Chef Paul Fabre, Subway’s senior vice president of culinary and innovation, has been very busy lately.
Fabre, who joined Subway in December 2020, has led the chain’s approach to menu strategy, innovation and all things culinary. Two years ago, the chain released its Subway Series, just a year after the chain created its Eat Fresh Refresh.
“It’s great to see the positive momentum in the brand, and so we continue to deliver that from a culinary perspective,” Fabre said.
This year, his team revealed Subway Sidekicks, snackable items that were part of product collaborations with Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s. Those products were so popular that Subway sold 3.5 million of the items in the first two weeks of launch. A few months later, the chain appended Dippers to its snack menu, adding to its growing roster of savory items.
“This year is really about meeting our guests’ [demands] and extending our occasions … both from a menu platform, as well as from a different time of day,” Fabre said.
Restaurant Dive spoke with Fabre about the development of Subway’s newest menu items, including the Subway Sidekicks and Dippers and how his team took account of guest and franchisee feedback.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
RESTAURANT DIVE: What was the process for developing Subway’s latest menu items, especially the Subway Sidekicks?
PAUL FABRE: Our creative process here at Subway is always guest led. Our product innovation is really about solving a complex puzzle: How do we fit all things together from consumer insights, what are the guests looking for, what are some of the culinary trends we’re seeing around us — spicy or sweet — as well as how it links to the brand from a value perspective, so that we can create familiar offerings that are both craveable and exciting.
A lot of the things that we do are highly collaborative. So we use a lot of our internal partners. Our franchisees and our field teams give us a lot of good tips and help with testing. Our suppliers help as well. We really believe that all great ideas come from anybody, but we use a very enhanced process to ensure that the guest is our North Star for whatever we develop.
Can you expand the process of developing Sidekicks, as that was a partnership with outside brands?
We worked on the Sidekicks for over 14 months, with Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon, iconic brands at GoTo Foods. They’ve been great partners in developing these craveable items.
Sidekicks have been a great success. It’s our step into snacking, and we know that consumers are eating multiple times during the day and looking for other options outside of the typical lunch or dinner occasions.
It's truly about delivering craveable, snackable items, easy on-the-go at a great value. It also gives us the opportunity to meet the guests on different occasions besides their sandwich. A lot of snacks are consumed with a sandwich, but also in the afternoon by itself as well.
How do you take into account consumer and franchisee feedback in your menu development?
Whenever we develop new menu items, we would test them in various markets around the United States to see the success of them. We really lean heavily on feedback from our operators, our franchisees, but also our sandwich artists to see if those items are easy to execute. And we gather feedback from consumers as well. From our franchisees we saw high engagement and love for those new products, and that really helps the success of those. It’s always highly collaborative. As we roll new items, we want to ensure that our franchisees are fully behind them.
What was the thinking behind some of the newest sandwich flavors, such as this summer’s Honey Mustard Barbecue Chicken and Spicy Nacho Chicken?
We looked at bolder, forward leaning flavors on these items. They’re cheesier, sweet, crunchy and spicy. Those new flavors really deliver a different experience on a sandwich. Our team introduced two new sauces, and we also could leverage all the sauces that we have upgraded over the last few years.
We’re particularly proud of the introduction of SubKrunch. It’s really the first in the category that develops a crunch to the sandwich. At Subway, we don’t have fryers, but we know that guests love crunchy and crispy items. So we asked: ‘How can we deliver a crispy or a crunchy item on a sandwich?’ This item is a corn crisp with umami flavoring that guests can add to their favorite sandwiches, but also order on the standard Garlic Steak or the Nacho Chicken sandwiches and really have a crispy experience. So it's really about driving bolder, more flavor-forward sandwiches.
How long were those sandwiches in development before you launched them?
It typically takes us anywhere from eight months to a year for sandwiches. We are very lucky at Subway that we have great flavors and great ingredients already in our restaurant.
From a culinary perspective, we like to leverage the ingredients we have already. If you look at the Honey Barbecue Chicken, we brought in a barbecue sauce. We already had a new honey mustard sauce. We have our chicken.
Why did you focus on a snacking menu? And why add the Dippers?
Dippers were really part of our long-term snacking strategy. The previous snacks and Sidekicks were more on the sweet side. So this is really savory. It’s a great value — $3. They’re highly craveable. They’re easy on the go. They’re great for kids. They're a foot long.
But also, it really leverages all of our sauces. We have 12 great sauces at Subway. Guests can choose their sandwich, their favorite sauce. There's a lot of mixing of sauces that goes on with our guests. Now you can have a Spicy Pepperoni Dipper with your favorite ranch; it's all about finding the right dip. So it's really kind of meeting two different trends at the same time: Snacking at a value and dipping as well.
We’re just lucky with all the high quality ingredients we have. The lavash was introduced earlier this year with new signature wraps. So we leveraged the new lavash bread. It’s pillowy, it's soft.
What can we expect in terms of menu development going forward at Subway?
We’re always looking to see what the next thing will be. I think we have great options for our guests. We have something for everybody, at every budget. Our team is very committed to innovating and ensuring that we have even more flavor on our menu.
