Now that flagship store is closed — at least temporarily. The windows are covered in notices about the non-payment of taxes, though the company said it plans to find a new franchisee to take it over.
"It's really disheartening," Lambatos says of the news, adding that he would regularly stop by for a sandwich. "I've eaten there about forty times in the last fifteen or so years that I've been away from the business."
The Grant Street location was a sandwich shop before it became the first Quiznos. "It was called the Starring Roll," Lambatos remembers, a place that served sandwiches named after celebrities like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe. "It lasted about six months."
When Quiznos moved in, the oven it was using wasn't able to keep up with demand, which led to one big innovation: conveyor belt ovens. "We needed something that would bake the sandwich but wouldn't burn the bread," Lambatos says of how the idea came about.
After growing the company to seventeen locations, Lambatos split with his original business partner, Todd Disner, in 1988. Three years later, Disner "sold out to Rick Schaden," Lambatos recalls. "Rick and his father took the company public and raised enough to grow to about 4,000 stores. It was the fastest-growing franchise in the country for quite some time."
Lambatos, who also owned a catering company called Footers, ended up back in the Quiznos fold in a different way in the early 2000s. "You meet the same people on the way up as on the way down. I never burn any bridges," he says.
"I ended up going back and helping Rich concept some new sandwiches. In 2003, they asked me to cater a party for them. I show up to the party and was passing hors d'oeuvres, and they're filming me. Three weeks later, they handed me a contract to go to Hollywood to do commercials" — one of which ended up playing during the 2003 Super Bowl for an audience of 140 million people.
In 2006, Quiznos sold to JP Morgan Chase. Since then, the chain has shrunk dramatically. Now, Lambatos says, there are around 300 stores left, most of which are located in the Philippines.
"It's still a great concept and a great sandwich," he affirms. "It's a whole lot better than the competition, even now."
These days, Lambatos is still in the food business. His son runs Footers, which now offers on- and off-premises catering from its location at 6543 Wadsworth Boulevard in Arvada. And in the summer of 2020, Lambatos opened a neighborhood Italian eatery called Jimmy's Jersey Street Cafe at 932 Jersey Street.
"I've been in this business for over 45 years," he says. "This is my last hurrah."
