Chris Sorensen, who co-founded Firehouse Subs, died at 65. He helped build the chain from a Jacksonville startup into a company with more than 1,200 locations.
Before the restaurant industry, Sorensen worked as a professional guitarist and sat in with Huey Lewis and the News, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foreigner and Earth, Wind & Fire. He later spent 10 years as an engineer and EMT at the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department.
Robin Sorensen and Jacksonville
Chris and Robin Sorensen opened the first Firehouse Subs location in Jacksonville in 1994 with less than $100 in their checking accounts. Robin Sorensen said in 2020 that the first-ever order at the flagship location was two hot dogs with everything on them: “We were so focused on the subs, we weren’t prepared for that order. Needless to say, it was a long ticket time.”
Sorensen also shaped the look of the restaurants. He took creative ownership of the interior design, outfitting each location with a custom mural tied to fire and police service in that town, and served as the chain’s unofficial archivist.
Firehouse Subs and the Sorensen
The company was sold in 2021 for one billion dollars to Restaurant Brands International. After that sale, Firehouse Subs grew to more than 1,200 locations, extending a business that began with two brothers and a small checking account in Jacksonville.
For readers who knew the chain through its founders, the immediate change is final: one of the people who shaped its earliest identity is gone. What remains is the company he helped build, and the record of how a local opening became a nationwide brand.
