• Nation's Restaurant News, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 10:42 AM

Subway says its four-month old foray into breakfast has exceeded expectations and it plans to expand its early-morning menu with limited-time offers and explore adding more coffee- or espresso-based beverages. Subway's breakfast program features egg and cheese sandwiches served on whole-wheat English muffins, flatbreads or Subway's traditional 6-inch and foot-long hoagie (we say "hero" in New York) breads.

"The franchisees are happy and the customers are buying the product," Larry Varvella, Subway's research and development project leader, tells Elissa Elan without disclosing sales numbers. "In the past, the menu mix was higher in non-breakfast items, but now we're seeing equal amounts [in sales] of about 50% breakfast and non-breakfast."

Varvella says that the two best-selling items are an egg white western melt and a double bacon and cheese omelet. More limited-time sandwiches are on the way. "We fully believe that new products are one of the life-bloods of a restaurant chain," Varvella says.

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