THERE was a time when Blimpie ruled the roost as far as fast food submarine sandwiches (known by a variety of names elsewhere in the country) in the New York City market. Today, Subway is the dominant franchise (a much inferior product as far as I’m concerned) and outfits like Jersey Mike’s (which strives to duplicate the Blimpie formula) are coming up fast. One of the last standalone Blimpies left in NYC is shown here at Willoughby and Pearl Streets in the shadow of Brooklyn Borough Hall.
I have a lengthy history with Blimpie. For years in the Easy Eighties when I worked the overnight shift at Photo Lettering, there was an all night Blimpie at 2nd Avenue and East 45th where I would be found, almost inevitably, at 2 AM each Thursday night/Friday morning. My sandwich of choice at that time was pepperoni and cheese.
Forward about 30 years to my stint at Pearson Publishing in Hoboken in 2016. That was the home of the flagship Blimpie on Washington Street, and befitting Hoboken’s status as the place where Blimpie was founded, the sandwiches at the flagship were too large for me to handle in one sitting. By then, my choice had evolved to sliced turkey. I take it with provo or American, lettuce, tomato, sweet peppers, oil and vinegar, nothing else. The Hoboken branch is now closed (a nationwide trend) and a promised replacement never opened.
Blimpie now has about 750 units nationwide and nearly no presence anymore in NYC, except here and a few outliers including a woebegotten branch in Bay Ridge, of all places (that branch has now closed too). This may be for the better, as I have been on a carb-cutting kick since May in which I have dropped 30 lbs. (that was taxed during the recent holiday season).
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1/10/23