Best Sub Sandwiches in St. Louis, Missouri

It's called a Hoagie, Grinder, Poor Boy, Cosmo, Hero, Sub, or Submarine, depending on which part of the country you come from. Each major city has it's own legendary place where all of the locals swear by the deli sandwiches purveyed there. In St. Louis the best Submarine-type sandwiches can be found on the Italian Hill part of town. Go down where the fire hydrants are painted the colors of the flag of Italy and you can find meat shops that make their own sausages and meats. Most of them will put those meats between a couple of slices of freshly baked bread if you want them to.

There are a few major players on the national and international sub shop scene. Local places that have went on to capitalize on the growing health awareness and changing consumer taste to grow at an astounding rate. The biggest of these is Subway; a multinational restaurant franchise that mainly sells sandwiches and salads. Fred DeLuca and Peter Buck founded subway in 1965. The company now has around 28,000 units in some 86 countries. (www.Wikipedia.com)

Coming in a distant second is Quiznos with some 5,000-sub shops in the United States. Quiznos was founded in 1981 with the assumption that toasted subs were better. Their marketing ploys have included some Internet characters like Spongmonkeys and Baby Bob. Most of their ads have been targeted at Subway with comparison ads where women say that Quizno's sandwiches have "more meat" and "that's what real women want." All this must have had an effect on Subway because they are now offering toasted sandwiches too. (www.Wikipedia.com)

I recently had lunch at the newest sub shop in town: Jimmy John's. The first Jimmy John's opened its doors in Charleston, Illinois in 1983. Jimmy John Liautaud started out wanting to open a hot dog stand, but them decided that it would be cheaper to go into the sandwich business. Selling four different sandwiches and Cokes for a quarter, he began taking samples of his sandwiches around town. The business started to grow. It was especially popular with college students from nearby Easter Illinois University. (www.Wikipedia.com)