A delicious dinner helped Bob Hanna decide to go into business for himself. While in the San Diego area to investigate a franchise opportunity with Submarina California Subs, the 22-year Army veteran took his family to eat at one of the company’s sandwich shops. Hanna asked the counter girl for a recommendation. She suggested the Cali – a savory concoction of turkey breast, bacon, sliced avocado and Provolone cheese. When Hanna bit into the sandwich, he felt a symphony of taste explode on his tongue.

"I was hooked,” said Hanna. “I never had a sandwich that good. I knew then it was the right business. After eating that sandwich, I couldn’t open a shop with a competing chain and honestly say I had the best product."

On The Job

Hanna, 41, and his wife took that passion for flavor and channeled it into opening their own Submarina shop in February 2008. Based in Clarksville, Tenn., the couple (along with five employees) creates delightful subs, wraps, melts, salads, soups and chilies. They use fresh vegetables, receive morning bread deliveries from a local bakery and hand-slice meat for each customer’s sandwich right in front of them. Hanna, a former Army first sergeant, and his crew sell between 100 and 350 sandwiches daily, offering more than 50 different flavor combinations. Their most popular item – and Hanna’s personal favorite – is the Santa Fe Melt – a spicy, gooey blend of roasted chicken, jalapeno bacon, sliced avocado and Pepper Jack cheese.

"We’re about to make Philly Cheese steaks a permanent menu on the item,” said Hanna."We had a test run last month and people went nuts for the sandwich."

The shop has a profitable catering business which accounts for at least half of its earnings. The team provides food for functions at city hall and local lawyers’ offices, college events and parties for high school and college sports teams.

Hanna and his wife arrive at their shop at 0800 to take inventory of bread and other supplies, slice and prep vegetables and condiments, and prepare sides such as soups and chilies.

After opening at 1000, they work until 1700 before returning at 2000 to close up and compile reports and do bookkeeping.

"We’ve been very fortunate that the community was excited about our opening,” said Hanna, a former aircraft mechanic. “We’re the first Submarina franchise east of Arizona, so we created a lot of buzz. We’ve been lucky enough to sustain a great deal of our initial momentum and keep people excited with our product."

Are there any similarities between fixing helicopters and fixing sandwiches? There are step-by-step standard operating procedures, just like in the military,” said Hanna. “You also have to be able to teach and motivate people and be an effective leader."

Headquartered in San Marcos, Calif. (a suburb of San Diego), Submarina is the originator of the “California Sub.” The first Submarina was opened in 1977 by partners Les Warfield and Ron Vickers, two postal workers hungry for a good sandwich. The pair wanted to offer customers the same fresh, great-tasting sandwiches they remembered from their childhoods in Brooklyn, N.Y. Today, their vision lives on – with 67 locations in five states and more than 1,900 stores under development.

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