Unofficial Advice For Working At Jersey Mike’s

• The Six Options For Ordering A Jersey Mike’s Sub:
  • White Bread
  • Rosemary Parmesan Bread
  • Wheat Bread
  • White & Wheat Tortilla Wraps
  • Gluten-Free Bread
  • Bowls
• Never advertise what bread you offer to the customers, unless they ask about it or they are a completely new customer who isn’t sure how to order their sandwiches.
• Always give the customer white bread, unless they ask what kind of breads we serve.
• When using the bread knife, be careful to not cut a sandwich whose bottom or lid is too thin.
• When making sub-in-a-tub bowls, you can stack some onions and tomatoes on top of each other, and use a knife to cut them into fourths, so that you can more spread the onions and tomatoes across the salad more evenly.

If a customer is trying to order a custom sandwich that is different from the official ones that are sold on the menu, then it tends to be cheaper to remove items from a sandwich that already contains all the ingredients (plus some extra ones), rather than to add extra meats or cheeses onto a sandwich that contains fewer ingredients. Examples:

• If they want a sandwich with turkey & roast beef, they should order a #9 without mayo and/or bacon.
• If they want a sandwich with turkey & ham, they should order a #8 without mayo and/or bacon.
• If they want a sandwich with provolone, salami, and pepperoni, they should order a #13 without ham, prosciuttini, and cappacuolo.
• If they want a sandwich with turkey & bacon, they can order a California club without avocado. (This is a secret menu item and secret discount, however)
• If they want a sandwich with only salami, they can order an #11 without ham and/or cheese.
• Et Cetera

If the customer wants to switch the cheese on a sandwich from its default, then this can be done for free with no extra cost.

If an employee is old enough to officially learn how to use the slicer, they will probably learn it after they master most other tasks in the store, since it will make it easier to learn how to slice.

• You should only use your right hand to switch out the meats so that you never put your left hand in the slicer. This increases your safety since your right hand will be farther away from the slip blade on your left hand, and thus your hands are less likely to get cut. You should never put your left hand in the slicer, unless it’s powered off and you have every safety precaution in place.
• You have to press down on the meat stabilizer (black spikey part) while holding the metal clamper arm. (Note: I don’t know what the official terms are for these parts)
• Your left hand should be used to “flower” non-circular meats before placing the meats on the sandwiches.
• When you’re slicing meat and cheeses, you should be using your left hand to catch and flip the slices onto the sandwich. One reason why we flip the circular meats and cheeses is in case they stick to our hands. If we flip them, then they’ll fall out of our hands and onto the sandwiches more easily. The other reason is that we’re supposed to put on a show for the customers, so this makes things look more interesting to them.
• Before start slicing each day, you should use the weight scale and slice some provolone and ham to ensure that your slicing the proper weights for each sandwich. Your goal is to calibrate your slicing so that you get exactly 2 ounces of provolone and 1.8 ounces of ham (or as close as possible).
  • Every slicer is different, even if they’re of the same brand and model, since different slicers will have different calibration settings.
  • The right thickness for the meats and cheeses also depends on the slicer brand, model, how hard you’re pressing against the meat stabilizer, and many other factors.
  • Calibrating the slicer at the start of each shift will inform you of how you should set the slicer settings.
• Tomatoes, green peppers, and celery all get sliced at the same thickness. If you slice some tomatoes with the tomato slicer, then you can use a tomato slice to calibrate for this thickness.
• Onions gets sliced at 2.0 - 2.5, or (1/2 of tomato slice)
• Lettuce gets sliced at 2.0 - 2.5, but is somewhat thicker (2/3 of tomato slice)
• Roast beef must be cut thicker than the other meats, lest it will fall apart.
• The veggie sandwiches get about twice as much provolone as regular sandwiches (5 slices of provolone and 5 slices of Swiss cheese for a regular sub, or 10 slices of provolone and 10 slices of Swiss cheese for a giant sub).
• You should avoid slicing more than three sandwiches at a time, especially if you’re trying to keep track of which sandwiches are which, and especially if there are some sandwiches that need to be prioritized over others.
• Sandwiches should always be grabbed by their ends, and never by the side of the sandwich while moving them away from the slicer, and to the topping section, or down the topping section, or to the bagging area.
• If you get good enough at the slicer, you could eventually be able to “flower” two slices of meat at a time, which may require moving your left hand across the sandwich to distribute the meat slices more evenly across the sandwich. You could even catch two circular meats or cheeses with your left hand at a time, and place them both on the sandwich in the right places. This will make it faster and easier at slicing sandwiches, but it takes practice since it requires more coordination.
• If the meat or cheese that you’re slicing with is about to run out to its end, you can try to get the most out of that end by pressing on the meat stabilizer (black spikey part) harder than usual, which will cause more of the meat or cheese to get sliced before it’s too thin to go through the slicer blade anymore.
• If you’re already holding one type of meat in your hands for slicing one sandwich, but you know that you need to slice and place the meat onto a second sandwich, you could place the meats or toppings on the lid of the second sandwich, place the meats and cheeses that go on the bottoms in the correct order for the second sandwich, and then flip the second sandwich’s lid over onto the bottom part of the sandwich, and then place the lid back down, so that you save time by avoiding having to switch the meats between the slicer and meat case.

• Always make sure that the toppings stations and meat case are stocked before rush hours, so that the store will be ready, and you will have to refill them less during the rushes.
• You should use the signs/images to help you figure out precisely how much of each topping you should put on the each sandwich.
• Regardless of how many toppings you put on the sandwich, the toppings should cover the entire sandwich. For example, any amount of lettuce that you put on the meats should cover the meat entirely.
• You should avoid making the tomatoes, overlap, or having them touch each other. It’s okay and ideal to have some space between each tomatoes. That way the tomatoes will cover the entire sandwich.
• You should keep the onions of tomatoes of your topping bins organized, so that the ingredients will look appetizing to the customers.
• When topping onions on sandwiches, you should grab an intact ring of onions (if available) to minimize passing your hands back and fourth between the veggie bins and the sandwich(es).
• Whenever you finish placing the lettuce on the sandwich, you should scoop up the lettuce that lands on the counter and place it back on the sandwich or back in the lettuce bin (if it has not touched any juices or oils), to avoid wasting all the effort that it took to chop up lettuce in the morning, and to save the store money on lettuce.
• When topping tomatoes on sandwiches, you should grab a handful of tomato slices like a deck of cards, so that you can easily top tomato slices onto the sandwich without frequently passing your hands passing back and fourth.
• You should only ask the customer if they want their sandwich “Mike’s Way”, not “how would you like to top this”. Mike’s Way is the signature set of toppings for Jersey Mike’s, so we want to suggest that customers use the default toppings.
• To help remember the toppings that go on a sandwich when a customer says them out in-store, you can just grab one of each topping that the customer says and place them on the bread board or counter, rather than all pieces of that topping to place on the sandwich. This way, seeing each of those toppings in one spot can visually remind you of which toppings you need to put on sandwich.
• If they aren’t sure, you could ask if they’d like onions, lettuce, and tomatoes, and then you could ask if they’d like oil, vinegar, oregano, and salt (the juices and spices).
• By giving the customer guiding yes/no questions, they are less likely to request for other toppings to be placed on the sandwich, which will lose the store money.
• Since the club subs (#8 and #9) come with mayo and bacon, you shouldn’t ask the customer if they want mayo or bacon on their lids. Those sandwiches come with mayo and bacon on the menu, so you should always put it on the sandwiches, unless they specifically work for you not to. The customers should’ve known what they were ordering when they ordered the eight or nine.
• Never ask “anything else” when you finish topping off a sandwich. It’s the worst thing you could ask a customer, because then they could ask for more toppings or take up more time thinking about what to add to the sandwich.
• You should try to minimize the questions that you ask the customers.
• Note: Although I heard the last tips from higher-ranking employees, asking more questions about how they want their sandwiches (what kind of bread they want, asking if they want any other toppings, confirming if they want mayo and bacon for #8’s and #9’s since not everyone wants one or the other, etc) might yield higher tips. It’s probably less of a good idea to ask questions during rush hours, but it may be worth doing if business is slow.
• Fun Fact: Mike’s Way is the same as the Blimpie Way for Blimpie’s (another sub sandwich franchise), except that the Blimpie Way doesn’t come with salt.
• If you add, pickles, jalapeños, and/or banana peppers before you add the juices to the sandwich, then the sandwich will taste differently, and that is not a good thing since the company aspires to make each of the sandwich types consistently taste the same across the entire country.
• Regular sub sandwiches should get 1 ounce of oil and 1 ounce of vinegar.
• Giant sub sandwiches should get 2 ounces of oil and 2 ounces of vinegar.
• You should shake enough oregano onto the sandwich to take the shine off of the tomatoes.
• It’s okay if you shake their oregano aggressively with both the top and the bottom of the oregano container bobbing up and down.
• While you are putting the oil and vinegar on the sandwiches, you should ask the customer a question or two about how their day has been and/or their plans for tonight or the weekend, so that they won’t watch how much juice has been placed on the sandwiches and it will distract them from knowing how much is on them.
• When you are putting the juices on the sandwiches, the oil bottle or the vinegar bottle should both be placed 180° with the cap pointing straight down. And then you can shake the bottles for hearing the swishing sounds so that your put the correct amounts of oil and vinegar on the sandwich.
• You should never add pickles, jalapeños, or pepperoncinis / banana peppers until after you at the oil and (red wine) vinegar (the juices), and spices first.
• For getting the avocado pits out faster: Once you slice an avocado in half, you can whack the avocado pit with the serrated edge of the avocado knife as hard as you can, and then turn the avocado knife back and forth until the seed unbinds with the avocado flesh. Then you can gently squeeze the half containing the pit to gently and easily dispose of it. The riper the avocado, the better this tends to work, since riper flesh is less bound to the pits.
• Once the avocado pit is out, it’s best to make clean, vertical slices of avocado with the knife, and then place them on the sandwich lid, equally spaced.
• Make every sandwich as if you’re going to eat it yourself, even if it’s something you’d never eat. You should be striving to create quality product.
• The lead time is the time that people making online orders should expect to wait before getting their sandwich(es). If you have to set the lead time for online back, you should always call your store’s manager, or ask your store’s WhatsApp group if an additional worker is willing to come in.

• It helps to push down on the middle of the sandwich bags while you are grabbing the top of them with your left thumb. Pushing down on the bags will help the tops flip open that way the bags open easier.
• To open the sandwich bags more easily, you should flick them with your wrist backwards and towards your dorsal direction, since this utilizes how each the creases and folds bag expand that way.
• Make sure that the bottom of the sandwich aligns with the bottom of the bag.
• When wrapping the sandwich, the sandwich should be positioned as diagonal as possible, relative to the wrapping paper. Once you fold the corner of the wrapping paper closest to you over the sandwich, and give it the quarter turn, you should crease the sides of the wrapping paper beside the sandwich ends and fold them and then fold them towards the sandwich. Then you should finish rolling the sandwich towards the corner of the wrapping paper that is farthest away from you.
• You should never have multiple sandwich wrapping papers out ahead time because it looks less presentable and more messy and chaotic to the customers (even if completing this task before hand would be more efficient). The counter looks more presentable to the customers when there’s only one sandwich wrapping paper out of time.
• You can fit 2-3 kids-sized sandwiches into a single sub bag. In my experience, the customer(s) tend to prefer that you do bag multiple kids subs this way, since it saves paper and waste.
• Cutting and wrapping sandwiches for catering follows a different procedure. For catering, giant subs are sliced into thirds, and each third is wrapped non-diagonally in mini-sized wrapping paper.
• Be sure to lower the mesh bread rack cover after the lunch rush ends, to help perserve the freshness of the bread loaves. You can and should uncover the mesh cover once business gets busy again.
• You should check on the lobby every once in a while and ask the customers how they sandwiches are tasting.
• Ideally, you should want customers who are so nice and familiarized with the staff of the store, that they memorize the employee’s names, and they are feel inclined to keep coming back to the store to buy sandwiches just to see the store employees and say hi and talk to them.
• If you need to replicate a receipt, but the machine won’t retrieve the last receipt, since a different order accidentally became the most recent order instead, then you try re-entering the customer’s order exactly as it was, print out an unpaid receipt, give it to the customer, and then cancel this order on the register (so that it doesn’t affect the inventory model or charge them twice). This is less ideal than just giving the customer the original paid receipt, but it is a work-around if you’re unable to print it out.
• Although it’s rare, door dash drivers could hypothetically steal orders if they know about them. You should call the customer(s) if the order shows up again or if it was stolen.

To slice sandwiches most quickly into two, three, or four equally size pieces:

• Angle the knife at a 45° angle, with the tip pointing downward before cutting.
• Since the knife has serrated edges, try placing the part of the knife that is closest to your hand on the bread first, and pull the knife towards you while you’re cutting the sandwich, so that you can cut it in half in one fell swoop.
  • This technique only involves just two motions, it’s by far the fastest way to cut any sandwich, once you’ve practiced doing it enough.
  • The Rosemary Parmesan bread can be difficult in particular to cut with a knife, due to the hard Parmesan on top. However, sawing the bread with the 45° angle manages to cut the bread from the side where there’s less Parmesan, hence why this technique makes it easier to cut sandwiches.
• If you’re a beginner or this isn’t working, it’s okay if you have to saw the bread using a back-and-forth motion. The bread knife has serrated edges, so it’s designed for sawing motions.
• After cutting a tuna sandwich with a knife, you should try to wipe the knife off as soon as you can so that the next customer won’t get any tuna on their sandwich.

When angling the knife for cutting sandwiches, remember: “cut forty five forward” (for remembering to tilt the bread knife forward). Then you hold the sandwich in place with your non-dominant hand and just pull the knife for sawing the sandwich in half.

In my opinion, it was harder to learn how to make grilled sandwiches for multiple reasons:

• Cooking on the grill is time sensitive, since you have to make sure things don’t burn. This is especially challenging during lunch rushes.
• Conversely, you have to make sure that the meats are cooked all the way, for food safety.
• If the chicken and/or steak meats container(s) in the drop-in unit is/are empty, then you’ll have to run all the way to the freezer and back to restock the chicken and beef Philly steaks.
• You have to manage flipping and chopping multiple Philly steaks at once, if multiple are cooking at the same time.
• You have to grab the right amounts of veggies. It’s less feasible to put extra veggies that were grabbed accidentally back into the cool drop-in unit if they’ve touched the grill and gained some heat.
• They’re ordered less often, so they were harder to memorize (in my experience).
• The 65, 66, 31 are secret menu items. There may be different secret menu items depending on your store location.
• If you put water on the grill to help break up and remove debris, the water will temporarily cool the grill down from its set temperature, which will mean that it will take longer to cook meats placed on it, especially if there was a lot of water and/or the water is cooler than usual.
• The sandwich making tutorial chart guides were sometimes covered by sub bags and glove boxes.

Note: If you’re not old enough to use the meat slicer, you may end up grilling sandwiches more often than the 18-and-over employees since they’ll be at the slicer more often.

1. Take off the blade guard and meat stabilizer, and take to the dish cleaning sink.
2. Close the slicer blade with the dial, so that it’s safer to clean the slicer, and so you’ll be less likely to cut yourself.
3. Use a water sprayer and spray the entire meat slicer with water. When all the debris gets wet, it makes it easier to wipe it off the slicer with a sanitizer rag.
4. Clean the top parts of the slicer before cleaning the bottom. If you clean the bottom before the top, then you’ll have to clean the bottom a second time after the debris falls off the top parts.
5. Use a dry rag to clean up the rest of the debris, including while the slicer blade rotates. Since the remaining debris will likely retain some moisture, it will stick to the dry rag, thus making it easy to remove.
6. Use the lever to lift the slicer up, so that you can clean up the last of the debris beneath it.

1. Scrape what you can off of the grill with the scraper. Push the grill scraper at a 70-80 degree angle if necessary.
2. Prepare 3 yellow (or blue) rags with a few sprays of orange cleaning solution.
   • Note: If the store is all out of grill cleaner, then you can use water to scrape off the debris, and then use oil to clean the rest of the grill.
3. Cover cooking surface in hot water, especially the grill spots. You cannot pour cold water on the grill, since it could potentially crack the surface.
   • Pro Tip: It may help to fill a bucket of hot water from the dishes sink, so that you can pour water on the grill continuously, without having to keep refill it and wait for the water from the nearby sink to get hotter.
4. Scrape hot water and debris off the surface, as needed.
5. Pour 2 ounces of orange grill cleaner over grill (can be measured with the 2oz side cups).
6. Use disposable green scrubby pad or grill brick to spread grill cleaner over surface.
7. Wipe down the top shelf and back wall and sides of the grill with the cleaning solution while letting the grill cleaner sit.
8. After all other surfaces are cleaned, use hot water and a squidgy to clean it off.
9. Slide a dough cutter through the grease trough to clean it.
10. Use a rag to clear any remaining residue.
11. Take dishes to the cleaning sinks.
12. Turn off the grill.
13. Take out the grease bucket.

• It’s better to empty the troughs the end of the night in one of the trash cans near the front line, instead of in the trash cans near the dishes or the backline, since those are more likely to be empty at the end of the day if they were taken out in the middle of the day.
• If you need to clean up a grease bucket overflow, the best way to clean the grease off the floor is to sprinkle corn meal over the grease, so that the dry corn meal will soak it all up and make it easier to remove. The problem with using papers towels and/or a mop and floor cleaning solution is that grease/oil don’t mix. Sprinkling cornmeal on the floor is much better since it’s really dry, can absorb lots of grease, and can be scooped up into a trash bag when done. You can then use a broom to sweep up the grease-cornmeal mix, and then mop up whatever is left.
• Windex is ideal for cleaning the oil and vinegar bottles, since they’re made out of glass.
• One should check the grease bucket before cleaning the grill since cleaning the grill involves placing a lot of water on the grill, at which point the grease bucket is the most likely to spill over.
• It may seem like it takes a lot of work to clean the broom pan, but it’s actually really easy to clean when putting it inside the dish rinsing sink and using the dish sprayer to blast all the dirt away with water. This should only be if it’s the end of the night, and there are no other dishes in the sprayer sink. Once all (or nearly all) the debris is removed from the broom pan, either paper towels or used rags should be used to dry the water off the pan. As much water should be removed from the dust pan as possible, so that dirt doesn’t end up touching the water and sticking to the pan after cleaning.
• The best way to clean the prep sink and the mop sink when there is only dirt and debris in them (no big, grabbable objects) is to fill a bucket full of water and dump all the water into the sinks, to wash all the debris away and down the drain.

1. Grab the bank book (the notebook with the bank number written on it), a drop bag, and 1 white-yellow drop slip from the closing paperwork drawer.
2. Open up the paperwork spreadsheet on the computer.
3. Count all the bills and coins in the safe. They should add up to $500. Input all the dollar values for each type of bill and coin into the paperwork spreadsheet, and type your initials for the column recording the money inside the safe.
4. Input the current dates and your name on the top and bottom of the paperwork file.
5. Setup the drop bag for the night by writing the store name and number, the account number, your signature, and the name of the bank that the drop bag will eventually be deposited into on the drop bag.
6. Pro Tip: Sometimes you can copy the safe money totals from the previous day in the spreadsheet, to reduce the time it takes to count all the money in the safe. However, there may some corrections that you may have to do to these amounts if money was taken out of the safe to replenish the dollar and coin denominations within the register drawer. Regardless, your goal is to ensure that the correct coin and dollar amounts are recorded for the safe on the current day.
7. Pro Tip: When counting money for the closing paperwork (or any scenario, really), it’s helpful to lay both the cash and the coins out in groups or stacks where each bill or coin is visible within the stack. This makes much easier to count faster and keep track of which bills were already countered, without needing to recount every single bill if it is necessary. If you do this for all the bills or coins, then you will only need to count by the number of groups, and multiply that number by how much the bill or coin is worth, to get the total worth. By contrast, if you count all the bills or coins into a single stack, and you lose track of where you were counting, then you will need to recount the entire stack, because you won’t be able to see how many coins or bills are already in the pile that you already counted.

1. Start by counting and inputting the tips into the system: POS -> Management Tab -> Store Transactions -> New -> Transaction: Pay In -> Amount: Enter In Tip Amount -> Save.
2. Put the cash tips into the drawer.
3. Print out the Detailed Sales Report: POS -> Reports Tab -> Detailed Sales Report -> Print
4. Input the Reg CID into the paperwork spreadsheet. “CID” stands for “cash in drawer”.
5. Count all the bills and coins in the register. They should add up to $300. Input all the dollar values for each type of bill and coin into the paperwork spreadsheet (on the laptop), and type your initials for the column recording the money inside each register.
6. The rest of the money over the $300 limit is the drop for the night. It should match the REG CID or be very close.
7. Write the drop amount into the bank notebook.
8. Write the drop amount on the white-yellow drop slip.
9. Write the drop amount on the drop bag top slip (currency and total deposit).
10. Write the drop amount on the drop bag (currency, total deposit, number of $100 bills, etc).
11. Call and notify the General Manager if the money is off by more than $5.00.
12. Put the $300 from register #1 into the register #1 bag, and the drop money into the drop bag. Be sure to let all the air out of the drop bag before sealing it.
13. Sign your signature on the drop bag once complete. Put the drop bag, bank notebook, and the register #1 bag in the safe. Lock the safe.
14. On the paperwork spreadsheet, record the cash tips, in-store credit card tips, online CC tips, giftcard tips, and actual sales. These numbers can be found on the detailed sales report.
15. Input any store pay-outs under the total.
16. Type your initials and date the spreadsheet after completing this.
17. Remember to check under the register for any pay-out receipts or extra bills.
18. Staple the detailed sales report, yellow drop slip, drop bag tab, cash tips receipt, and any store pay-out receipts together, and put into the Closing Paperwork Folder.
19. Complete all the other closing tasks for the evening. When finished, clock out, set the alarm, and lock the door.

1. Do the temperature checks for everything in the store, if it wasn’t already done this evening.
2. Turn off front-line veggie cooler and bacon warmer.
3. Place front-line veggies on black tray (which may be used for prepping gluten-free cold subs)
4. Pack bacon into to-go tub (so that it can potentially be preserved for tomorrow, and so bacon pan and grate can go to dish sink).
5. Take bacon pan, grate, bread knives, CPR/mayo/avocado spreaders, and trough to dishes sink.
6. Place lids on all hot sub unit containers and on front-line lettuce, tomatoes, and onions bins.
7. Take hot sub chicken steaks to walk-in freezer, if not already done.
8. Stock the drop-in unit with Philly steaks from the freezer, and take a box of bacon out of the freezer to put into the fridge so that they can both thaw out overnight, and thus take less time to cook in the morning.
9. Make any cold or hot subs that you’d like to take home for yourself for the night. Care for customers who come into store in person.
10. Take grill dough cutters, bins, grates, etc to sink for rinsing, washing, and sanitizing.
11. Clean and close the grill.
12. Dump grease bucket.
13. Take bread loaves from front line, and place in proofer.
14. Start counting items for production report. When filling out the production reports at the end of the night, you should circle the weather symbols for each day (near the labels for each day at the top). The weather symbols can help the store manager figure out how the weather has affected the sales and production chart.
15. Take all trash bags to back of store. Take to dumpster.
16. Sweep and mop the lobby, if no one hasn’t already.
17. Start cleaning slicer.
18. Start counting cash tips and register 15 minutes before close, if you’re confident that no more customers will come in.

1. Turn off open sign, and lock the front door.
2. Transfer onions, lettuce, and tomatoes from front line to grill, so that grill is fully stocked for openers.
3. Put lettuce, tomatoes, and onions into bottom meat case cubby. Start wrapping meats with saran wrap. Turn off meat case lights.
4. Finish counting production report (if necessary).
5. Finish deep cleaning both slicers.
6. Complete any cleaning tasks for the night.
   • Finish any remaining dishes.
   • Clean grease vents (if necessary).
   • Remove soda nozzles and place in sanitizer water (if necessary).
7. Sweep and mop the front line (and the back line, if not already done).
8. Print out detailed sales report, and finish paperwork.
9. Make sure all checklist tasks are complete (and initialed).