Jimmy John's

Jimmy John's.  A sandwich shop.  That I've likely walked by, many times, over the years, without giving a second look.  I'm not a sandwich girl in general, and I didn't grow up anywhere with a Jimmy John's, so, it was entirely off my radar.

That is, until a T-Mobile Tuesdays freebie promotion offered a free sandwich.  You know me and my freebies (yes, just like Subway, which I reviewed in this same way before, although Subway I was far far more familiar with).

As often happens when I start to write a blog post about a place I am not familiar with, I got sucked into the hole that is learning about Jimmy John's.  It was fascinating!  Short story, yes, started by a guy named Jimmy John in 1982. Long one ... he was a horrible student, parents wanted him to go into military, he loved hot dogs, wanted to start a hot dog stand, turned out to be too high cost, so he ... pivoted to sandwiches.  Yadda yadda, did really well, worked a ton, expanded.  Now they are franchised and also corporate owned.

"FREAKY FAST® FREAKY FRESH®"

Jimmy John's entire premise, as I discovered once researching the place, is, *fast*. They have streamlined absolutely everything to be as fast as possible. This means, that compared to other sandwich shops, they have far fewer options. Some would call it an "opinionated" menu. I did kind of appreciate the simplicity.

"We slice our all-natural* meats and fresh veggies in-house every day. Our fresh-baked bread is made right here where you can see it, and our house-made tuna salad is fresh every day. The flavor of a ripe tomato, crisp shredded lettuce, combined with fresh-baked bread, fresh-sliced meat and real Hellmann's® mayo - that's when the magic happens. Made with love every single day since 1983. That's Jimmy Fresh!"  

Their other premise?  Freshness.   They claim to, literally, slice all their meats, every day, in each store. The produce is sourced locally.  The bread all baked at each store, and (the French) is only used within 4 hours of baking. They produce their own brand potato chips (Jimmy Chips, cooked in peanut oil), and have their own branded hot peppers and mustard. They even claim to make their Ranch dip in house every day?

I pulled up the menu to investigate.  The menu contains the "Originals", simply numbered 1-6, basic sandwich offerings, plus "Favorites", numbered 7-17, that are curated combos (e.g. roast beef AND turkey together, for the #14, vs roast beef alone (#2) or plain turkey (#4)).

And ... that is the menu.   Ok, not quite, you can have any Original made into a "Little John", a smaller version for only $3.  This applies only to Originals though.  It was a Little John that was offered for T-Mobile Tuesday.

I easily placed an order online, and went to claim my prize.

Storefront.

The SF Jimmy John's is located on Pine Street, and looked reasonably busy, mostly people entering for about 10 seconds to pick up their orders and promptly walk out.  I didn't see anyone order in person, although it was an option.  COVID restrictions required no seating of course.

Little John's

"It may be littler than our 8" Original sandwich but it's just as tasty, and the perfect size for your kid's meal or snack time. You can customize your Little John with any of your favorite Freebies or Add-ons."

Originals and Favorites are available in 8-inch or 16-inch, on one type of sub style bread (French loaf) or one type of sliced bread (thick sliced wheat bread), as an "unwich" - e.g. wrapped in lettuce.  The Little John version came in French bread only, in a smaller 6.5" size.

I could customize as I wanted, free sauces and spices to add are limited to mayo, mustard ("Jimmy Mustard" or grey poupon, they believe *ONLY* in dijon!), oil & vinegar, and a curious sounding oregano-basil mix. The later two, the oil & vinegar and herbs, seemed potentially useful to create a vinaigrette style "dressing"? They at least would accent Italian style sandwiches well.  Regular yellow mustard and mayo are also available as packets on the side.  You can pay for avocado guac as well.

The veggie lineup is equally simple: basic lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles.  Plus sliced cucumbers and the aforementioned branded spicy peppers.  You can add one kind of cheese only: provolone.

They offer 5 kinds of meat: ham, roast beef, turkey, salami, and capicola. Tuna salad. Oh, and bacon.  

Nicely Wrapped!

My order was ready very, very quickly, handed over well wrapped, and sealed.

Little John #2. Sliced in half. Don't scoop. $3.

"The Little John #2 is made with the same hand-sliced roast beef as The Big John® and topped with mayo and fresh-sliced lettuce & tomato."

I opted for the roast beef sandwich, otherwise known as the #2.  But of course I added as many free toppings as I could.  Yes, I added them all, and x-tra of nearly everything.

Interestingly, by default, they actually scoop out and remove some of the top bread, but you can always opt to have this left in (and they dominantly tell you how many calories this adds in - 100 for regular 8", 80 for the Little John).  I asked to have it left in, and for the sandwich to be sliced in half.

The bread was … eh.  Since Jimmy John’s focuses on speed, toasting is not an option.  The bread was soft, fresh-ish … but didn’t have much to it, just white bread, a bit … tangy?  Almost sourdough?  Not my thing really.

But it was inside I cared about, right?

Little John #2: Inside.  Lots of extras.

"Xtra Lettuce, Xtra Tomato, No Mayonnaise, Xtra Cucumber, Xtra Jimmy Peppers®, Xtra Sliced Pickles, EZ Jimmy Mustard®, Xtra Onions, Reg Oregano-Basil"

Yup, I got extra of most things, and added everything.  I removed the mayo that comes on it so it wouldn't get soggy, opting to get mayo packets on the side (you can get mayo or yellow mustard on side).

The sandwich was well constructed.  Every ingredient applied equally, distributed well.  Not much to say there.

The roast beef was good, seemed fresh, it was, well, roast beefy?  Not much of it though, as this was a pretty small sandwich.

As for the veggies, yeah, they seemed fresh enough.  Shredded iceberg lettuce and onions were standard, hot peppers were nice for a bit of kick, and I appreciated all the pickles (sliced, decent tang).  I wasn’t as into the regular cucumbers, thin sliced, a bit mushy.  The out-of-season tomatoes were not tasty, as expected, but they did seem fresh, not mushy. 

Little John #2: More Inside.

I did leave the special mustard on, as only regular yellow french mustard is available in packets on the side.  I was curious about their signature spread.

The “Jimmy mustard” is just a grainy dijon, nice for a little flavor, but I ended up adding a lot more mustard, mayo, and sriracha to mine (sriracha packets I had with me in my bag, of course).

So overall?  Um, yeah, it was a basic roast beef sandwich, with fresh enough ingredients.  No more, no less.  For $3 (or, ok, free), not a bad little thing,  but I don't see any particular reason to have one again.

***.