Jimmy John’s offers quick, cheap sandwiches

While Jimmy John’s is definitely a chain, something about it has a friendly local feel to it. The employees are extremely friendly, it’s very clean and the food is OK.

Compared with the sub shops you have probably visited before, these subs are thinner and less substantial. The homemade white bread is more like a French roll and a little chewy, and their white bread is a thick slab of almost homemade looking bread. You can choose from a sub, a club, a slim or an unwich. They don’t offer any soups, salads or sides other than chips and chocolate chip cookies.

As a time-saver compared to Subway, their sandwiches come pre-designed: you pick a number and they can add or subtract from the basic blueprint. Their most popular subs are the Pepe, the Big John and the Vito. At $4.59 each, subs are eight inches long and everything is sliced daily, including the meat and cheeses. The Pepe features applewood smoked ham with provolone cheese, the Big John has medium-rare choice roast beef, and the Vito is their original Italian sub with genoa salami, capicola and Italian vinaigrette. We also tried the plain slim version of the turkey sub, which is any sub minus veggies and sauce for a dollar less.

The Giant Club sandwiches have double the meat and cheese for a dollar more, at $5.59. Favorites include the Country Club, the Beach Club and Club Lulu. The Country Club is turkey, ham and provolone; the Beach Club is turkey with avocado spread and sliced cucumber; and the Club Lulu is a turkey BLT. Most of the other subs and clubs are just variations on the aforementioned meats plus tuna salad, with hot peppers, Dijon mustard and oregano as additional freebie options. There’s also a veggie club of all their veggies and cheeses.

One of the most interesting offerings is the Unwrap, a breadless wrap made of lettuce leaves around any club’s ingredients. It’s a little difficult to unwrap from the paper wrapper, but it’s an option I haven’t seen elsewhere.

There’s also the J.J. Gargantuan, which is -- you guessed it -- all their ingredients in one sandwich. For $7.59, it seems a pretty good deal if you are super hungry. They also have delivery within a 2-mile radius (type your address into the website to see if you’re eligible).

And that’s about it. Simplicity is the key component, making them faster and ostensibly cleaner. I admit, I like not having to make 20 decisions in a two-minute window; I can just make one and be done with it. The prices are fair and the quality seems good, and you can’t beat the free delivery if you’re one of the lucky ones in the delivery area.

Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches

Address: 4650 Forsyth Road, Macon

Phone: 478-238-5201

Website: www.jimmyjohns.com

Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily

Payment: Cash, credit

Smoking: No

Alcohol: No

Kids Menu: No

Noise Level: Low

Health Rating: 100

Price range: $4.59-$7.59

Rating: 2 stars

This story was originally published December 27, 2013 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Jimmy John’s offers quick, cheap sandwiches."