This sandwich franchise once had two shops in Fresno, Clovis. Now it has none
The last Firehouse Subs in the Fresno area has closed.
The sandwich shop at the northwest corner of Blackstone and Nees avenues in Fresno closed Feb. 1 after more than four years in business.
It follows the 2019 closure of the shop in Clovis at the southwest corner of Herndon and Fowler.
Firehouse Subs is a sandwich chain with more than 1,000 locations started by a firefighting family.
Known for its hot subs, the No. 1 seller is the Hook & Ladder with smoked turkey breast, Virginia honey ham, and melted Monterey Jack. It was served “fully involved” — which means it has mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, onion and deli mustard.
The restaurants had a first responder theme and held fundraisers for to buy equipment for them, such as radios and defibrillators.
The Bee reached out to the company about why the Fresno location – on a busy intersection across the street from River Park – closed. It declined to answer, saying only “We are sorry for any inconvenience this has created for our guests.”
The franchisee who owns the location could not be reached.
The Clovis location “has closed as the operator has chosen to explore other business ventures,” according to an emailed statement last year.
We’ll likely never know exactly why the company’s experiment in the Fresno area failed.
The restaurant had a 3.5 star rating on restaurant review site Yelp.com. Reviewers had complaints about the prices of the sandwiches, portion sizes and soggy meat.
Sandwich shops in Fresno have plenty of competition. Locally based Deli Delicious has at least 16 locations in Fresno alone and is a favorite among Fresnans. Other competitors include Subway, Jimmy John’s, Jersey Mike’s, Quiznos, Mr. Pickle’s, Which Wich, Sequoia Sandwich Co., Ike’s and Italian delis like Sam’s Italian Deli and Piemonte’s.
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 11:33 AM.
