The Good: Good Tuesday deal, Good ingredients, Convenient
The Bad: Very basic food/limited menu, Without Tuesday deal it is hardly extraordinary
The Basics: A good place for subs, Jreck Subs is a Tuesday institution!
The more I watch of The Big Bang Theory (season three is reviewed here!) where the obsessive and brilliant Sheldon seeks to keep things normalized through patterns in his life, the more I come to appreciate it. After all, my partner and I have a very regular Chinese buffet we frequent whenever we have a few extra bucks and the desire for a filling meal out, but there are some things I enjoy simply because they are the “Tuesday Thing To Do.” For the last few weeks, the Tuesday Thing To Do for my partner and I has been to go to the Jreck Subs in town for their “Two For Tuesday” deal. Truth be told, we never go there outside that fabulous deal and I cannot justify recommending the chain outside the great economic vantage offered on that one day.
This is not to say Jreck Subs does not have good food, but faced with a great regular deal each week and paying twice as much every other day, I cannot see the point. But given that it is a chainwide offer, I say go for the Tuesday experience and let those obsessed with submarine sandwiches pay more the other days (someone has to keep the chain afloat for us thrifty eaters the rest of the week!).
Location
Jreck Subs seems to be a diminishing chain, almost completely wiped out from the strong advertising of Subway over the last five years. Indeed, in my neck of the woods, there is only one that is still open (ironically in the same plaza as a Subway) and there are four that stand empty in other plazas around. I know of only four in Upstate New York that are still open, so this appears to be a chain in decline.
I'm not entirely sure why that is, however, as the Jreck Subs near me is clean, well-lit and actually has very comfortable booths. When my Census job met there for our meetings, I discovered that the Jreck Subs near me is actually a pretty nice place to hang out.
Waitstaff
Part of the reason for that is that the counter staff is very nice, at least at my local Jreck Subs. My local Jreck Subs features local workers who are in their early thirties who have been working there since they were in high school. They may seem a little jaded, but they are always friendly and they know how to make the various submarine sandwiches perfectly and quickly.
Jreck Subs is organized like a cafeteria where one places an order and they follow along as it is assembled by the chef. Ours has a cooler for the drink and salad/side offers and this has a good flow. Once one pays for their order at the cashier, though, the restaurant experience is pretty much over at Jreck. The staff does not so much wait on the customer as they make the sandwich to order and move on. Still, they seem to keep the tables clean and that's always a plus.
Food
Jreck Subs is essentially a submarine sandwich shop which offers little else outside their trademark food. However, for breakfast, they have a limited selection of bagels and cream cheese and that are remarkably average. The bagels are toasted to order and are very average as, let's face it, most bagels are. Their selection seems pretty limited to the most basic flavors: plain, poppy, sesame, pumpernickel, raisin and onion. Jreck Subs is not a bad place to pick up a quick bagel on the run.
Jreck Subs also has traditional picnic sides, like potato salad and macaroni salad. I, however, loathe anything with mayonnaise and did not sample them. My wife, who seems to love variety in how different chefs make such dishes said the potato salad is one of the best she had had. I trust her.
But then there are the submarine sandwiches. The time to get them is on Tuesday evenings because of the Two For Tuesday deal. What Two For Tuesday means is that from 4 – close on Tuesday you get any two ham and cheese, seafood, turkey, meatball, or American submarine sandwiches for the price of one. That's two full twelve inch subs for $7.99. That makes it a great deal in my book, especially considering that Jreck Subs does not hollow out the sub bread the way Subway does.
My wife tends to get the American sub which is loaded with three types of meat (salami, ham, and chicken), American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers. She frequently has mayo on it, so I avoid it, but for the purpose of reviewing I had a bite of her last one. The lettuce was cool and crispy, the meats were fresh and the overall flavor of the sub sandwich was quite good.
I tend to have ham and cheese or the meatball subs. My idea of a ham and cheese is loads of ham, nice slices of Swiss and Provolone and then have the sub heated up. The workers at Jreck Subs know me know and they make it absolutely perfectly. But, again, it's a sub sandwich and not terribly complicated.
Where they truly excel for me is with the meatball subs. Twelve inches of sub bread packed with meatballs, served hot with melted Provolone, Swiss and Parmesan cheeses makes for a perfect sandwich and because they know how little sauce I like on mine, they make it perfect each and every time. This makes for a wonderful meal when my wife and I don't want to cook and just want to have something filling while we catch some television.
Overall
Jreck Subs might not have the greatest variety, but the food they make is good and on Tuesday evenings it is THE place to eat!
For other restaurants, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Outback Steakhouse
Cold Stone Creamery
Cracker Barrel
6.5/10
For other food and restuarant reviews, please visit my index page with an organized listing of all I have reviewed here!
© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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