A Tale of Two Sandwiches

I'd like to start off this week on a good foot with posting again. The end-of-the-year rush is not quite complete; in fact, there's still plenty to do. However, I think I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, plus it's starting to hit me that my college years are just about done. This transition may be more difficult than I first thought. So, I want to be sure to chronicle it all. That being said, here's something totally different:

In January, a sandwich shop called Touchdown Subs opened up in downtown Blacksburg on College Avenue, where Subway used to be before it moved to the new Kent Square location. It offered a variety of "gourmet" subs, though with a limited choice of bread and sandwich offerings. The overall theme of the place was tied to football, though, with the various combos having names like the "Blocked Kick" or "Lunch Pail Defense." They offered late delivery, stayed open late, and they had lots of other little options and perks. With Blacksburg being such a football town, this place seemed like a really good idea.

It was closed by the middle of March. I only had eaten there twice. It was a chain, but now I can't even find any good info or sites on the place. In short, it vanished.

Flash forward to last week. A little further down College Avenue, a new gourmet sandwich shop opened up, touting neon signs proclaiming "Real Fast Delivery" and that "Smells Are Free." The new place? Jimmy John's. Now, on the surface, JJ's looks almost identical to Touchdown, right down to the random red tile patterns on the walls. They sell sandwiches and are open late, just like Touchdown. With comparable rent and comparable size, you might predict JJ's to be gone in a few months, eh?

Well, I think this is one shop that's here to stay. I don't think I've seen the place empty at a normal meal time since it opened. I've only been there once, but I'm looking forward to dropping by again. What's the difference? Well, there's the atmosphere, first of all: the shop is peppered with signs that have catchy sayings and deadpan humor. It's very clean. It's about a block closer to campus. It offeres its own brand of kettle-style chips. The bread is superb, much much better than the hard-as-nails stuff that Touchdown had. In short, it's just cooler. On top of all that, NC native Amy swears by Jimmy John's, and apparently a lot of their locations are in North Carolina. So, you can feel good about eating there, because it's not a Canadian chain (read Extreme Pita) and it's not a Northern Virginia chain poised to turn our fair town of Blacksburg into a bustling, unfriendly place (read ... well, who knows. Starbucks maybe).

I only wish Jimmy John's would have come along a little earlier, so I could enjoy its good graces some more before I head home for the summer.

PS: Oh yeah, check out gerritt.net for a few more pictures of the Men In Tights. When I do my mega-picture-post after graduation, you'll see more on here as well.