Serving Portage One Sandwich at a Time

Jeff and Robyn Walsworth run the incredible Firehouse Subs in Portage. Despite the fact that they’ve only been open since July 25th, this fantastic restaurant has already been recognized by the Portage Chamber of Commerce for improving the community.

At first Robyn and Jeff didn’t know what franchise they wanted to open, but after some digging around they found Firehouse Subs. They were drawn to the idea of providing their community with high quality food, and the fact that the fireman who founded Firehouse created it with the idea of serving the community helped. Naturally, this appealed to Jeff, who is a fireman with the Valparaiso Fire Department.

“Our goal is to bless the community, our employees, and the church,” Robyn said.

And what a wonderful way they serve the community. The food is absolutely incredible. The quality taste comes from the freshly sliced USDA choice meat and the unique process they use when cooking the sandwiches.

Where most places slide the sandwich into a toaster oven, Firehouse Subs steams the meat and cheese. This way, the sandwich doesn’t dry out, and the flavor really has a chance to shine through with each bite.

Not only does this franchise deal with hearty, satisfying subs, they also provide an excellent service to the community. Customers can round their bill up or simply donate to help fund non-profit, public safety grants.

These grants go towards things such as fire engines and k-9 units. However, that’s not the only way they get money to these much appreciated public safety grants. Whenever a delivery driver is tipped for their wonderful catering, that tip goes toward these public safety grants as well.

The Portage Fire Department has applied for such a grant, and the South Haven Fire Department is in the process of applying. It’s clear that the services of this sandwich shop are quite appreciated.

This franchise is also looking to expand in the near future. They plan to open restaurants in both Valparaiso and Michigan City. It may be hard to say which one is coming first, but they plan to have this accomplished by the end of 2014 and the end of 2015, respectively.

“We were surprised and honored by the fact that we won this award so quickly,” Robyn said. “We’ve received a ton of support from the community, and we want to continue to build relationships in it.”