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PrintWhere Everybody Knows Your Name
...or at least the name of your favorite sandwich.
Bruce Tlougan has been serving up sandwiches to Jackson Hole patrons for twenty-five years at the New York City Sub Shop.
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In twenty-five years, Bruce Tlougan has sold more than 1.5 million sandwiches at his New York City Sub Shop in downtown Jackson. While hundreds of restaurants have opened and closed here, the moustached restaurateur and his sandwich emporium have remained fixtures in the valley, offering fresh-baked bread, consistent quality, and efficient and friendly service. The sixty-two-year-old’s creation, now featuring interior decoration by painter Greta Gretzinger, has remained popular in the valley and even expanded beyond the Tetons: Tlougan co-owns five sub shops in Oregon with partner Andrew Deenik. Combined, the businesses have sold more than five million sandwiches.
The secret to Tlougan’s success might not jump out at a new customer entering the location at the corner of Jackson Street and Broadway. Gretzinger’s paintings show, in bright colors, such tongue-in-cheek scenes as God creating the first sub. At the counter efficiency prevails, as customers are greeted with a familiar menu and direct questions: What would you like? Half or whole? Onions, peppers? Chips or drink? Cookie?
Tlougan’s familiar presence can be found in the kitchen many days of the week. On a clean grill and under a clean ventilation hood, he and other cooks prepare sandwiches to standards that are so exacting they go unnoticed. That’s the point and the secret. If you like New York City Sub Shop sandwiches, you will come back because your meal is going to taste as good the first time, the third time, and the twentieth time you order it.
“In a world where nothing is ever the same, where everything changes, you can come here and know what you are going to get, no deviation,” Tlougan said.
By eschewing deviation, Tlougan has been rewarded with devotion. Since Jackson resident Rob Barber discovered the sub shop six years ago, he has been buying lunch there on average three times per week, ordering either a Manhattan or Cheese Steak, as he heads to work. The sandwiches are good, but Barber emphasizes that another factor—the friendly staff—plays a role in making him a return customer. “It’s kind of like a Cheers thing,” Barber said, referring to how the shop reminds him of the 1980s and early ’90s television sitcom. “They know your name.”
Reader Comments:
Hello,
This is Andrew Deenik, Vice president of New York
City Sub Shop. I have your article on Bruce framed in our Hood River Oregon location yet am trying to get the full link to put on our website. Can you furnish this for me please. If you need Bruce Tlougans permission his cell is 307 690 3144.
Thank you, Andrew
Great article by the way and a very nice magazine.