Type Private Website miamisubs.com Founded 1980 | Industry Restaurant Founder Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis Number of employees 600 | |
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Headquarters Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States Parent organization Miami Subs Capital Partners I, Inc | ||
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Miami Subs Grill is a privately held restaurant chain, based in the U. S. state of Florida. The chain has approximately 40 locations, the majority of which are in Florida, plus a location each in Hawaii, Indiana and South Carolina. The company's menu consists of such items as wings, submarine sandwiches, and pizza along with items from Arthur Treacher's and Nathan's Famous hot dogs, all of which operate co-branding agreements with Miami Subs, and which were corporate siblings of Miami Subs from 1999–2007.
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Founding
The founder of the company, Gus Boulis, helped build the Mr. Submarine, now known as Mr. Sub, restaurant chain in Canada from a single location to over 200 locations, after which he retired to Florida. In 1980, he opened another restaurant in Key West called Mr. Submarine, which later expanded into Miami Subs Grill, offering a greater variety of food, all cooked to order.
Expansion
Miami Subs Grill built this concept and expanded rapidly in the 90's, starting in Florida and spreading quickly nationwide, with new restaurant locations, as well as stores in less typical locations, such as schools, highway rest areas (particularly along Florida's Turnpike) and airports. The restaurants featured a distinctive exterior design with South Beach-inspired pastels trimmed with pink and blue neon lights and interiors decorated in a tropical motif.
Co-branding agreement
A 1998 agreement added Arthur Treacher's fish and chips to the Miami Subs Grill concept. A planned merger between the two companies failed, however, when Arthur Treacher's stock value dropped precipitously.
Purchase and sale
In 1999, Nathan's Famous purchased the chain for $14.4 million, bringing the Miami Subs Grill and Arthur Treacher's brands under a common corporate umbrella. The chain had approximately 175 outlets at acquisition. However, the chain struggled, due in part to instability in the management ranks, and in 2007, Nathan's Famous announced the sale of Miami Subs to a private investment group, Miami Subs Capital Partner 1 Inc, for $3.3 million. At the time of the sale, the chain operated in 59 locations, but several new locations have opened, including one in Turkey, where 40 restaurants are planned. Another location is under construction in Romania, where 20 restaurants are planned.
On July 24, 2012, Miami Subs announced that an equity stake in the chain was purchased by Armando Cristian Pérez, known by his stage name, Pitbull.
In February 2013, Miami Subs announced an agreement to develop new stores in the Middle East GCC countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.
Starting in 2014, the company decided to change their branding strategy by gradually changing to a new branding concept called Miami Grill. The current strategy is to open all new locations as Miami Grill with a new modern building and dining room design. Eventually all existing Miami Subs locations will be remodeled to the Miami Grill concept.
Miami Grill has an updated menu featuring all the classic Miami Subs items plus the addition of grilled fish (Mahi Mahi), grilled shrimp and freshly made wraps.
Currently there are Miami Grill locations open in Miami, South Beach, West Palm Beach, Pembroke Pines, Hawaii, Ft. Wayne, IN and Spartanburg, SC.
On January 18, 2015 the first Miami Grill in Malaysia opened in the Sunway Pyramid Mall.
In November 2016, Miami Grill returns to Indiana for the first time in nearly a decade by opening a location in Fort Wayne. Previous to that, Miami Subs had locations that were opened around 1992 in Bloomington, Highland, Crown Point, and Merrillville. Almost all of these locations were closed around 1996 except for a lone location in Highland, which was still opened in 2004, before it too was finally closed sometime in 2005 when its listing disappeared from the Miami Subs website.