A bright new Jimmy John’s sign began glowing on Sherman Avenue last week.
Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, currently located at 824 Clark St., will move to a new location at 1729 Sherman Ave., , before the end of the month.
The sub shop’s new storefront offers a better location that will likely increase foot traffic, Jimmy John’s manager Caleb Granner said.
An official opening date for the relocated Jimmy John’s has yet to be determined as construction wraps up, Granner said. The new Jimmy John’s is close to being ready and may move into its new storefront during Thanksgiving weekend, he said.
The restaurant’s effort to find a more convenient location has already paid off with at least one student. Weinberg freshman Trey Grant said though he and his dorm-mates in the Public Affairs Residential College sometimes order Jimmy John’s for delivery, he had never visited the old storefront and did not know where it was. He recently passed the new shop and plans to go there in the future, he said.
“It’s better located because it’s near all the food shops,” Grant said.
Plans to move to a new location have been in effect for a year, after the Jimmy John’s corporate office told the Evanston location to remodel in order to add branding updates, owner Tom Ryan said.
In order to remodel the shop, Jimmy John’s would have needed to add public restrooms to its current facility in compliance with the state plumbing code and the Evanston health department’s regulations, Ryan said. Rather than close the sub shop in order to add public restrooms and branding updates – and lose business in the meantime – the store decided to take the opportunity to move to a more central location in downtown Evanston by constructing a new shop with the necessary improvements, Ryan said.
“We didn’t want to deprive Northwestern students of our delicious sandwiches,” Ryan said jokingly. “We saw an opportunity for a much, much better location and jumped at it.”
Remodeling efforts normally do not pose as much of an issue for Evanston restaurants, Health Department division manager Carl Caneva said.
“Right now we have 400 licensed facilities and it’s not very common at all,” Caneva said.
A new food-serving facility could move in to Jimmy John’s soon-to-be-vacant storefront on Clark Street without adding public restrooms, as long as they specialized in carryout and do not have a seating area, Caneva said.
Jimmy John’s has been in its current location for close to 17 years – on Clark Street across the street from Quartet Copies, Ryan said.
The new Jimmy John’s location, formerly the site of Omni Salon and Day Spa, will offer approximately the same amount of indoor space as the old shop, with the addition of outdoor seating on a patio during warmer months, Ryan said.
“We’re obviously excited and we’re looking forward to what will happen,” Ryan said.
