Valley Independent Sentinel
Communities
Follow Us
We Read…
- Ansonia Football
- Beacon Falls News
- Branford Eagle
- CT Capitol Report
- CT Mirror
- CT News Junkie
- Fireground Images
- La Voz Hispana
- New Haven Independent
- Shelton Trails
- Smartpill Design
Government
- Ansonia
- Derby
- Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments
- Naugatuck Valley Health District
- Oxford
- Seymour
- Shelton
Community
- Ansonia Nature Center
- Ansonia Rotary
- Area Congregations Together
- BHcare
- Boys & Girls Club
- Center Stage
- Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
- Derby Historical Society
- Derby-Shelton Rotary
- Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce
- Greater Valley Salvation Army
- Griffin Hospital
- Housatonic Council, BSA
- John H. Collins Post # 24
- Katharine Matthies Founation
- Literacy Volunteers
- Master’s Table Community Meals
- My First 8
- Osbornedale State Park
- Oxford Historical Society
- Parent Child Resource Center
- Rape Crisis Center
- Seymour Historical Society
- Seymour Lions Club
- Shelton Historical Society
- Shelton Jaycees
- Shelton Land Conservation Trust
- Shelton School Readiness Council
- Shelton Youth Service Bureau
- TEAM
- Valley Arts Council
- Valley Community Foundation
- Valley Council Health & Human Services
- Valley Early Childhood Task Force
- Valley Regional Adult Education
- Valley Substance Abuse Action Council
- Valley United Way
- Valley YMCA
- Visiting Nurse Association of South Central Connecticut
- YEP
Fire Departments
- Charters Hose (Ansonia)
- Citizens Engine (Seymour)
- Derby Fire Department
- Eagle Hose (Ansonia)
- East End Hose (Derby)
- Echo Hose Hook & Ladder (Shelton)
- Fountain Hose (Ansonia)
- Great Hill Hose (Seymour)
- Hilltop Hose (Ansonia)
- Huntington Fire Co. (Shelton)
- Oxford Center Fire Co. (Oxford)
- Pine Rock Co. (Shelton)
- Quaker Farms Fire Co. (Oxford)
- Riverside Fire Co. (Oxford)
- Storm Engine (Derby)
- Webster Hose (Ansonia)
- White Hills (Shelton)
School Districts
New Kind of Subway Sandwich Shop To Open In Ansonia
by Jodie Mozdzer Gil | May 2, 2012 4:17 pm
() Comment | Commenting has expired | | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Ansonia
Downtown Ansonia will get a Subway sandwich shop this year — but customers likely won’t recognize what they find inside.
The Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday approved an application to open a Subway Cafe at 350 West Main St. — the former B&L Men’s and Boys’ Store.
The new kind of Subway looks more like a Panera Bread or coffee shop than the traditional Subway sandwich shops.
“It’s not your mama’s Subway,” said Wayland Benbow, the director of leasing for Subway development.
Subway has started opening the “full service” restaurants, with table service and cafe-like decor, in a handful of markets around the country.
The Subway Cafes are similar to traditional Subways, except they have higher end decor, and serve baked goods and upscale coffee options, according to an article in fast-food industry news site QSRweb.com.
Some of the Subway Cafes offer expanded salad and sandwich menus.
The features are similar to those in Starbucks and more often, McDonalds.
Restaurant industry analyst Nima Samadi, in an AP article published in August 2011, said the trend appears to indicate Subway is creeping into other markets.
“They’re using this as a litmus test to see if there’s an opportunity to combine their traditional offerings with this expanded breakfast market, see if people are willing to abandon their traditional allegiances with McDonalds and Starbucks,“Samadi, an analyst with IBISWorld, Inc., said in the article.
A similar shop that opened in Orange, Conn. in August has couches, a fireplace and brick walls. Click here to read a write-up on the shop in the Orange Patch.
Photo credit: Orange Patch
Ansonia’s shop won’t have a fireplace, but it will have the upscale decor, Benbow said.
Ansonia’s New Subway
Benbow was at the Planning and Zoning Commission in Ansonia Monday, representing shop owner Anil Patel, who was not at the meeting.
Patel owns several Subways, including Ansonia’s only other shop on Pershing Drive and the downtown Subway in Shelton.
Both stores were among the first 50 Subways in America, Benbow said. There are now more than 36,000 Subways worldwide.
The building on West Main Street is owned by Carmen DiCenso, a member of the Board of Aldermen in Derby.
The building will not have any other tenants beside Subway, DiCenso said. He is still working out a lease with Patel.
The Subway will be 1,500 square-feet. Of that, 600 square feet will be dining area.
The application was worked on by the Planning and Zoning Commission since November, but the commissioners had asked for several changes from an original plan. The original application was for a more traditional Subway, with less seating in a smaller space.
“The reality is we’ve ended up with a much better product for us,” Benbow said of the changes the commission asked for.
Benbow expects the Subway to open in the next couple of months, after a renovation to the store.
“We’re going to do it right because we plan on being there for the next 35 years,” Benbow said after the Planning and Zoning meeting.