How Jersey Mike's Went From A Local Sandwich Shop To A Global Franchise

In 1956, Mike's Subs was opened by Michael Ingravallo in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. The shop was unique, as not many submarine sandwich restaurants had existed in the area at the time. Its convenient location brought in an impressive amount of customers, especially because of traveling tourists and visitors in the Jersey Shore area who were hungry after a day at the beach. Customers often returned because of the delicious ingredients, fresh-baked bread, and the owner himself. They loved Ingravallo's attentiveness to not only their names but their regular orders, creating a warm environment and a customer base that kept coming back for more.

Enter 14-year-old Peter Cancro, a high school student who absolutely adored his job behind the counter at Mike's and would until his senior year, when he overheard the store's owner mention that he may be making the difficult decision to sell the restaurant. Then 17 years old, Cancro jumped to the challenge, asking his football coach for a $125,000 loan to purchase the sub shop and becoming the owner of Mike's Subs. Cancro quickly opened multiple local restaurants, but the pleas of loyal out-of-state customers resulted in Cancro franchising the chain in 1987. He also added "Jersey" into the title as an homage to its East Coast beginnings.

Jersey Mike's today

In an interview with Forbes, Cancro reflected on his decision at 17 to buy the restaurant. "[I] gave up the college career of studying law, political science, at North Carolina Chapel Hill," he said. "At that age, you don't think that you can fail." And thankfully for Cancro, he did not fail. In fact, since purchasing the store, Peter Cancro now oversees just shy of 3,000 Jersey Mike's locations. In November 2024, private equity business Blackstone partnered with Jersey Mike's, intending to expand not only within the United States, but to the rest of the world. While Cancro sold a majority stake of the sub chain, he is still acting as the CEO. Jersey Mike's was valued at $8 billion, meaning that Cancro's net worth is estimated to be over $7.5 billion according to Bloomberg or $5.6 billion according to Forbes. Either way you slice it, Cancro is one of the top 600 richest people in the world.

For those who find themselves at a Jersey Mike's location, perhaps opt for an Original Italian to see if it compares to the others on our ranking of the best Italian subs in the United States or if it beats one of Subway's best sandwiches, the highly regarded Hotshot Italiano. Not in the mood for Italian? Maybe a Cuban sandwich off of the secret menu will be even better than the country's best Cuban sandwiches.

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