by Jeanne Yacoubou, MS
\nVRG Research Director<\/p>\n
April 15, 2011 – Begun in April 2010 at approximately fifty Subway™ Chicago locations, the successful falafel test menu item will be offered "in a few weeks" at all Illinois Subway™ stores according to the Subway™ regional office in Chicago. Falafel is a Middle Eastern food made principally with garbanzo beans.<\/p>\n
According to the regional Subway™ office in Chicago, the falafel patty itself is all-vegetable. As is customary, it may be ordered on any bread product offered at Subway™.<\/p>\n
The all-vegetable falafel "puck," identified as such by Zaibak Brothers and Company™, the family-owned Chicago manufacturer of the falafel test item, arrives "flash frozen and 80% cooked" at Subway™ locations according to the regional Chicago Subway™ office. The cooking process is completed in a TurboChef™ oven separate from all egg and meat products. Pucks are placed on specially designed paper intended for one-time use and heated until crispy on the outside and "fluffy and moist" on the inside. Three pucks come on a six-inch sub; six on a foot-long. Now, in Chicago stores, a foot-long falafel sub is offered for $5.00.<\/p>\n
The falafel sandwich is served with a cucumber sauce that contains dairy. Patrons may request the Fat Free Sweet Onion Sauce that is an all-vegetable sauce available at Subway™. Tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and olive oil are standard at all Subway™ stores and may be selected as condiments for the falafel menu item.<\/p>\n
The VRG is very pleased that Subway™, which now is the leader among all restaurant chains, including McDonald's™, in terms of number of store locations, offers a "non-traditional" menu item that is a favorite among many vegetarians and vegans. This is not surprising for Subway™ given its non-traditional tendencies. In fact, according to a March 2011 Wall Street Journal article, Subway™ regularly opens outlets in non-traditional locations such as an automobile showroom in California; an appliance store in Brazil; a ferry terminal in Seattle; a riverboat in Germany; and a Goodwill store in South Carolina. Currently, approximately one-fourth of Subway locations are in non-traditional locations.<\/p>\n
Mr. Don Fertman, Subway’s™ Chief Development Officer, stated, “The non-traditional is becoming traditional.” With the falafel sandwich, Subway™ is non-traditional in a fast food\/quick service chain food sense, too. With time and customer support, the "non-traditional' falafel can become "traditional" fast food\/quick service chain fare. For more information on quick service chains, see<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.vrg.org\/fastfoodinfo.htm#subway_article<\/a> by Jeanne Yacoubou, MS VRG Research Director April 15, 2011 – Begun in April 2010 at approximately fifty Subway™ Chicago locations, the successful falafel test menu item will be offered "in a few weeks" at all Illinois Subway™ stores according to the Subway™ regional office in Chicago. Falafel is a Middle Eastern food made principally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1702"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1763,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions\/1763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTo show support for this sandwich, and to encourage Subway™ to adopt is as part of its standard menu, purchase this item when in an Illinois Subway™ and encourage your Midwest friends and family to do so. Become a friend of Subway™ falafel on Facebook and post a favorable comment requesting that it become a permanent menu item: http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/group.php?gid=144712849001&v=wall#!\/group.php?gid=144712849001&v=info<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.vrg.org\/fastfoodinfo.htm<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.vrg.org\/vote\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"