Firehouse Subs is one of our favorite sandwich chains, ranking sixth out of 21 national sandwich chains. While they offer soups and salads, Firehouse Subs' sandwiches are what keep customers coming back time and time again. Ironically, Firehouse Subs began with an order that wasn't a sub, but a hot dog.
They were added to the menu, along with the legendary salad bar, as part of the health food craze that was sweeping the nation in the early '80s. This was a big deal at the time. In the early 1980s, the USDA released its first dietary guidelines, suggesting Americans cut back on saturated fats, sodium, sugar, and cholesterol. In 1982, Coca-Cola introduced Diet Coke. The diet craze was in full swing, so Wendy's took its own big swing by offering a baked potato in 1983.
If there were an Academy Awards-style "In Memoriam segment" for all the discontinued fast food items that still have cult followings, Burger King's forgotten offerings would take up a good chunk of Lady Gaga singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," or whatever. The fast food giant has been around since the 1950s, so it stands to reason that the menu has seen its fair share of changes in that time.