SEPTEMBER 6, 1989
Grand Forks has two Subways running along Washington Street, and I decided I should get with it and try them out.
I went into the South Washington Street Subway last Wednesday to check it out. I saw my friend Stephanie Brodeur sitting there with her dad, Dave. Stephanie was starting school this week at Sacred Heart, so after talking about that with her, I moseyed up to the counter. It was then I realized that ordering in the Subway calls for decisions, decisions, decisions. After looking over the list of subway sandwiches, I settled on a super club.
Whole wheat or French bread? Six-inch or foot-long? Mayo or mustard? Extra cheese? Vegetables? You want to eat here or is this to go? It took me a while to get with it. I felt like a klutz. Then I realized that all the fixings are free, and you just move along and tell the attendant what you want with it: cheese, onion, lettuce, tomatoes, dill pickles, green peppers, black olives, salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, mustard, mayonnaise, creamy Italian.
Whew!
Now that wasn’t really so hard. Then, when you order your beverage, you just have to specify whether you want a small, medium or large cup. And you can help yourself. When I got my Diet Pepsi and sandwich and napkins and straw, I sat down in a booth and looked around.
Subway is a cheery, yellow place. The booths and the hanging lamps above them are yellow. Along the walls, there are black-and-white reproductions from the New York World, showing scenes from the opening of the New York City subway.
In order to perfect my skill at handling the Subway, I made a second visit on Thursday. This time I went to the Subway at the intersection of North Washington Street and Gateway Drive. Here I found the same decor and the same pattern. I had asked Constant Companion if he wanted to join me, and I felt like an expert as I told him how to order.
After eating a 6-inch sub the first time, I decided to go the salad route Thursday. I ordered a turkey breast salad ($3.39) and CC asked for a 6-inch barbecue beef sub ($2.49). He said it was “kinda good.” My salad was fine. I thought I could do as well at home for less. But the point is, I wouldn’t. I don’t keep shredded lettuce, sliced peppers and tomatoes and black olives all ready to go. Besides, Subway is quick, convenient and fun. It has a following here in Grand Forks. Some customers are card-carrying members of the Subway Sub Club. After they have 11 sandwiches marked off, they are eligible for a free one.
So, who runs Subway anyway, I wondered. I found out the owners are Debbie and Brian Conneran, who are in the process of opening two more Subways in Fargo.
“We’re pioneers,” Debbie said. “We brought the Subway to North Dakota.”
She’s from Florida, and she just loves it here. She says she met Brian in a nightclub in Florida on Feb. 16, 1988. “I took one look at him, and that’s all she wrote,” she says. He is a native of Fishers, Minn., and they were married March 11 of this year in Florida.
“He sent me to Subway School,” she says. For two weeks, she attended classes in the Subway Franchise Headquarters in Milford, Conn. “We had classes all day and got on-the-job training at night,” she says. “It was tough, but if you don’t pass the exam you don’t get the franchise.”
The first Subway started running in Grand Forks more than a year ago, and the second has been running since February. Business is “fabulous,” according to Debbie Conneran. “We couldn’t be happier.”
They get their bread from the franchise headquarters and bake it up fresh every four hours. “It’s always fresh and soft and squishy,” Debbie says.
There are currently ten Subway stores operating in Grand Forks.