Fire station - Dad of Divas

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to bring my family to the new Firehouse Subs franchise in East Lansing Michigan. I had never heard of this company before, and came to find that they are just catching on and opening in Michigan, but are based out of Jacksonville, Florida.

Upon arriving the location, I was impressed with how clean the facility was (granted it was new). You could tell that the employees cared about the facility. On top of this, the moment we walked in the door we were greeted my a rehearsed line (I hate to say it, but I cannot remember what it was) which was an impressive way to enter a restaurant and made all of us feel welcome at once.

The restaurant definitely has a Firehouse theme, and upon talking to the Manager I came to find that all of the apparel and firehouse regalia was donated by local fire houses – Talk about keeping it local. On top of this, there was a very cool mural (see above) that was painted and designed with the local city in mind. With this being a block away from the doors of Michigan State University, you can see why there were definite Spartan references, as well as references to the rivalry between Michigan State and the University of Michigan and Ohio State University. In particular, I loved the Spartan cloud in the mural!

The menu was quite diverse and allowed my family a ton of choices (too many for my first time), but I guess that just makes me want to come back that much quicker! We ordered and I had a chance to chat with the owner a bit more. I came to find out that the company itself gives back a ton to the local communities in which they are a part. At the register you will find a box where patrons can donate money toward a grant fund that raises money for firehouses throughout the United States. From the money that was raised the company makes grants of $10,000 available for local firehouses to apply for, and the goal is that a local firehouse near each franchise will have the ability to all receive one grant in the future. I love this concept, as it shows that they are there for so much more than just making money and serving food!

The flavor of the food that we had was great. We all loved the sandwiches that we chose and we all feel that there were plenty of other sandwiches that we want to come back to try in the future. Just look at the smile on my kids’ faces and you can see how much they enjoyed it and so did my wife and I.