How Jersey Mike's Gets Its Shredded Lettuce So Thin

Jersey Mike's has been rewarded with Reddit's stamp for the absolute best sub sandwich chain (although you should think twice about ordering this Jersey Mike's sub). There is just something so appealing about the way it does things, like the mix of red wine vinegar and oil (referred to as the "juice") and the two-ingredient spice blend that gives the subs their signature flavor. There is also the way Jersey Mike's slices its lettuce, so thin it's like paper that has gone through a shredder, creating a satisfyingly crunchy, but not overwhelming, bite. How do the sandwich artists achieve such perfection? Well, they have a little help from the same slicer upon which they cut the meats.

It's actually a more involved process than you might think. The day before the lettuce gets used, employees "bop" it against a hard surface, essentially smushing it down to loosen it up. Some then triple-stack (or even quadruple-stack, or more) the leafy greens on the slicer for efficiency's sake, and then press firmly as they run it across the moving blade.

This results in those super thin shards we all know and love, but that's not even the final step. The workers then go in with their hands, manually breaking up the lettuce into smaller pieces, so that when they go to grab it to put in your sandwich, they aren't picking up long, straggly strands.

Did you know that Jersey Mike's lettuce — and indeed, all of its vegetables — are sliced to exacting measurements? Not only does it keep your subs consistent, but it also keeps food costs predictable and manageable. The lettuce should come out to 0.125 inches, while the tomatoes, which are actually the standard by which all the other vegetables are measured, should be 3/16 of an inch. Luckily, employees don't have to measure each slice; instead, there's a nifty specialty machine where they push the tomatoes through, and they slice them whole, all at once. This also makes the work quantifiable by time, and a single row in a standard Jersey Mike's tomato pan should only take about a minute to slice.

Some employees then actually take a tomato and stick it directly on the same slicer used for meats and lettuce, in order to get an accurate cut on the onions, too. There's a bit of prep work in regard to the alliums, which get both ends sliced off and the peels removed before they receive the slicer treatment; two pieces of onion should equal one of tomato.

In case you were wondering, too, Jersey Mike's uses Bizerba GSPHI150 series slicers to cut its ingredients. These are heavy-duty workhorses, best suited for commercial kitchens, but if you really want one of your own, you can buy them online (they retail for up to $6,600).