Hankering For History: Quiznos: MMMMM... TOASTY

I try to make every event that I can into a historical adventure, meal times are no exception. While driving down Grant Street today, in Denver, Colorado, I noticed the following Quiznos Sub restaurant. How cool! I thought that my daily intake for satisfying my hankering for history was finished for today; boy was I wrong!

Original Quiznos Sub location, open in 1981, in Denver, Colorado. (Original Picture)

This is the original Quiznos site; however, this corner sub-shop has a history that started before 1981. In 1978, this corner location, at 1275 Grant Street, was a gas station just waiting to be converted into something awesome. Terrell Braly, great-grandson of J. Oliver Russell (some credit Russell with the founding of Denver), started the sub restaurant, Sandwich World.

What made his sub restaurant different from all the others?

Oven toasted, deliciousness.

The sub-shop manager, Hussain Jaffarie, used a pizza oven to toast the subs. Within a couple of years, Terrell Braly received an offer to sell Sandwich World. Jimmy Lambatos and Todd Disner purchased the restaurant rights and the property, and in 1981 it reopened as Quiznos. For a company that has only been around for thirty-one years, it has a long history. It has changed hands several times, gone public, become re-privatized, become an international sensation, and since 2003, it has been the second largest sub restaurant, only behind Subway. For the complete historical timeline, go check out Quiznos’ historical timeline.

What I found the most interesting was the amount of re-branding this company has done in its short existence. Below are pictures of all the logos and slogan changes over the years. Eleven logos, in thirty-one years. There were seven logos in the last ten years alone. Now I don’t feel nearly as bad about the makeovers that Hankering for History has been through.