Potbelly Sandwich Works
Encyclopedia
Potbelly Sandwich Works is a privately held restaurant chain that sells submarine sandwich
Submarine sandwich
A submarine sandwich, also known as a sub among other names, is a sandwich that consists of a long roll of Italian or French bread, split lengthwise either into two pieces or opened in a "V" on one side, and filled with various varieties of meat, cheese, vegetables, seasonings, and sauces. The...

es in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Its name is derived from potbelly stove
Potbelly stove
A potbelly stove is a cast-iron wood-burning stove, round with a bulge in the middle. The name is derived from the resemblance of the stove to that of a fat man's pot belly. They were designed to heat large spaces and were often found in train stations or one-room schoolhouses...

s common in the late 19th century. The company is headquartered in the tower of the Merchandise Mart
Merchandise Mart
When opened in 1930, the Merchandise Mart or the Merch Mart, located in the Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, was the largest building in the world with of floor space. Previously owned by the Marshall Field family, the Mart centralized Chicago's wholesale goods business by consolidating vendors...

 in the Near North Side
Near North Side, Chicago
The Near North Side is one of 77 well-defined community areas of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located north and east of the Chicago River, just north of the central business district . To its east is Lake Michigan and its northern boundary is the 19th-century city limit of Chicago,...

, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

.

History

Potbelly Sandwich Works was founded in 1977 by Peter Hastings. The original store is located at 2264 North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, in a retail space that was previously an antique store called Hindsight, also owned by Hastings. Many of the items that decorated the restaurant were taken from the former antique store. In 1998, Bryant Keil purchased the original store and expanded Potbelly to over 200 stores in several states and the District of Columbia.

Potbelly's menu features a variety of sandwiches that are all served hot on regular or multigrain wheat bread. All sandwiches can be ordered "thin-cut" style, in which one third of the bread is cut out. Potbelly began offering salads in February 2007. The menu also includes soup, shakes, malts, smoothies, and cookies. Most restaurants feature live music from local musicians during the lunch hours.

The name of the store derives from Peter Hastings' hobby of restoring old potbelly stoves.

On November 5, 2007, a new Potbelly store in Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Glen Ellyn is an affluent village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 Census, the village population was 26,999.-Geography:...

, became the first to feature a drive-through
Drive-through
A drive-through, or drive-thru, is a type of service provided by a business that allows customers to purchase products without leaving their cars. The format was first pioneered in the United States in the 1930s but has since spread to other countries. The first recorded use of a bank using a drive...

. A second drive-through store was added shortly thereafter in Waukegan, Illinois
Waukegan, Illinois
Waukegan is a city and county seat of Lake County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 87,901. The 2010 population was 89,078. It is the ninth-largest city in Illinois by population...

.

In 2011, Potbelly opened two franchise stores in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

 in the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...

; these are the first international Potbelly locations.

External links

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