Win It!: Firehouse Subs

My family visited Firehouse Subs in Lewisville, TX today and had a great time. It is a fast-casual sub shop in the DFW area and throughout the U.S.  It was founded by former firefighters and that have decades of firefighting heritage in their family. Each restaurant has special touches from that community's local fire department to honor hometown heroes. This was our first visit and my favorite part of the visit was their attention to detail. Their "Firehouse" theme is complete with firehouse decor, fire hats for kids, and a commitment to donating funds to our local fire stations. They also pay close attention to using high quality ingredients that are prepared fresh daily for the subs.

Let me start off by showing you some photos that I took inside of the restaurant. Check out the decorations on the wall:

 

The tables have a fun Dalmatian print on them. You can also see the little fireman hat that they gave to my son!

 

They offer a wide variety of sauces so that everyone with preferences from mild to hot will find something that they like. I love that one of their famous sauces comes in the bottle shaped like a fire hydrant below. (I told you that they pay attention to detail and that the fire station theme was consistent through the shop!)

They offer thousands of drink combinations because they have a Coca Cola Freestyle machine. I made a mixture of Diet  Coke and Diet Cherry Coke. My husband went with Coke Zero.  If you haven't used this touch-screen to select your soda, it is fun because there are so many options and you can customize your own drink. 

 

They display the meats in a fridge near the register. I love that they only use high quality meats and that they slice them daily. Good quality and freshness is something that they are known for, in addition to the generous portions of meat on each sandwich. A regular sandwich has 1/4 pound of meet and a large has 1/2 pound. They don't skimp on anything which is why you will hear people rave about Firehouse Subs.

  

My toddler had a kids meal. It came with a little sandwich, cookie, and drink. Check out my happy little guy who loves his kids meal!

My husband and I tried five of their hot specialty subs. We started with the Hook & Ladder Sub and the Smokehouse Beef & Cheddar Brisket. The Hook & Ladder Sub is their #1 seller. It has smoked turkey breast, Virginia home ham, and melted Monterey Jack cheese. It comes "Fully Involved" which means that it is loaded with mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion, and a dill spear on the side. They were nice about leaving the onions off since I'm not a fan of onions. My husband and I agree that it tastes like a best seller.

My husband and I both liked the Smokehouse Beef & Cheddar Brisket, but it was my husband's all-time favorite! I don't know anywhere in the DFW area to find a sandwich like this that is even half as good. It has USDA choice beef brisket that is smoked for 10+ hours. It has melted cheddar and special sauces. We liked the juicy meet and the sauce that went well with it.

The next two that we tried were the New York Steamer Sub and Italian Sub. The New York Steamer is not something that we typically eat, so it was fun to try something different. It contains corned beef brisket, pastrami, melted provolone, mustard, mayo, and Italian dressing.  My husband and I wondered why we don't eat sandwiches like this more often. It was flavorful and filling. 

 The Italian sub is my personal favorite. It reminds me of the Hook & Ladder, but zestier. It has Genoa salami, pepperoni, ham, melted provolone, Italian dressing, seasonings, and is "Fully Involved". This is their #2 seller. Their Italian sub is better than any other competitor Italian sub that I've ever tried.

The last sub that we tried was the meatball sub. The meatball sub comes with 5 large meatballs and seasonings such as oregano, basil, and Parmesan. The warmed up bread is amazing!  This is a sub that they are well known for. As I mentioned earlier, they don't skimp on their sandwiches. We had to eat this with a fork because they stuffed it so full.

Finally, while the Firehouse theme looks cool, I wanted to know if they do anything for firefighters. I was surprised when they told me about their serious commitment to fire stations, including ones in the DFW area. They have donated $5.7 MILLION to fire stations! This includes $425,000+ to fire stations in Texas.  I love that we have a local business that is helping out our communities, especially during this bad economy.  Actually, even though the economy hasn't been great, Firehouse Subs has been doing really well. They have 17 locations in Texas and are building 10 new ones next year. People in DFW love Firehouse Subs!

We definitely plan to visit Firehouse Subs again because our entire family loves this shop. Since we have an energetic toddler, we like fast-casual restaurants where they have good quality food and bring the food to your table. We also like that they are child-friendly with the food options and the fun little fireman hat. (My toddler is really into Fireman Sam so he calls it "Fireman Sam's restaurant")

PS - Check out this campaign that they have going on in case you have a fun idea!

"Firehouse Subs is donating $1 to the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation for every photo of a pickle bucket posted to Instagram, the Firehouse Subs Facebook page, Twitter, or Pinterest with #BucketsSaveLives from December 31, 2012 - February 10, 2013 to help first responders get the equipment they need to protect and save lives.

You can also check out the #BucketsSaveLives video we'll be releasing to the public on 12/31 here."

Win It!
Firehouse Subs has generously offered to provide one of our readers with a $25 gift card! Enter using the Rafflecopter below. The winner must have a U.S. mailing address. We will contact the winner by email and they will have 24 hours to respond to our email with their mailing address. Regrettably, if  we do not hear back with the address within 24 hours, we will have to select a new winner. Good luck!
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We appreciate the complementary products that we received. All opinions are honest and our own.