National hoagie chain Jersey Mike's will introduce a gluten-free roll next month as the expanding franchise seeks to provide safe options for customers with gluten intolerance.
The Manasquan-based restaurant, named the second fastest-growing restaurant chain in 2016, now has more than 1,300 locations across the country. Known for baking its bread in-house, Jersey Mike's has partnered with Colorado-based Udi's, a gluten-free specialist, to offer pre-manufactured rolls at locations nationwide, according to Restaurant News.
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The company has reportedly been testing the bread at about 200 locations over the past two years and will move forward with a full rollout of the offering on Dec. 4.
Jersey Mike's previously attempted to bake its own gluten-free rolls with dough from a wholesaler but found that consistency was too difficult to achieve while meeting standards to avoid cross-contamination.
This time around, the company worked with the Gluten Intolerance Group to develop employee training and other procudures for the new rolls.
The regular gluten-free rolls may cost an extra $1.50 and "giant" gluten-free rolls another $3.
Jersey Mike's CEO Mike Manzo said he'd like to see the new rolls account for about 5 percent of sales going forward.