In 2024, Blackstone—the world's largest private equity firm at the time, with $1 trillion in capital under management—announced it was buying the sandwich chain Jersey Mike's. Founded on the Jersey Shore in 1975 by a 17-year-old Peter Cancro, who purchased the first shop with a loan from his high school football coach, Jersey Mike's had become one of the fastest-growing restaurant brands in America.
If you're from the Garden State, as I am, you might bristle a bit at the authenticity grab of Jersey Mike's toponym, as I do. The Original Italian, after all, doesn't display the level of New Jersey cured-pork sandwich artistry available at Dolce & Clemente's in Robbinsville, Michael's Salumeria in Lyndhurst, or Fiore's House of Quality in Hoboken. But it's sturdy enough, dependable, and less sad than the fading Subway footlong.
