with the public. The Washington Post reported that employees didn't seem to know how to make the new sandwiches and that the new sandwich options were not particularly impressive. The New York Post gave several of the new sandwiches a thumbs down, and the critic was not impressed by the taste, experience, or structure of the subs.
Subway unleashed a massive publicity campaign leading up to the Refresh, including a series of commercials with big-name spokespeople Megan Rapinoe, Tom Brady, Serena Williams, and others. Even that wasn't enough to garner much attention from consumers. During the million-sandwich giveaway on the first day of the refresh, most of the stores did not receive enough traffic to meet the giveaway goals. The restaurant claims that sales have gone up since the rollout, but some franchise owners do not agree (via Eat This, Not That).
While the sandwiches available now are not very popular, maybe in the fall when the Subway Club arrives, a new wave of customers will return to the restaurant.