Maybe a slightly upscale 7-11?

I associate Pret with airports for some reason.

I’ve eaten at several Pret a Mangers in London and they were ok, nothing to write home about but not bad. Better than a grocery store sandwich. Similar to an Amazon Go sandwich. Better than Subway. Here in Chicago we have a chain called Potbelly that’s pretty good and Pret is definitely below them. (Also it seems the only Pret still open in the US is the one on the UChicago campus)

Yeah, Pret is forever centered in my mind as airport food too. Probably because the first one I saw was in one.

I couldn't possible disagree more. Pret is orders of magnitude better than Specialty's - their breakfast sandwiches were 90% grease. Working Girls is certainly better than Pret, but Pret wins on convenience of being premade. And Pret does coffee too!

yeah

wonder how many of the people claiming Pret a Manger is worse than 7-11 have actually ever eaten at Pret a Manger

I lived there. I ate at Pret often enough because they were frequently close by. Every one of those was worse than a Tesco Meal Deal. Disaster of a chain.

First time I saw one was when I was interviewing in NYC. I walked in and grabbed a sandwich and couldn't believe what dry flavorless garbage it was. 7-Eleven is honestly a step up.

It's like someone saw bottom tier airline food and said "You know what? This would be great in a store". As far as I can tell, they leverage store location.

> Specialty's

What killed them? We lost ours just about 18 months ago.

They seemed to be in a perfect spot, too. Only restaurant in a 20 floor office building. We used them for lunch when customers came in all the time.

How could you screw that one up? Or was it that all their leases expired simultaneously and they just couldn't pay the now-expensive rent?

I was recently informed by a friend in Shanghai that a lot of KFCs have closed down, presumably due to covid-related business slowing. (There used to be about 1 KFC per city block.)

That seemed understandable, until I learned a lot of them had been replaced with other fried chicken places.

They were expanding heavily on a bet that the economy would grow. COVID19 hit, they were forced to shut, their primary income streams were in places where they counted on office workers (who now stayed home). They were one of the earliest COVID casualties.

Except 7-11 (and other convenience stores) sandwiches are pretty good (sometimes great) in Japan. It's all about what customers will accept, if people will buy crap that's what will be offered.

7-Eleven in Japan is totally different. Food there was totally serviceable and sometimes good. I'm talking about the US variant.

Oh damn, I had no idea Specialty's went under. I loved their cookies.

Your 7-Eleven comparison is spot on!

I never understood the allure, especially in a city with so many other options. It was a reliable place to get in out of the cold during our trip to London.

My kids loved it, though ;)

Hm not surprised, from a country that has special racks to 'cool the toast'. So they don't have to eat it warm. So its properly cold and stale.

Toast racks are not to cool toast, they're to stop it from going soggy.

If you stack toast, the moisture from the toast below in the stack makes most of the stack soggy. Racking it lets the steam escape. You still eat the toast warm, just not wet.

If you find yourself without a toast rack, you can lean them against each other as if you're starting to make a house of cards to keep them crisp.

Yeah and they sell bagged loaves of toast. Not warm then.

I have never seen a bagged loaf of toast for sale in any of the countries I've been to.

The closest I can think of is Biscottes / Zwieback / UK supermarket "French Toast"

There’s plenty of great places to eat in the U.K., and London especially.

Yeah, London is a great place for food. I only take exception to Pret.