In A Long Overdue Attempt To "Rebrand", Subway Is Adding 20 New Menu Items. But Is Leaving The Mystery Tuna On The Menu
Yahoo - Subway is revamping its menu with new ingredients and sandwiches this month.
The sandwich chain is calling the menu changes an "Eat Fresh Refresh," playing off Subway's slogan. More than 20 menu changes will come to all US restaurants on July 13 with "improvements to almost every core menu item," according to a release.
Subway didn't list every planned menu change but noted that they will include sauces, bread, and proteins. Two new bread options, Artisan Italian and Hearty Multigrain, have been in development for over two years. The chain is also adding deli-style sliced ham and turkey, smashed avocado, fresh mozzarella, and a parmesan vinaigrette. In total there will be 11 new and improved ingredients, six new sandwiches, and four improved sandwiches, along with a new digital ordering experience.
Despite the major menu overhaul, Subway makes of point of saying it is not making any changes to its tuna. The chain's tuna has been the subject of controversy for months now after a January lawsuit alleged that Subway mislabeled tuna, and it did not contain actual tuna fish. Then, The New York Times published a report after testing tuna from three different Subway locations and found that "no amplifiable tuna DNA was present in the sample."
Subway fired back with a statement calling the method used by the NYT unreliable and says it serves "100% wild-caught, cooked tuna" mixed with mayonnaise. Subway also says tuna is one of its most popular sandwich fillings.
Well well well.
As our lovely, end-all-be-all on food, Glenny Ballsinformed us a few weeks ago, Subway's "tuna" was under heavy scrutiny following an independent investigation into its material makeup, done by the NYT.
Not only did they double down on their claims that the mystery fish in question was in fact 100% real tuna, claiming it's "wild caught", but now they're also revamping their entire menu offering and keeping the tuna in question on the menu.
They're not disclosing what the new menu items will be, opting to "surprise" the world on July 13th, but I have it on good authority that they will include the following-
Deli-thin sliced ham and turkey, BelGioioso mozzarella, hickory smoked bacon, smashed avocado with sea salt, and MVP Parmesan Vinaigrette. The all-new sandwiches include the Turkey Cali Fresh, Steak Cali Fresh, and an All-American Club.
The sad part of all of this is that this is basically just rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic.
Too little, too late. Day late and a dollar short. However you want to phrase it, knock yourself out.
Seeing as we have one of the country's foremost sandwich connoisseur's (notice how I didn't use that lame term "sandwich artist") on our speed dial here in Chicago, I reached out to the one and only Jim Graziano of world-famous J.P. Graziano for his opinion on the matter-
Couldn't agree more with my amigo Jim here. When I'm in Chicago I'm either indulging in a nice Mr. G (with hot cap, and muffuletta; I call it the Dante remix), an Italian from Conte Di Savoia, or a Prosciutto & Mozzarella from Bari. When I'm in a city or town that doesn't have sandwich shops of that caliber I'm looking for a Jersey Mike's. You can't go wrong with a sandwich shop that slices the meat right in front of your face (or that has cherry pepper spread and hammers on the red wine vinegar).
If Subway wants to get their ass back in the race they should take a page out of Jersey Mike's playbook and use actual real ingredients semi-prepared in front of your face. People want quality nowadays versus convenience. They'll wait the extra 120-180 seconds.
One thing you gotta hand it to them on though is not going the Quizno's route and deviating from their bread and butter with science experiments like "Lobster & Seafood"
p.s.- We got White Sox Dave to live up to his end of the bargain and eat this thing. Video coming later today.
p.p.s. - back in the Blackout Tour days some nights when we'd get done the show, and breaking down, and striking out we'd be starving (and hammered) and looking for anything we could find for food. Often times the only thing open in a lot of those college towns in the middle of the week was Subway. Watching Gaz, Devlin, Feitelberg, Delo, and our stage hands Blackout Bob and Walsh wolf down mystery meat sandwiches at 3 am to top off a handle of Makers Mark and Jaeger was like Groundhog Day. Brutal to watch and even more brutal to smell the next morning.
p.p.p.s. - does anybody remember back when subway first arrived on the scene? I was a little kid but I remember the we had like 3 stores in central mass. They were all different aside from the wallpaper which was the New York City subway grid lined out. The menues were all slightly different and the sandwiches were actually pretty fuckin good. Not on Regatta’s level but pretty good.
p.p.p.p.s. - shout out Brandon for this video