Jason’s Deli
A Jason’s Deli sandwich restaurant is slated to officially open today in the College Park Shopping Center after permit issues caused months of delays.
The College Park Jason’s Deli will be the Texas-based chain’s first location in this state. In an effort to distinguish itself from the area’s existing sandwhich shops, the restaurant will offer free ice cream, free deliveries for orders more than $20 and a slew of food options with “healthy ingredients.”
The restaurant will fill the storefront that the Wawa convenience store vacated in 2007, but students don’t expect it to fill Wawa’s shoes.
“Wawa was sort of like its own club. You go there late, after the bars, to hang out,” senior biology major Adam Becker said. He and other students don’t think Jason’s Deli, which closes no later than 10 p.m., could provide the same social experience.
However, Becker – who attended a preview of the restaurant this past weekend – said Jason’s Deli offers better food than previous College Park establishments.
“Everything was really big, delicious,” he said, adding he paid about $8 for his “New York Yankee” pastrami and beef sandwich, a price he thought was reasonable.
Daniel Helfman, Jason’s Deli’s director of public relations, has said the restaurant offers customers a mix of large and small portions for extra health and cost flexibility.
Becker said the food at Jason’s was most comparable to Potbelly Sandwich Works or Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, but they seemed “stale” in comparison.
Jason’s Deli first announced its move to College Park in April 2008 and spent months working its way through county permitting toward a tentative February opening date.
The restaurant’s opening was then delayed for another two months because it was unable to procure a separate permit from the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, a spokesman said.
However, months of seeing the “Jason’s Deli” sign at the busy shopping center seems to have made students more aware of the restaurant: Many said they were familiar with it and look forward to trying it out.
Sophomore government and politics major Mike Aposporos said he was about to run out of dining hall points and would soon be a customer at “[any restaurant] that’s good.”
“More selection in College Park is good,” Aposporos said.
But some students saw Jason’s Deli as redundant to the existing sandwich shops downtown despite its perported health advantages.
“I just feel there’s a lot of sandwich places already here,” sophomore public health major Morgan Ames said.
Ames said Jason’s Deli might have been able to fill a budget niche with bargain pricing but not with premium-priced health food.
Subway – her favorite sandwich restaurant – offers plenty of healthy choices at reasonable prices already, she added.
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