The $5 Footlong has retreated to the ‘burbs, at least for now.
Downtown’s Subway, located at 33 Battery Park Ave. near the Grove Arcade, closed this week.
The manager, loading bags of chips into a food service truck, said he had no comment and preferred not to use his name.
The property is owned by FIRC Group, the same company that owns the Haywood Park Hotel building and Westgate Shopping Center. The president of the company, Tony Fraga, also owns Isa’s Bistro and the Haywood Park Café.
The former sandwich shop is “potentially for lease,” according to Wes Reinhardt, vice president of FIRC Group. After Subway moves out, Reinhardt says the property will be unoccupied. “I don’t see that as newsworthy,” he says.
The property is noteworthy because of its location and existing kitchen. It’s potentially the only vacant downtown restaurant space.
Fans of Subway’s sandwiches need not worry: Asheville is ringed by Subway stores (see the screen shot from Subway’s website below). To get your fix, try the Patton Avenue or Tunnel Road locations, or opt for one of downtown’s many other sandwich options brought to you by a local business.
Really a shame to see such a staple of my childhood leave downtown.
I remember going in there as a kid, when you could get a footlong for about $0.50, plus, they didn’t care if you ordered water and got sodapop, as long as you were local and as long as dear old Glenda wasn’t there.
I think I had my first kiss sitting at that counter. Good times. Too bad Brenda had us all thrown out later that day.
So, yea, it’s sad to see the good old days of corporate food chains being displaced by these young, upstart hipster joints…what with their smoothies and gluten-free nonsense. No one wants that. Subway was plenty healthy enough, and still is, where you can find one. I guess the goal is to just drive all the corporations out of town and into the strip malls in the suburbs, so that downtowns can collapse and decay.
I don’t know how anyone thinks these little podunk restaurants can be successful. Without a centralized corporation to send all the money too, it’s just going to wind up staying in the community and being used to buy hackey-sacks for the leftover hippie contingent that hasn’t left for West Asheville.
No one will want to go there anymore. You’ll see a lot more chains on doors within six months. Mark my words. This is the end of an era. People are out of a job and Lucinda’s ghost haunts that whole block.