A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Subway vs. Jersey Mike's

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Today, Josh & Nicole take on the popular fast-food sandwich franchises, Jersey Mike's and Subway, and debate which one lands on top! This episode is sponsored by/brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/HOTDOG and get on your way to being your best self. Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@mythicalkitchen To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Nicole, the only reason I'm confident that AI will never take my job is because I know AI can never make a sandwich as good as I can. Chat GPT, more like chat BLT, am I right? You are right! This is A Hot Dog is a Sandwich! Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense.

A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Ayer. And I'm your host, Nicole Inayati. And Nicole, today we are talking about the two biggest sub sandwich players in the entire game. No doms, just subs. I always think about that though. Jersey Mike's slogan is be a sub above, and I think them and the BDSM community should unite for

some sort. They just signed Danny DeVito as their first ever celebrity spokesman. Danny DeVito's hot. He's hot. You put him in a gimp suit, leather harnesses, something. There's something there. There's something there. But no, we are talking about Subway versus Jersey Mike's. Subway, to me, right now talking about Subway versus Jersey Mike's.

Subway to me right now. Okay. That's the standard. It's the largest restaurant empire in the history. Number one, right? No, it's like looking back to when you see a map of Subways, looking back to see like Genghis Khan's holdings of the Mongolian horde. It's like, wow, he was really everywhere, huh? I feel like that's how we're looking at Subway now.

Fair. Yeah, yeah. 37,000 global locations at its peak. Incredible. 37,000 global locations at its peak. Incredible. 24,000 American locations at its peak. But, but, but this is an empire in decline. Oh no. Empire in decline. Nicole, they have shuttered. Like America?

I don't. Oh no. Yeah, let's bring politics into this one. I watched that movie. What's that movie that everybody's watching? Leave the World Behind? Saltburn. Oh, I love Saltburn. What's that movie that everybody's watching? Leave the World Behind? Salt Burn. Oh, I love Salt Burn. The bathtub? I mean, my favorite.

No, the bathtub scene wasn't that dramatic. That got me. That one got me. That's what got you? That's what got me in that movie. You are a weak man. I didn't say got me in a bad way. But you know, that movie's great. Not Salt Burn.

The other one I was talking about that you rudely interrupted me about. Leave the World Behind. Have you seen it yet? No. You need to watch it. You need to watch it. You need to watch it. What's it about and how does it fit into Subway vs. Jersey Mike's? I'm going to let you find out for yourself.

Subway has closed several thousand locations in the past couple years. Yes. They are currently in their third phase of a rebrand, Nicole. They're in Subway 1.0, then 2.0, then 3.0, and the biggest changes they've had to the restaurant since Quiznos forced their hand to add toasters to the menu. I love that. I love that. I love a toasted sub from

Subway. Oh, same, same, same. It was a game changer, and now Subway's hoping to change the game because you got the young whippersnappers, Jersey Mike's, chomping on its heels. Same store sales are so much higher than Subway. Jersey Mike's only has aboutping on its heels. Same store sales are so much higher than Subway. Jersey Mike's only has about 2,400 locations, but... No way.

That's it? Did you think it was bigger? Of course. I mean, their ad campaigns make it seem like they're everywhere. And I feel like they're in a lot of airports. They're in a lot of airports. They're in a lot of, like, commercial shopping centers. The last time we saw a sandwich expansion this big was Panera back in the day.

I was never a Panera girl. And Panera, again, Panera is so different. Subway last year did about $10 billion in sales, and Jersey Mike's, I think, did about $1.5 to $2. Panera is in that $5 billion range. Yeah, dude, they move product, man. They sure do. Pablo Escobar out there with the broccoli cheddar soup bread bowls. I can't enjoy myself at a Panera Bread.

Especially with the lemonade. Oh yeah, the caffeinated lemonade that was sending people to the hospital. The lemonade that kills you. If I can grandstand for a little bit. You never. You gotta just learn about milligrams of caffeine because it's a real hardcore drug that, again, can just kill you.

A drug. It is a drug. Caffeine is a drug. It's weird that you would just say take Handlepulls of NyQuil without measuring it out. Don't just do that with caffeine. Like, figure it out. But the point is Panera is not really in the same ballpark as Josie Mike's. I agree. When you talk about sub sandwiches, a couple other ones out there. Firehouse subs, they've been increasing.

Jimmy John's, I think, had a big initial run. And now I think they're seeing same store sales decline. Jimmy John's is like a boomer sub shop. Do you feel that way too? Not really. I feel like Jimmy John's was the puritane sub shop. So this new genre of teens right. You just touched my arm.

That's weird. The new genre of teens right where they saw their millennial old millennial or young Gen X parents who were like drugs, rock and roll tattoos. I saw Kiss live. Right? And then now or like Nine Inch Nails live.

You know? I love Nine Inch. Yeah, but the Puritans they don't think that's cool. So they're like a return to they're getting weirdly more conservative. They're having less sex,

doing less drugs, more straight edge. That to me was Jimmy John's. Jimmy John's to me is a very plain sandwich. Really? That's so crazy because I just think of it

as like boomomer Dad sandwiches. Interesting. But I think now the Puritans, the Gen Zers are switching back to Boomer ways. About to be a weird conservative flood in the teens and I don't understand where it's happening. And it's all starting with cold cuts. No. But point is

Jimmy John's is on a very fast rise and then Subway is really sort of scraping at the walls right now trying to come back into it. But now, this is Subway, as I mentioned, they've made a lot of improvements, supposedly. We don't know if it's actually going to come through. But they have changed a lot of their meats.

They have changed a lot of their breads. And they are now introducing fresh meat slicers into every location. Insane. Just like Jersey Mike's. Just like Jersey Mike's just like jersey mike's jersey mike's been slicing it fresh um i believe it cost 80 million dollars for subway to add meat slicers to every restaurant are they only doing it in the u.s and canada or is it like all over like internationally they're adding i'm not sure how they're doing it i know they have a big

international push that's planned but they're already they're in 110 countries point is once your armies nicole once your uh horseback riding hordes have flooded all over the eastern steppes, you know, and Genghis Khan has died, the DeLuca family, the DeLuca family. So Fred DeLuca found Subway in, I believe, 1965 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and they don't start franchising until 1974. That's right. I didn't realize that Jersey Mike's, the original Mike's Sub Shop, was founded in 1956.

I didn't know that either. Yeah, but similarly, it wasn't until 1974 that they changed hands. But Subway was really interesting because it was owned by the DeLuca family until several months ago in 2023. No way. They signed a deal to sell it months ago in 2023. No way. They signed a deal to sell it for reportedly $9.6 billion. To who? Whoa, nameless, faceless private equity firm, of course.

Shut up. $9 billion. Yeah, so we're at a very weird pivotal point in time with both of these sandwich shops. Yum. And today we're going to taste them. We're going to analyze them. We're going to analyze them. We're going to dissect them. Am I going to be able to taste the pivotal in my sandwiches?

Well, that's a great question though, right? That's what I wonder about all this. Subway is the second biggest fast food advertiser in America, only behind McDonald's. And so, you know, Jersey Mike says Danny DeVito, and we think he should be in a leather harness in the next one. I don't think Danny DeVito's a leather daddy. You don't think so?

No. Like a service top? Anyways. Saltburn, baby. Subway. Subway. I mean, they are paying Tom Brady a ton of money. Steph Curry.

Simone Biles. Simone Biles. They have all these athletes trying to push their Subway series sandwiches. Sure. And so, I don't know, should we unwrap them? Should we just get into it? Yeah, we can unwrap this. Start unwrapping them.

I'll talk about what we got here. So we went with a very classic, not the cold cut combo from Subway, but a cold cut combo. This is their Italian-ish sub. This is called the BMT. Do you know what BMT stands for? I have it up here. It's Genoa salami, spicy pepperoni, and black forest ham. But what does BMT stand for?

I'm guessing the B is the black. Nope. Already wrong. Like, already wrong. It makes no sense. Breakfast meat trio. Okay, so, so, so, so. It started apparently as Brooklyn Manhattan Transit.

Shut up. Oh, because it's Subway. Subway. Even though it started in Connecticut, but I think it's a commuter town to New York City. I didn't get anything special on it. But then, no, that's great. We want to try the sandwich for what it is. And this new bread here.

The meats, Nicole, are sliced fresh, but now it stands for biggest, meatiest, tastiest. I thought you held that title. Hey. Is that inappropriate for me to say? No, I was very flattered by it. Okay, I'm just going to dig in. I'm looking at it. It's a pretty well-constructed sandwich.

You got the cucumbers on it. Subway's thing was always eat fresh, right? You know, Subway, the fresh maker. No, that's Mentos. Not Mentos. But, like, this is a fun, fresh sandwich. The pepperoni is actually really yummy. That's the first thing I taste here.

Pepperoni. Yo, why does this meat taste better than it normally does? I don't know. Do they do a good job? The veggies are so... I'm not kidding. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

The veggies are so fresh. The meat tastes really good. The bread, eh. I don't really care about the bread. I was trying to hide my hand for a second here because I ate so much Subway in high school. So did I. Because it was $5 for a foot long of sandwich. Not anymore. This was like $14 or something, Josh. Yeah, they won inflation since

we were in high school. We're just old now and we have to accept that. But yeah, I mean, I ate so many $5 foot longs. I got super sick of Subway and I never liked it. I mentioned a couple months ago on another podcast called Business Wars that I think Subway should be a free government utility. I think the government should buy it, socialize it, and make it free to all persons. We'll get there one day. Because to me, Subway just kind of tastes like clean water, right? It's like the lowest form of food.

Subway does not taste like clean water. No, clean water in a good way. Like, you drink from a drinking fountain, and you're like, mm, that was refreshing, but it's not the best thing I've ever had. That's like Subway to me. When's the last time you drank out of a water fountain? Every single morning.

What? I sip like a hummingbird from a water fountain at the gym every single morning while people are filling up their Stanley cups. I'm over there waiting to just get one little sip from my parched little mouth. And I drink, yeah. I enjoy over there waiting to just get one little sip from my parched little mouth. And I drink. Yeah, I enjoy water fountains. And that's why I think Subway should be a public

utility. But I haven't had a sandwich in there in a long time. This meat. I just dissected the meat. The pepperoni, high quality. This is a lot better than it used to be. A lot better. We're not out here shilling for Subway. This is genuine shock and surprise.

And taste the snap of the veg. It's pretty snappy veg. Wait. That's crazy. One of the problems with Subway. Uh-huh. You get such a massive, massive operation. 37,000.

I didn't realize, I was saying earlier, that Jersey Mike's, technically, the shop started nine years before Subway did. Okay. But Subway starts franchising about 15 years earlier than Jersey Mike's. So that's why they had such a huge head start. And again, at the time you talk about the freshness of these veggies, that was Subway's whole thing, right? Yum. For the first time, there was a fast food restaurant that wasn't just slinging pizza. It wasn't just slinging burgers. You'd walk in, you could see the vegetables, you could see the fresh baked bread, see it all going on in front of you. You know what I mean? So they had a big 15-year advantage, and they were very revolutionary, whereas Jersey Mike's was like, hey, we make good sandwiches.

And they were slowly, slowly expanding. But now I think we're at the point where that's not as important to us, especially because Subway's quality has kind of gone down. It's like what we see with— Well, not anymore. I mean, their quality is pretty good. The quality of their individual parts, pretty damn delicious. I could do without the bread, though. Which Subway did we get this from?

Is this the Subway closest to us? Yes. No way! Yeah, it is. Dude, they used to really be struggling. Yeah, I remember. There were times when you'd go into— We're not going to tell you which Subway because we don't want no one finding us.

No, they know. They know. But, like, I'm saying you walk into any restaurant, a fast food restaurant chain, and a lot of the quality is going to be based on the individual franchisee. That's correct. Right? Yes. They say McDonald's is never in the restaurant business.

McDonald's is in the real estate business because they were buying real estate and they were renting it out to people who would actually own and operate it. That's how all of these fast food restaurants work. 100%. A really interesting thing about Jersey Mike's. So Jersey Mike's does franchise and their big expansion is due to franchisees. But there's something called the Franchisee Confidence Index. That is basically like you got all of these tenants, right, who are the people making the corporation money.

Sometimes they get a little pissed off. And then that's really bad for business. So you have to keep franchisee confidence super high. And McDonald's had like a historically bad problem with it. Really? Especially when they were trying to do all day breakfast. Because then you have to retrain people and you have to reissue supply lines and people aren't sure that it's going to work because 7-Eleven had a really bad problem with it

because they were like, we want fun, inventive food items. And every 7-Eleven owner was like, we make money off of liquor, lottery tickets, and cigarettes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's all we want. The food is auxiliary, yeah. Jersey Mike's Peter Cancro is the one who bought the original Mike's Subs in, I believe, 1974 when he was like 18 years old. And he has been the CEO running it. He started appearing in ads lately.

Seems like a good dude Peter I got a lot of respect for what you do when they were doing like a sort of revamp of the brand right

they paid for a $75,000 remodel for every franchisee location just from corporate money you know that's incredible

and in contracts you generally say like hey if there are costs that corporate wants to do you have to consume it right no they paid for everybody and apparently everyone was talking about his generosity and in an interview he was like thank you one but two it's a really good business decision of course he's like we can make it happen fast we could increase same

store sales yeah think about it like you're investing in your business that's just gonna go up and up and up and up and up Try the Jersey Mike's up. Okay. Tell me about this up Jersey Mike's cold cuts What exactly is in this? Let me tell you it's so much heavier. It's so much heavier than subway Original Italian this has provolone ham prosciutti capicolo salami and pepperoni more meats also the bread looks gorgeous dude look at the difference for people that cannot see this or listening to audio my god the subway sandwich looks like david compared to the Jersey Mike's Goliath.

There is three times the meat in this Jersey Mike's sandwich. I just choked on my own saliva because I'm so excited to eat this. It's also Mike's way. The meat Mike's way. You get the juice on it. They got that at Subway as well. But the bread at Jersey Mike's holds up so much better. It smells better.

The meat is sliced thinner. Thin, paper thin. I could read the newspaper through it. Dang. Oh, my. This is going to be a one-horse race, isn't it? Not good. What a good, good sandwich.

Delicious. Look at that. Look at that. Stunning. There's oregano everywhere. Everywhere. The vinegariness from the red wine vin from the Mike's Way juice. Wow.

Is permeating everything. But the bread is just so sturdy. And the way that an Italian sub bread should be for me, right? It should be. Bread, when you're having an Italian sub sandwich, your bread needs to stand up to all of the massive amount of ingredients you're putting on it. There is so much stuff in here and it all works. And also, one of the most impressive things for me for any fast food restaurant is the ability to make it not taste like fast food.

It's delicious. Right? This would be like if you went to a local sub shop. Subway has been marred by the inextricable taste of Subway, right? Subway always tastes like Subway. Subway always tastes like Subway. Even if it's good Subway. Taco Bell is always going to taste like Taco Bell, right? True. You'd never ever talk about Taco when thinking of Subway, right? Subway always tastes like Subway. Subway always tastes like Subway. Even if it's good Subway. Taco Bell is always going to taste like Taco Bell, right?

True. You'd never ever talk about Taco and think it's from anywhere else. That's true. Same as a Subway sandwich. This could be from a local deli. This pepperoni is so good. Am I just a fan of pepperoni?

Maybe I am. The salami is thick. Yeah, see the salami and the pepperoni is thick, but the ham is so thin. As it should be. Look at this. And there's so much of it. You mean to tell me that they're slicing this on a little machine? Diaphanously thin ham, Nicole. Josh, I want to...

That is the most diaphanous ham I've ever seen. Oscar De La Renta is going to make a new dress out of this. Real gabagool. Oh my gosh. Dude, this is fun. I like eating like this with you. Here's a fun thing about Jersey Mike's, right? Yeah, what? I think Subway has tried to compete recently with their Subway series. So we ordered this sandwich.

We just told them to put this stuff on it. We're like, yeah, put all the veggies in, get some oil, some bin, all that stuff. But now they have this list of like 12 signature sandwiches where the idea is that you don't customize it. It is what it is. The idea is that Subway has customized it for you with the help of all their celebrity influencer friends. You don't have to think about it. You just click a click. Which is to say that's how most sub sandwich shops have gone. That's how Jersey Mike's is, right? Right. But that was like antithetical. This is a repositioning of what people want in a sandwich. Yeah. Whereas the Subway used to be fun where it was like, hey, I get to pick every

single thing. Yeah. And now people like just give me a good damn sandwich. Yeah. They're trying to optimize, you know, they don't want people don't want to hang out in a subway that long anymore. How can this compete? How can Subway compete with Jersey Mike's? Like, I want you to put on your business girl. You're leaning in. You're like, what's what's her name? Sheryl Sandberg.

You're Sheryl Sandberg. You're sitting at the Facebook executive table. the Facebook executive table, and they didn't give priority parking to pregnant women, and you're going to tell them off about how their practices are hostile towards female employees, and you're leaning at the table, and you're telling them how Subway can possibly compete

with the greatness of Jersey Mike's. They can't. But what do they do? Like, honestly, what do they do? They just have manpower. They have the iconicism of Subway. That's what they have. And that's all that they can do.

The product isn't the same. It's just not. It's comparing apples to oranges. The quality of Jersey Mike's is next level compared to Subway. This is like McDonald's trying to compete with Shake Shack. No. You don't think so? I don't agree.

I don't agree with that comparison at all. Like McDonald's can never have, like Shake Shack is cooking, is smashing their burgers fresh, right? McDonald's can just never compete with that. They don't have the Martin's potato rolls. They don't have this new school energy of expansion. McDonald's, like Subway, is so entrenched in its

own ways. It's cubic zirconia and diamonds. God dang. But, but, but. That's the comparison I'm going for. There's a reason people buy cubic zirconia. Because it looks, and for all intents and purposes, is a diamond. It's cheaper. Is this even cheaper anymore, though? Is Subway even cheaper?

Mm-mm. They're like the same price point. Dang. Which is insane to me as well. Man, I wanted to find some sort of value in Subway. And like. It's convenient because there's. They're everywhere. It's like Starbucks.

It's like there's one on every corner. There's so many in the United States and around the world. It's so funny how COVID changed everything. Right. Apparently Jersey. Sure did. Jersey Mike's was one of the first to jump on the third party delivery apps. Do you.

I just realized when I was reading about this. I don't remember what delivery apps were like before COVID. I surely use them. I remember using Postmates. I wasn't, I like never had it on my phone. No, me neither. I never had delivery apps on my phone, like by design, because I knew if I did, I would be obsessed with it and I would really waste too much money. Same. I mean, I would, I would call local pizza shops. I'd call if I ever wanted Chinese takeout or whatever. I would do that, but I don't even like ordering food for delivery. But looking back, like the fast food restaurants weren't on it. No.

You know? Taste the cheese. Freshly sliced provolone is, oh my God, it's like perfectly nutty. And then try this. Okay. It's insane. Wait. Cheese to cheese. The provolone from Jersey Mike's is so good.

It is like nutty and smooth and melts in your mouth. It's also softer. The one from... It's a little plasticine. It's a little processy. Yeah, plasticine. Forming relationships with new suppliers, man. That's where Jersey Mike's gets you.

Their cheese? Nuts. Nuts, Jersey Mike's. The appeal of Subway, the reason to me, the reason I ate them every single day in high school is because they were there and i was out and about yep it was five dollars that's right that's the only thing and it was it was perfectly satisfying if it really sucked i wouldn't have gotten it but i could put my mustard on i could put my chipotle southwest on it that's right you put that on anything with some crunchy vegetables and some sort of meat pup yeah and like i'm gonna

have a pretty good time sure the point is it was there and available. Now, through pho, I'm so sorry, it's a lot of salami burps coming up. It tastes like salami and coconut LaCroix. That's what I call dessert. But Subway relied on foot traffic. You see 37,000 restaurants around the world. You just walk around, you see a Subway,

you go, I know exactly what I'm getting. And then you do it. Jersey Mike, strategic location placement. They're in malls next to optometry. Yeah. There's a really famous story about Panera opening next to Target's. Whatever new Target. There was like this perfect sort of synergy.

Right. Where people who have the class signifiers of going to a Target as opposed to something like a Walmart are also people who would want to pay $8 for a broccoli cheddar bread bowl and a lemonade that kills you. You know? I just can't wrap my head around. I don't know why I'm such a hater. A Panera? Yeah. It's not my kind of—I never just want like a cup of fast food soup.

I never want soup, period. I live in L.A. What am I going to have soup? I don't want soup. It's my whole day. My whole day is soup. That's true. You know, I eventize soup.

Yeah, me too. I don't take soup. I'm hungover. I want some pho or like I want to get a big cooking project. Chicken noodle. I'm at a Jewish deli. Yeah, that's the thing. Something like that.

I never want casual. It's just like Subway just has soup. Also like bread or what is it? Broccoli and cheddar? Is that what it is? I never understood it. You know, I made my own broccoli cheddar soup once. Yeah?

It was really like recently. So did everyone else. That wasn't like in the last 30 years of me cooking. I feel like every person has ever done that. Well, that's what I'm saying. It's a very, like, old school thing that I wouldn't typically. But then one day I was like, I really want to make, like, a very good play on, like, a broccoli cheddar soup. It was kind of like a cream of broccoli, like, fully emulsified, strained, all that.

Just, like, cheddar crisp on top. It was really, really nice. But, like. Roasted broccoli on top. But I don't need that, you know? I don't need, like, these creamy, hearty soups. I'm an L.A. girl. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. You're an broccoli on top. But I don't need but I don't need that you know I don't need I don't need like these creamy hearty soups. I'm an L.A. girl like you know what I mean?

Yeah yeah. You're an L.A. girl. You've never just gotten you've never just gotten a sandwich from Subway and then dunked it into the broccoli cheddar soup? They have soup at Subway?

Yo they sure do. I never got the soups I was always a cookie girl. I would always get the cookie. The raspberry one? Yeah yeah yeah. And then one time I went to Subway in downtown

and then I saw a bug crawling on it and I never got a cookie ever again. That's tough. That's tough. You know what I miss about Subway? They used to have honey oat bread. And that was a single greatest. Do they not have the honey oat anymore? No, it's regular oat now.

What? They took the honey out of the oat? We used to be a country. We used to be a proper country, Nicole. Listen, my friend would get Italian herbs and cheese and I would get honey oat and then we'd do a split skis and then we would have half of the oat? We used to be a country. We used to be a proper country, Nicole. Listen, my friend would get Italian herbs and cheese, and I would get honey oat, and then we'd do a split skis, and then we would have half of the sandwich and the other half of the sandwich, and, you know, perfect harmony. I want to pitch something for the podcast, because right now I've just been eating sheets of ham. You can probably hear it. I like your finger, the way you're holding your fingers.

I've been eating sheets of ham off this sandwich periodically over the last 20 minutes of this podcast. And it's, I think, really fueling me to great things. Maggie, can we just get a ham bucket on the side for every podcast so I can eat sheets of ham? Josh, it's like we're at a French salon and this is our charcuterie board. And we're just bouncing off of ideas of one another. Okay, the reason we got the Italian sandwiches from both is because, to me, that's where I thought Subway could compete, right? I want to try their new sliced meats. You try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Because if you were to get something like a cheesesteak, right? The cheesesteak from Jersey Mike's, it ain't like a classic Philly. It ain't a Dallas Sandro's cheesesteak. You know, it ain't Tony Luke's, you know. It certainly ain't Woodrow's Sandwich Shop. Definitely ain't no Angelo's.

I know all of them. Not even a John's Rose Pork, not at Jim's. Anyways, if you get a cheesesteak from Jersey Mike's, it's a pretty freaking good fast food cheesesteak. I don't get the hot sandwiches from Jersey Mike's. You should try them. No. They bang. No.

Nicole, they bang. Oh, you think the cheesesteaks from Jersey Mike's doesn't bang? Eat that and then have a steak and cheese from Subway. There's something about the hot sandwiches there that I can't do. What do you mean? I have, there's a block. But would you get a hot sandwich from Subway? No, but I would totally buy it.

You've never gotten a meatball marinara with pepperoni, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and olives? No, I've never had a meatball sub from there. That is a disgusting guilty pleasure that I love give me the chipotle southwest sauce fully dressed with the vegetables plus hot meatball marina with the peps with the pepperoni oh my gosh no yeah well that is I guess one uh feature of subway that I still enjoy is you can go absolutely goblin mode and you can be completely fine with that that's a very good point. Maybe that's where their core competencies lie.

You can just, well, one time, what, Trevor got a pickle sandwich? Yeah, just a sandwich with a bunch of pickles and they'll do that for you. Subway, maybe. They look at you weird, but they'll do it. Yeah, but they don't care enough. They're getting paid minimum wage for a franchisee

that probably doesn't have any confidence in corporate Subway. They'll do whatever you want. Subway, Nicole, is the last lawless land of the American food West. You can walk into a Subway and you can do whatever you want. And I kind of love that. Wow. Maybe they should change their slogan to Subway.

You can do whatever you want. Yeah. Subway, utter lawlessness, become ungovernable, let chaos reign. Imagine, wait, wait, wait, this is great. What was that meme? Nun pizza, what is it? Nun pizza left beef. Subway is the nun pizza left beef of the sandwich world.

Put cookies in your sandwich, drench it in the soup. Do you know what they should do? Do you know what they should do for April Fool's Day? This is a free marketing tip. I'm eating the ham at the salon with josh they gotta do like a meme like like a meme order like you can order an all pickle sub you can order cookies in your sub you could order soup inside of your sub they need to do that and watch how many freaking articles are going to write about it you're going to be twitter famous. Sorry. Who's coming for

Jersey Mike's right now? Who do you think this sandwich has impressed the hell out of me? Well, I don't really care for, uh, I don't really care

for Quiznos. Quiznos is done. Quiznos, bankruptcy, they're still out there floundering about. But Quiznos is done. Togo's not big enough. They're done.

The only competitors out there, Jimmy John's, which their thing was delivery. I remember you could get a Jimmy John's which their thing was delivery I remember you could get a Jimmy John's sub

delivered within like 15 minutes they were the dominoes no way I was at the Albuquerque Convention Center shout out to the Dirty Kirky

can you go like this I'm not wiping my face you have one fleck on your lip can I be honest it's the oil and vinegar actually lubing up my lips so I can talk faster

which is great I'm in the Dirty Kirky competing just through a PR in the 35-pound indoor weight throw for UCLA. And I was hungry. I'm at the convention center. I call up a Jimmy John's. They had like a sandwich. And they're like, all right, man, we'll find you. What's your address?

I'm like, I'm at the convention center. Like, that's a big place. And I was like, well, we'll figure it out. Dude calls me and he's like, I'll find you. Where are you? And I'm like, I think I'll figure it out. Dude calls me and he's like, I'll find you. Where are you? And I'm like, I think I'm at the south end, whatever. Dude rolls up on a skateboard and like throws a sandwich to me and skates away in like 12 minutes. Wow.

And I was just adding minutes to that. How old were you? How old were you? 20. So this would have been a decade ago. 10 years ago? Yeah, yeah. This is the quality service that we all expect.

100%. I love that. I love that. That's gone the way of the dodo. I want more skateboard couriers. I want more skateboard couriers. I want my Neal Stephenson snow crash ideal out there.

I want my sandwich delivered on a tuk-tuk. But the point is these apps, Nicole, these faceless apps, they've destroyed that. Destroyed. They've destroyed that.

I hate apps. I think Jimmy John's got by on their skateboarding couriers. I love apps. And I think Jimmy John's now by on their skateboarding couriers. I love Abs. And I think Jimmy John's now, that everything's run through DoorDash, Postmates, Uber Eats, all that, like, Jimmy John's is just going to have unfettered access to the entire world. Firehouse

Subs is the only one that can compete, and I think they just are a worse Jersey Mike's. You know, I went to Bay Cities the other day, which is a famed Santa Monica sub shop, and let me tell you, this bread isn't exactly the same. It's very close. But it's very close.

And that's a big deal. Man. They're doing good work. I love it. I feel like we're watching that friend that you always thought was going to succeed in life, and then things didn't quite go their way. And now they're on their second act, you know, with Subway. They're like, God, I hope they get their life together.

Like they wanted to be like, like give me an example of like their job. Like they really wanted to be like the world's greatest, I don't know, like jazz dancer. No, no, no, not that, not that. The opposite, the opposite, the opposite. The one who wanted to be like a CEO. And then they got out of college and they started working in like finance. And they're like, I manage $200 million portfolio for the JPMU and whatever. And I have no idea what they're saying.

Yeah, yeah. I never do. I never do. And then three years later, they're like, hey, man, I'm starting my own company. Like, dude, told you, man. John was going to make it. And then like you see three years later and they're like starting a GoFundMe. And you're like, oh, shoot, what happened?

Oh, man. You know what I mean? But now they're in their second act. That's what Subway's doing. That's what Subway's doing. They're trying to get back on their feet you know waning enterprise

they've sold off to a private equity firm who's going to try and turn it all around but right now there's such a massive gap in between the Subway and the Jersey Mike's

I can't imagine them ever overcoming it I'm rooting for I'm rooting for the Jersey Mike's of the world bet on the winning horse Jersey Mike's unequivocal winner

man Danny DeVito come on the winning horse. Jersey Mike's unequivocal winner. Man, Danny DeVito, come on the show. Buy a harness. All right, Nicole. We've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find

out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the universe. It's time for a segment we call Opinions Are Like Casseroles!

But before we get to that, we have everybody's favorite segment. That's right, Nicole. We're doing another stunning episode of Review or Review. That's right.

We review one of your Apple Podcast reviews of us. We got five stars from that banana bread titled Funny. They are super funny. they make my day every day smiley emoji. Aww.

That's five stars. That's a five star. That's an easy one right there. Five stars, baby. We like those ones. We like the long rambling ones that get weird so give us five stars and are complimentary. We don't like the mean ones. Don't leave the mean ones. Have you heard of that I got some banana bread today dude? Dude, I got some banana bread today dude dude i

got some banana bread i feel like that's a deep covid meme i think that's the banana bread that's the banana bread they're talking about well you learn something new every day that's right hi nicole and josh hi um i had a question about something that's kind of controversial in my house. And this is going to sound kind of weird, but rice pudding. And I want to know if rice pudding is better hot or cold. I personally prefer the rice pudding cold, kind of like the Indian style kheer, which is one of my favorite desserts. But some other people in my family prefer it warm. And I wanted to know what you think. Love the podcast.

Bye. I'm laughing because cure means something else in Farsan. Does it mean fart? Does it mean fart? No, that's goose. Gaz. Goose? Goosu. That's fart. Josh is goose. I'm learning. Cure means

****. That's a good, no, I feel like cure's not as good a word for it. Cure means... That's a good... No, I feel like cure's not as good a word for it. Cure's too sharp of a word. So when she said like a hot cure or a cold cure, I started laughing. Rice pudding. I used to love rice pudding. I used to be a big fan of it.

The cozy... The cozy... Cozy shack. European style rice pudding. That was the yellowower one right i loved it and i would always have a cold but like sometimes i would go out and like have cure and then i'm sorry i hate you right now like at an indian restaurant and like it was warm and it was delicious yeah this i don't think there's any good rhyme or reason for either of these.

I think this is pure personal preference. And I think there are equal amounts of good hot rice puddings as there are cold rice puddings. Personally, I agree with you. If I'm eating pudding, I want it like ice cold. I want it refreshing. Kind of like that. But you look at like arroz con leche in Mexico, generally served hot. And it's not quite a pudding pudding because I don't believe there's dairy in it typically.

No, it is. Leche is dairy. What am I talking about? But there's not like a thickener. Like the thickening comes from the rice. I see. The most arroz con leche I've had is like a little bit thinner than, you know, It depends on who's making it.

Sure, sure, sure. But typically eaten warm. I would always prefer it cold. The Vietnamese, I'd call it a pudding, but jia, it is either served hot or cold. You go to a restaurant and they'll ask you, do you want it hot or cold? Nice. We had berber cha.

Berber cha, yeah, the Malaysian dessert. Malaysian dessert. It was sago pearls and coconut milk. You can have it hot or cold. Very pudding-y. This is pure personal preference, which is great. Do you like raisins in your rice pudding? If it's like meant to have raisins, yeah. Sometimes I like like sultanas.

I love a good sultana. It's a golden raisin, yeah? Yeah. Yeah, I love it. I'm just a huge rice pudding fan. I'm a huge porridge fan in general. Do you like tapioca pudding? I love all forms of pudding and I think they all have equal merit.

I used to love tapioca pudding when I was a kid. I love, oh, just egg custards. I think this is pure personal preference. I just like custardy foods. Yeah, same. Same. Enjoy it. Let your partners enjoy it.

You can give them good-natured ribbing about it, you know, but really it's pure personal preference, and there's no good case for a good-natured ribbing. You've never heard of a good-natured ribbing? Like to rib somebody. It's like to give them to talk guff, to talk smack. Oh, okay. You know, good-natured ribbing. It's not sensual. Hi, Josh.

Hi, Nicole. Hi, potential guest as well. My name is Rich. I'm from good old Landrum, South Carolina. Go Cardinals. I'm not a team player. Actually, I am on the March of Man. Go Cardinal Pride. Anyway, my opinion

casserole is that sesame seeds are one of the best snacks. And you're probably wondering, like, with anything else? Nope. Just by themselves. I'm literally eating a Burger King burger as we speak. And I spend like 15 minutes just picking out the seeds and eating them one by one.

And they're so good. I wish I could try it. Legit. I may die, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Love the pod. Love you guys. Mwah. Au revoir.

Aw. I grabbed the key. Au revoir. South Carolina is grabbed the key. Au revoir. South Kakalaki is in the house. And who the hell are the Cardinals? University of South Carolina is the Gamecocks. Clemson's the other big university there. They're the Tigers.

He's on the marching band. I know, but who is this? South Carolina State? I don't know. Don't ask me. Can you look up South Carolina Cardinals somewhere out there? My mom has always been a sesame seed girly. When we would go out to sushi, she would, you know, pour sesame seeds.

Are you even paying attention? No, I'm trying to figure out where the Cardinals are in South Carolina. Basket. There's a USA, but what is that? Okay, your mom's sesame seed girly. I'm sorry. You have my attention. You know how, like, they have, like, little, like, not plates, but, like, ramekins of sesame seeds?

She's like, can I have extra sesame seeds? And then she would do this thing where she would put her tongue on it. And then she'd go like this. And then I would do it. And I go, so it's like a cute, nostalgic thing. And I love sesame seeds. And I still sometimes do that when I go out. I go. Yeah, I love that. I agree. If I have the extra sesame seeds in the little tiny, like four ounce deli cup, yeah, I'll just snack on them. But why do I not just sit down to watch TV and just like dip my tongue in sesame seeds? I don't know. I also like dipping my tongue in sprinkles. Yeah, very similar vibes. Why don't we eat sprinkles plain? Because it's really sugary. Sure, but we eat a lot of sugary things plain. Yeah, I don't know. I just don't like use,

sprinkles aren't a snack. The sesame seed question begets the notion of how small is too small for a seed to be a snack. Because sunflower seeds, people snack on them all the time. I love sunflower seeds. Mini chocolate chips do that. Yeah. Okay. Poppy seeds? Poppy seeds.

Now, that's too small. Sesame seeds are bigger than a poppy seed. Yeah. And that's better. Poppy seeds also, to me, don't have a good flavor. Sesame seeds do. Chia seeds. Chia seeds willpy seed. Yeah. And that's better. Poppy seeds also, to me, don't have a good flavor. Sesame seeds do. Chia seeds. Chia seeds will evacuate your bowels.

What? I love chia seeds. You didn't hear about this thing on TikTok called the internal shower? Yes. Uh-huh. Is that just detox water with chia seeds? Yeah, it was literally just eat too many chia seeds. Anyways, snacking on sesame seeds.

Fence setter. I love that this person just gave us permission to do that. You know? We've always had permission, but the doors were opened due to this listener. Correct. He gave us the gentle nudge

to get out there and finally do it. Free will, baby. You got it. Hear me out. This is a little crazy, but if I were to dip my little finger

in like a teriyaki sauce or an eel sauce, something like that, wet it, dip that into the sesame seeds, suck it off. I like... I could do that for hours.

See, no, there's something about lifting the cup up and just stamping your tongue on it that I really like. I don't know. I'm going to want to wet finger it. I'm a tongue stamper.

I'm a wet finger. She's a tongue stamper. Still, you know, we figure out how to see each other right off. That's fascinating. But great job, Rich. Man, South Carolina, still innovating. That's fascinating. But great job, Rich. Man, South Carolina

is still innovating. Hey, Josh. Hey, Nicole. Hey, girl. Okay, so my question for you guys is how many times can you reheat

a food item? Let's say pizza, for example. My mom is convinced that you can only reheat it once. I convinced that you can only reheat it once. I think that you can put the pizza in the refrigerator more than once and reheat it multiple times. What's your opinion on it?

How many times is it acceptable to reheat a food item before it goes bad? Thanks. Is it acceptable to reheat a food item before it goes bad? Thanks. So are we talking about like, I have three slices of pizza. I reheat all of them. I only eat one slice. The other two are going back in the fridge.

I believe that. I do it again. I eat one slice of pizza. It's like a weird SAT logic question. No, you cannot do it. You're saying you can only reheat it once. You should only reheat it once. There's probably instances where you can reheat it twice,

but that's the limit. What are you worried about? Are you talking loss in quality? Because pizza, you'll get loss in quality pretty fast. No, I think it's like a... My phone fell out of my... What the heck, dude?

My phone fell out of my... Where are fell out my where are you stashing your phone under my thigh you're just putting it right in the tank yeah like you're incubating a penguin egg yeah um what was i saying oh yeah i know it's not a quality thing i feel like it's like a microwave thing what do you mean like mean? Like you want to avoid absorbing the microwaves because it's causing infertility or brain cancer or whatever they said it would?

I don't believe there's validity to that. I don't care. There is a real safety issue at play. But again, when it comes to food safety, I think there's a lot of, I eat from a lot of street vendors, you know,

that salsa sit in a room temp outside for about nine hours and I'm perfectly fine with that despite the fact that you would have experts say that it's in the, quote, danger zone. Yeah. You know what I mean? And so I'm perfectly fine with that. But what happens when you reheat food and then you bring it back down to put it in the fridge, there is a range of temperatures that you never want food to be at in theory. Yeah.

Right. Which is I don't know, it's like above 40 degrees between 40 and like 90 or something. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's 36 degrees. It's something like that. But basically like food at room temperature is when bacteria, bacteria doesn't like cold and bacteria doesn't like hot.

Yeah. But it loves the middle zone. So if you're imagining you get a hot pizza that you're putting into a fridge, then you're watching that bacteria stay in that middle ground zone between the time that it's hot and it's cold. Yeah. You know, but then you reheat it. It's back to hot.

You're putting that back in the fridge. You're sort of tripling your exposure rate to that bacteria. Yeah. It's a bacteria thing more than like a microwave thing, I guess. Sure. But, and then if you're reheating it, as far as quality goes, you're dehydrating it more and more because that's the essence. Whatever.

When you're hungry and you want leftovers, you don't really. Quality isn't like the main. Leftovers, you're not eating for quality. I agree. I'm a person who does dangerous things. I don't know. Okay. You're dangerous, Madeline.

Someone's middle name is Evil Knievel over here. No, but I mean, you know, when it comes to food, it's like go at your own risk. Sure. There's some people who are like, I'll never eat at another person's house because I don't know what they're doing. I'll eat at anybody's house. I'll eat,

a stranger on the food offers me a half-eaten hot dog. If it's going to be a good hot dog, I'm going to eat it because that's my relationship with food. That's my relationship with trust and risk. Sure. I don't think I'd eat

someone's half-eaten hot dog on the street. I mean, that's, you know, a bit of an extreme example. I did. This is a bad idea. I was walking into a bar and there was a random dude coming out of the bar and he was holding his drink and the bouncer was like, dude, you can't just take that on the street. And he goes, all right, and just hands it to me.

And he goes, drink it. And I go, okay. And I drank it. It's not good. It's not a good idea. And I asked the bouncer, I was like, hey, that guy probably wouldn't have drugged that drink, right? And the bouncer's like, nah, he's a regular.

Even if he did, we'd know who he is okay so i'm like great point is individual risk assessment what a life some people aren't great at it i take risks but like other kinds of risks not drinking from strangers glasses i thrive i am living that one time and i got mono oh they're really bad mono i had to be hospitalized i'm not locked in here with them they're locked in here with me. I am the chaos agent. So if there's a pizza. That's a very high assumption of yourself.

What? You're responsible for chaos? No, I mean, like, I just, you know what I mean? I don't know. I'm the chaos guy. Sometimes I don't operate within the same bounds. That's why we're talking about food safety. Some people get mad at me, but I'm just like, I've eaten chicken sashimi from restaurants,

you know, and it just doesn't taste very good. So when it comes to reheating pizza, you are increasing the amount of risk. But also I have woken up, found a pizza that's been laying out at room temp for 24 hours and gone, I want it and I've eaten it and I'm fine. I'm still here. I also have never had any foodborne diseases or illness, despite the fact that I am at increased exposure to it through my lifestyle.

You've never thrown up from food. I've thrown up from food, but I've never had like a, if you're worried about just throwing up from food, God, you can throw up from a lot of things, you know? Yeah, I don't have like a phobia of throwing up. I just don't like throwing up. The fear to me with food safety isn't like, oh, I had a little tummy hurt. Surely you want to avoid that. It's not the most pleasant thing. But the fear is you're getting something like listeria, salmonella, campylobacter, norovirus, and you're hospitalized.

That's scary. At risk of death. You know what I mean? I've never had anything close to that. Well, you've had food poisoning. Yeah. Yeah. God, I've had oysters from shopping carts.

You know, I'm totally fine with that. Yeah. You know, that's the risk I run, and I've gotten in a lot of joy about—I've gotten a lot of joy through food that more than makes up for the amount that I get the tummy gurgles the next day. That's beautiful. So that's my closing statements on food safety. And if you want to be featured on Opinions.Casseroles, give us a ring and leave a quick message at 833.pod1. Anyone can poison you.

Remember that it was the Advil or Tylenol bottles back in the 80s? Yeah. Do you want me to read your part too? Yeah, read my part. And on that note, thank you for listening to Hot Dog and Sandwich. We got new audio-only episodes every Wednesday and a video version

right here on YouTube every Sunday. People just deliberately poisoning Thailand. Like, you know, the world is almost random. For more Mythical Kitchen, check out our other videos.

We launch new episodes every week. We'll see you next time. And this stuff is about like population scale stuff, right? So when they're like, hey, cook your burgers to 160, it's so an entire population doesn't get sick.

But on the actual individual level, I mean, if you're increasing your chances from 0.001% to 0.002%, that isn't nearly as meaningful. When you extrapolate that over the course of millions of people, then yeah, we're talking strains in the healthcare system. But, and Nicole's lost interest. Well, see ya.