Potbelly Sandwich Shop is a sandwich and food store that was founded in 1977 by Peter Hastings. The original store is located at 2264 North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, in a retail space that was previously an antique store called Hindsight, also owned by Hastings. Many of the items that decorated the restaurant were taken from the former antique store including the namesake Potbelly stove. In 1996, Bryant Keil purchased the original store. Keil quickly expanded the company, The second store was opened in 1997, and he expanded Potbelly to over 300 stores in several states and the District of Columbia. Investors include Maveron and American Securities. As of August 2019, approximately 10% of the chains 450+ locations were franchisees.
During the Covid-19 crisis, Potbelly Sandwich Shop applied for and accepted $10 million under the PPP which the United States government created for small businesses to maintain workers through the Covid-19 crisis. On April 14th, 2020, the company was awarded $10 million in PPP Loans from the federal government. Protesters began picketing April 20, 2020 at the Chicago headquarters demanding the return of the funds. The company continued operations as their drive-thru business thrives during the pandemic and which included payments to international employees that were fired in Q2 2019. Potbelly Sandwich Shop announced on April 25th, 2020 that they would return the $10 million loan.
On November 5, 2007, a new Potbelly store in Glen Ellyn, Illinois became the first to feature a drive-through. A second drive-through store was added shortly thereafter in Waukegan, Illinois. In 2011, Potbelly opened two franchise stores in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; these are the first international Potbelly locations. Potbelly opened its first European store at Westfield Stratford City, London, in July 2015 and its first Canadian store in Toronto in October 2016. By August 2017, 60% of Potbelly's business came from lunch. It had 424 owned stores and 54 franchised stores. Early that month, Potbelly announced it was considering putting itself for sale. In December 2017, Potbelly opened its first franchise in India with a new location in Cyber City, Gurgaon. The company signed a multi-franchise agreement with India's Kwals Group, with plans to open five franchises in the country by the end of 2018 and 20 locations over the next five years. As part of its 2019 Q2 earnings call, chief financial officer Thomas Fitzgerald made the following announcement; “As part of our strategy to hone our focus on the turnaround of our core business and exit international markets, this quarter we closed six international shops, leaving one remaining international shop, which is in the Middle East, We expect to close that shop in the second half of this year.”
Menu
Potbelly's menu features a variety of sandwiches that are all served hot. Potbelly began offering salads in February 2007, and the menu also includes soup, shakes, malts, smoothies, and cookies.
Live music
Many restaurants included live music from local musicians during the lunch hours in the past.
