Chris Sorensen, Firehouse Subs co-founder, dies at 65

Firehouse Subs co-founder Chris Sorensen died at 65, leaving behind a sandwich chain that grew from one Jacksonville location in 1994 to more than 1,200 locations after its $1 billion sale to Restaurant Brands International.

The brothers behind that scale began with less than $100 in their checking accounts. Chris and his younger brother, Robin, co-founded Firehouse Subs in 1994 and opened the first location in their hometown of Jacksonville. It is a stark starting point for a chain that later counted more than 1,200 restaurants.

The first order at the flagship was not a sub. It was two hot dogs with everything on them, a combination of about 10 ingredients. Robin told the Jacksonville Daily Record in 2020: “We were so focused on the subs, we weren’t prepared for that order. Needless to say, it was a long ticket time.”

That first ticket also offers a useful picture of the product the brothers eventually systematized: steamed meats and cheeses piled high on warm toasted rolls. The menu information is specific about format but silent on ingredient sourcing, portion cost, menu price and average check. The account says the sandwiches soon became a hit.

Without food-cost, labor or margin data, the reporting cannot establish whether the substantial build improved throughput, ticket size or profitability; those remain unanswered operator questions.

Before entering restaurants, Chris was a professional guitarist. He sat in with bands including Huey Lewis and the News, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foreigner, and Earth, Wind & Fire. Then he followed his father, Robert, into firefighting, first working at Brevard County Fire Department and the Jacksonville International Airport Fire and Rescue Department.

For 10 years, Chris worked as an engineer and EMT at Jacksonville Fire and Rescue, where Robert also worked at the time. The brothers later turned that public-service connection into a formal giving program.

Chris took creative ownership of Firehouse restaurant interiors, outfitting each location with a custom mural depicting fire and police service and unique to the restaurant’s town. The approach paired a standardized sandwich operation with a distinct local visual identity.

As a collector of historical artifacts, Chris also served as the chain’s unofficial archivist, ensuring that Firehouse’s legacy was preserved.

What does the $1 billion sale change for Firehouse?

Restaurant Brands International bought Firehouse Subs in 2021 for $1 billion; the restaurant company also owns Burger King. Following the transaction, the chain’s fleet grew to more than 1,200 locations.

For Firehouse operators, the concrete post-sale change is ownership and scale: the family company became part of a larger restaurant system, and the network exceeded 1,200 locations.

But the material does not break out company-operated and franchised units, systemwide sales, same-store sales, average checks, food cost, labor percentage or margins. It also does not tie post-2021 unit growth to store-level profitability, so the sale price and location count show scale, not what each restaurant earns.

The brothers created another institution in 2005: the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation. Its stated mission is to provide first responders with life-saving equipment, tools and education. Since then, the organization has awarded more than $118 million in grants to 7,700 departments in the United States and Canada.

The foundation gives the brand’s public-safety identity measurable reach, spanning nearly 7,700 departments on both sides of the border. The reporting does not provide annual award totals, average grant size or a funding schedule, so the $118 million is a cumulative figure rather than a measure of current annual spending.

Fox News Digital said it reached out to Firehouse Subs for comment; the report included no company response. The next test is whether Firehouse can preserve its town-specific murals, substantial sandwich format and first-responder identity while scaling beyond 1,200 stores, while the foundation continues directing grants toward the equipment, tools and education it was created to provide.