You know me, I love gas station sammiches. They remind me of Las Vegas – the best and worst of America in one place at the same time. Gas station sandwiches are great because they are cheap, and relatively palatable. They are not so great because of their nutritional aspects.
Today’s specimen is the “Fresh to Go” “All American Foot Long Sub” from 7-Eleven in Chicagoland. “Fresh to Go” is the label 7-Eleven is slapping on their ‘fresh foods” as they transition their store content to have less of an emphasis on entirely being focused on the “junk” lines.
The sandwich is on a (longer than foot long) fresh French roll, and is packed with ham. turke.y cheddar. genoa salami, pickles, mayonnaise, and mustard, and thankfully not a hint of lettuce. Lettuce seems to spoil these types of culinary delights, IMHO.
7-Eleven relies on regional suppliers for their fresh foods, in the Pacific NW, where I lived for awhile due to temporary insanity, the sandwiches are made by Lufthansa’s catering arm, somewhere around Seattle. In Chicago, the sandwiches are made by a third generation family company, HC Schau, which was purchased by an Irish purveyor called Greencore, a major supplier of prepared foods to groceries and convenience marts. Greencore has over 20 plants in the EU and US, and 11,000 employees. Greencore was established in 1991 as a spin off of the nationally owned Irish Sugar Corporation. It is now publicly held.
They could be kept really busy if they managed to grab a large share of 7-Eleven’s business, there are over 50,000 stores; over 15,000 in Japan alone, nearly twice as many as in the US. (If you aren’t aware of it, 7-Eleven became owned by a Japanese company in the early 1990’s).
This sammich was pretty OK. Fresh enough, and at five bucks, a pretty good deal. The downsides? 870 calories and 79 carbs. Both figures are substantially more than a Big Mac. Surprised? I was.
7-eleven fresh to go sandwiches