Quiznos sandwich experts prepare one of their last Honey Mustard subs in the final days of the Valpo location.
Aaron Dorman
VALPARAISO -- For those gathered at the strip mall on the eastern edge of Valpo, there was no better way to toast a sub.
"There was no other restaurant with a cool toasting machine like that," said Zac Caprous, a Valpo resident who organized a "vigil" for the last Quiznos in the Region, which will be closing this week after 22 years. "It was a gathering place. Quiznos was never afraid to be themselves."
Another attendee put it less eloquently: "It was better than effing Subway, dude."
Caprous sang a song as those gathered lit candles and recalled their favorite sandwich. As regulars said their goodbyes, the past few days have been bittersweet, said manager Staci Bormann, who noted there had been a mad dash to claim the last of Quiznos' signature sauces. In their closing week, they've been selling whole sauce bags, Bormann said, including honey mustard, chili pepper and alfredo.
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I, too, remember Quiznos: while there were a handful in the city in which I grew up, the first time I had a sandwich, sauced up with the unique three-nozzle bottle, was in the Bahamas. I also remember their ad campaign, "there's a better way to toast a sub," including one commercial where a dapper gentleman in a smoking jacket has his butler light up a sandwich as if it's a cigar.
Bormann said her favorite commercial was the singing sponge monkeys.
There are many factors in why a franchise succeeds or fails; Quiznos set itself apart from earlier sub shops with their toasting machine, but may have failed to compete with newer, trendier options like Panera Bread or Potbelly.
Caprous got the idea for the vigil for a similar event lamenting the closing of Applebees in Chesterton in 2016.
I ordered a honey mustard sandwich, and thought it was pretty solid, but by the time I visited Quiznos Monday evening, they had sold out of many ingredients, and thus couldn't prepare some of the staff's favorite items, like the Baja Chicken or Classic Italian sub.
"A lot of people really liked Quiznos," said Kira Otten, a senior at Valparaiso High School. This is Otten's first job and she described it as a "sweet environment" and great team.
"It was fun making the sandwiches," Otten said, "building them, creating them. Some people would come in every day, I'll be sad not to see them for sure."
Another employee, Emalee Greenboam-Berg, said that one couple from Michigan would drive south to order eight large Chicken Carbonara subs at a time, intending to freeze a few since there was no location nearby to them.
Bormann's parents, Nick and Kim Sgouroudis, opened the Quiznos in 2002, back when the east end of the city, now busy with big-box stores, was undeveloped. Bormann herself said she started working at the café when she was 14 (she's 31 now). While Bormann said they were aiming to end on a "high note," she acknowledged the "glory days" of Quiznos are in the past. In the opening years of the sub shop, there would be lines out the door.
Nevertheless, as the restaurant lasted over two decades, it became a "significant" part of the Valparaiso scene, Bormann noted.
"My dad has been here every single day for 22 years," Bormann said. "He put his heart and soul into this. That's a long time. It's cool to know people loved and appreciated our business."
Or, as Caprous sang:
"Baja Chicken, you're a beast
Honey mustard inside me.
Yeah. Yeah."
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Food Scene Reporter
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