Sponsored By

Firehouse Subs introduces low-calorie menuFirehouse Subs introduces low-calorie menu

Six sandwiches, four salads are each under 500 calories

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

April 21, 2014

3 Min Read
Nation's Restaurant News logo in a gray background | Nation's Restaurant News
Captain Sorensen’s Datil Pepper Grilled Chicken

Firehouse Subs has made the biggest change to its menu in nearly 20 years with the introduction of a new line of low-calorie items.

The “Hearty & Flavorful, Under 500 Calories menu” is comprised of six new sandwiches and four salads, all with fewer than 500 calories. The menu has been rolled out at all of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based chain’s 748 locations in 41 states, and its 10 units in Puerto Rico.

The new sandwiches, which founders Chris and Robin Sorensen spent more than a year developing, contain the same amount of meat as the chain’s other sandwiches.  Shrinking the bun size and using lighter cheeses and light mayonnaise cut calories, the company said.

RELATED
How Firehouse Subs plans to comply with new health care mandates
Genghis Grill introduces tablets, new menu items
More restaurant menu news

The new items fit into two growing menu trends of offering lower calorie items and focusing on protein.

The new sandwiches are:

• Sriracha Beef: Roast beef, Monterey Jack cheese, Sriracha sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion and light mayonnaise, served on a light wheat roll, $5.69

• Hook & Ladder Light: Smoked turkey breast, Virginia honey ham, Monterey Jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, deli mustard and light mayonnaise, served on a light wheat roll, $5.69

Momma’s Homemade Chicken Salad

• Turkey Salsa Verde: Smoked turkey breast, Monterey Jack cheese, salsa verde, lettuce, tomato, onion and light mayonnaise, served on a light wheat roll, $5.69

• Captain Sorensen’s Datil Pepper Grilled Chicken: Grilled chicken, Monterey Jack cheese, Captain Sorensen’s Datil Pepper Sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion and light mayonnaise, served on a light wheat roll, $5.99

• Turkey & Cranberry: Smoked turkey breast, Monterey Jack cheese, cranberry spread, lettuce, tomato, onion and light mayonnaise, served on a light wheat roll, $5.69.

• Momma’s Homemade Chicken Salad: Chicken salad, pecans, Swiss cheese, tomato and light mayonnaise, served on a light wheat roll, $5.99.

The new salads replace Firehouse Subs’ Chief Salad, similar to a chef’s salad but with a firehouse-themed name. The new salads are:

Firehouse Salad

• Firehouse Salad: Romaine lettuce, tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, mozzarella cheese, pepperoncini, Kalamata olives and light Italian dressing, $5.49

• Italian with Grilled Chicken: The Firehouse Salad, plus salami and grilled chicken, $7.49

• Hook & Ladder Salad: The Firehouse Salad with smoked turkey breast and Virginia honey ham, $7.49

• Momma’s Homemade Chicken Salad: The Firehouse Salad with a scoop of chicken salad with pecans, $7.49.

Firehouse Subs has been on a growth spurt in recent years. It operated or franchised 569 units in the United States at the end of 2012, and 712 units at the end of 2013.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

Read more about:

Firehouse Subs

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality.

Hi is responsible for spotting and reporting on F&B trends across the country for both publications. 

He is the co-host of a podcast, Menu Talk with Pat and Bret, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities, and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

Subscribe Nation's Restaurant News Newsletters
Get the latest breaking news in the industry, analysis, research, recipes, consumer trends, the latest products and more.

You May Also Like