Miami Grill, formerly Miami Subs Grill, is a privately held

restaurant chain A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...

, based in the US state of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. The chain has approximately 30 locations, the majority of which are in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach County Florida. The company's menu consists of such items as

wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expre ...

, philly cheesesteak sandwiches, and Gyros along with items from

Arthur Treacher's Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips is an American fast food seafood restaurant and former chain. At the peak of its popularity in the late 1970s, it had more than 800 stores. However, as of June 2021, there is only one stand-alone Arthur Treacher's l ...

and

Nathan's Famous Nathan's Famous, Inc. is an American company that operates a chain of fast food restaurants specializing in hot dogs. The original Nathan's restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of the B ...

hot dogs, all of which operate co-branding agreements with Miami Grill, and which were corporate siblings of Miami Subs from 1999–2007.

History

Founding

The founder of the company,

Gus Boulis Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis ( Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Μπούλης; April 6, 1949 – February 6, 2001) was an entrepreneur, land developer, casino operator, and restaurateur of Greek descent, who was murdered in 2001. The murder has been ...

, helped build the Mr. Submarine, now known as

Mr. Sub Mr. Sub (stylized MR.SUB), originally called Mr. Submarine before the 1990s, is a Canadian chain of over 200 submarine sandwich shops. The first store was opened in 1968 in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood, which was then known for its "hip ...

, restaurant chain in Canada from a single location to over 200 locations, after which he retired to Florida. In 1980, he opened another restaurant in

Key West Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...

called Mr. Submarine, which later expanded into Miami Subs Grill, offering a greater variety of food, all cooked to order.

Expansion

Miami Subs Grill built this concept and expanded rapidly in the '90s, starting in

and spreading quickly nationwide, with new restaurant locations, as well as stores in less typical locations, such as schools, highway

rest area A rest area is a public facility located next to a large thoroughfare such as a motorway, expressway, or highway, at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting onto secondary roads. Other names include motorway serv ...

s (particularly along

Florida's Turnpike Florida's Turnpike, designated as unsigned State Road 91 (SR 91), is a toll road in the U.S. state of Florida, maintained by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE). Spanning approximately along a northwest–southeast axis, the turnpike is in tw ...

) and airports. The restaurants featured a distinctive exterior design with

South Beach South Beach, also nicknamed colloquially as SoBe, is a neighborhood in Miami Beach, Florida. It is located east of Miami between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The area encompasses Miami Beach south of Dade Boulevard. This area was the ...

-inspired pastels trimmed with pink and blue

neon light Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon lights are a type of cold cathode gas-discharge light. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode a ...

s and interiors decorated in a tropical motif.

Co-branding agreement

A 1998 agreement added Arthur Treacher's

fish and chips Fish and chips is a popular hot dish consisting of fried fish in crispy batter, served with chips. The dish originated in England, where these two components had been introduced from separate immigrant cultures; it is not known who created ...

to the Miami Subs Grill concept. A planned merger between the two companies failed, however, when Arthur Treacher's stock value dropped precipitously.

Purchase and sale

In 1999,

purchased the chain for $14.4 million, bringing the Miami Subs Grill and Arthur Treacher's brands under a common corporate umbrella. The chain had approximately 175 outlets at acquisition. However, the chain struggled, due in part to instability in the management ranks, and in 2007, Nathan's Famous announced the sale of Miami Subs to a private investment group, Miami Subs Capital Partner 1 Inc, for $3.3 million.

International expansion and partnership

At the time of the sale, the chain operated in nearly 60 locations, including one in Turkey. 40 additional restaurants were planned in Turkey, but were never completed. Another location was under construction in Romania, where 20 restaurants were planned, but never completed either. On July 24, 2012, Miami Subs announced that an equity stake in the chain was purchased by Armando Cristian Pérez, known by his stage name,

Pitbull Pit bull is a term used in the United States for a type of dog descended from bulldogs and terriers, while in other countries such as the United Kingdom the term is used as an abbreviation of the American Pit Bull Terrier breed. The term was f ...

. In February 2013, Miami Subs announced an agreement to develop new stores in the Middle East GCC countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain. However, these stores never came to fruition.

Rebrand to Miami Grill

Starting in 2014, the company decided to change their branding strategy by gradually changing to a new branding concept called Miami Grill.

Future plans

In April 2020, Miami Grill announced plans to eliminate their dining rooms and install two drive-through lanes, a walk-up order window and a mobile order pick-up area to every location, which would accommodate the changing times as fewer people dine in at restaurants.Rob Hurtibise
"Miami Grill unveils 'next generation' concept"
''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', April 22, 2020

References

External links

Miami Grill official website

Miami Grill Franchise website
{{coord missing, Florida Fast casual restaurants Restaurants in Florida Restaurants established in 1980 Submarine sandwich restaurants American companies established in 1980 1980 establishments in Florida