We Tried Jimmy John's New All-American Beefy Crunch Sandwich — Here's How It Went

If you have been on the hunt for a sandwich sizable enough to keep you sated from lunchtime to dinner, then you have found it with this new menu item from Jimmy John's. We're talking about the regular-sized option of the chain's new All-American Beefy Crunch sandwich — as for the 16-inch variety? Well, that one might just have you full until lunchtime tomorrow. We'll talk calories and nutrition and taste and all of those important details soon, but first, let's talk about what's in the name here. So, it's called the All-American Beefy Crunch ... but why? On the All-American front, that's all about the American cheese, the generous portions of ingredients, and the fact that this very type of sandwich, the sub, is an American original (granted, it was developed by immigrants to the United States, but that's a classic American story).

That's all well and good, but what about the crunch? We don't generally think of crunch when we think of sandwiches, do we? When you sink your teeth into this one, you'll get it. That's because four out of the nine ingredients you get with the base sandwich (that's counting the bread and not counting any additional toppings) are indeed crunchy. And the crunch of it all isn't just mentioned for fun, it's a selling point of this sandwich. The physical sensation of eating it is a part of the experience here along with the taste, as you'll see in a bit.

There is a lot of meat in this sandwich. Like really a lot of meat. Too much? We'll leave that call to each individual who takes their own bite. To stay objective, let's just run through the ingredients. On Jimmy John's new All-American Beery Crunch sandwich, you'll find that generous serving of roast beef (that's hand-sliced roast beef, per Jimmy John's site, mind you), sliced American cheese, Thousand Island Sauce, crispy onion strings, pickles, lettuce, and raw onion, because apparently, those onion strings were not enough (and yes, we did find the absence of tomatoes conspicuous — perhaps they lack the crunch this sandwich calls for).

As for the bread choices, you can go with the regular, which is an 8-inch French bread roll, or a giant, which is a gargantuan 16-inch piece of French bread (essentially a whole baguette). There is also the option to get your Beefy Crunch sandwich served on thickly-sliced wheat bread, which reduces sodium a bit but actually adds calories, so choose the wheat bread based on taste preferences, not because you think it's going to be a lot healthier for you. Or you can with the Jimmy John's "Unwich," the health benefits of which we'll note a bit later. And do note that you can add several toppings free, including cucumber, tomatoes (there they are), peppers, and more.

Jimmy John's newest menu item, the large and in charge All-American Beefy Crunch sub, costs $9.37 when you go with the regular size. It's $18.74 when you go with the monstrous 16-inch giant variety. That's exactly double the price of the regular, and we thought you tended to get a deal in these situations, but hey, life goes on. This new sandwich is a good deal pricier than many other options at the chain, you should know. For example, Jimmy John's The Pepe sub sells for just $6.99 for the regular, while the 16-inch option costs $13.12 (for some reason, you do get a deal on the giant sandwich for The Pepe). 

And many of J.J.'s other sandwiches also match those prices. Some are a bit pricier, like, say, the Spicy East Coast Italian, which sells for $8.43 for the regular and $15.93 for the giant, but the new Beefy Crunch is about the priciest option on the chain's menu at present. Now, keep in mind these prices all reflect the sandwich alone. If you want to add a drink — for our purposes, we'll say a 20-ounce bottle of soda — that's $2.99 more. Want chips? Add another $1.87. So a full meal with the regular All-American Beefy Crunch sandwich will come to $14.23 at current prices. That isn't overpriced, but it isn't cheap either. At least we guarantee you won't still be hungry when you're done.

If you want to get your hands on this big, beefy sandwich (or better yet to sink your teeth into it), you'd better act with relative swiftness, because it is a limited-time menu option for Jimmy John's. As of now, the sandwich is slated to be around until December 18, 2022, and after that fateful Sunday date, it will leave the menu again, perhaps forever. Then again, if this thing sells well, it's a good bet the chain will bring it back at some point and perhaps even make it a permanent menu item, though ideally at a slightly reduced price point. 

Considering the sandwich's official drop date was on October 10, 2022, per Chew Boom, that's a pretty short lifespan the All-American Beefy Crunch will have. Also note that this new and limited-time-only sandwich is only available at participating Jimmy John's locations, so you might not be able to find it at the sandwich shop closest by. But don't worry, given that there are some 2,700 Jimmy John's locations in the United States (yeah, we were surprised by that figure too), it won't be too hard to find a location that offers this new item.

Frankly, this sandwich isn't exactly breaking new ground for Jimmy John's. It's a big, fully-loaded sub sandwich, not a brand new category of foodstuff for the chain like when Smashburger started offering chicken wings or California Pizza Kitchen started offering a cheeseburger. That's not to denigrate the new sandwich, it's just to set expectations clearly. If you are familiar with Jimmy John's and its sandwiches, you'll know the chain offers many already where roast beef is the meat of choice, like the Billy Club (yes, that pun hits hard), the Bootlegger Club, and the Big John. And of course, the chain offers many sandwiches with cheese, veggies, and sauce too.

Where the All-American Beefy Crunch sandwich does differ is in the use of American cheese, as most Jimmy John's sandwiches use provolone (which is proper given the Italian-American provenance of the sub sandwich itself) and in the addition of those crispy onion strings, which are indeed pretty novel. And yes, it does really have a satisfying crunch when fresh, so that's something new, too. Note that the crunch goes away when you have stored the leftovers in the fridge for a while, and if your delivery takes too long, that can have a deleterious effect on the texture as well.

The nutrition information for the All-American Beefy Crunch sandwich is not the best news you're going to get all day, but what do you really expect from a sub called "Beefy Crunch?" If you do the sensible thing and go with the 8-inch sandwich option (which really is a great size — the 6-inch from Subway always leaves us wanting more, while the footlong leaves us questioning our life choices), you'll be looking at 990 calories packed into this sandwich. For the entirely sensible but perhaps a bit less satisfying Unwich variation, where you trade that bread for a wrap made of lettuce, you'll face just 630 calories. And for the giant take on the All-American Beefy Crunch, you're looking at 1,840 calories, per Jimmy John's site. Which is way more calories than anyone needs in any one sandwich, thank you very much.

For the rest of these stats, we'll be citing the nutritional information of the 8-inch All-American Beefy Crunch, for the record — you can pretty much double it for the big guy. There are 47 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 125 milligrams of cholesterol, 2,730 grams of sodium (that is not good — and for the giant, it's 6,150 milligrams of sodium), 69 grams of carbs, and 41 grams of protein. 

Yes, we did enjoy the new Jimmy John's All-American Beefy Crunch sandwich, actually, all gentle ribbing at the mountain of meat and the 'Merica-ness of such a hearty sandwich aside. The thing we enjoyed the most about it was rather a surprise. Which of course we'll get to last. First, the crunch: As noted, it really is a major part of this sub. Your teeth sink into the bread and beef and cheese, but they crunch through the veggies in a super satisfying way. The portion of roast beef is hefty enough that you know you'll be full soon enough, and that's before you even open the bag of chips.

But what was our favorite thing about the All-American Beefy Crunch sub? It was the sauce. That "Deliciously Tangy Thousand Island Sauce" really is delicious, and when combined with all the other tasty ingredients here, from the pickles to the American cheese to the onion strings, its potent flavor is balanced instead of overbearing (we imagine a spoonful of the stuff straight up might not be ideal) and it unites all the other tastes. You know how The Dude's rug tied the room together in "The Big Lebowski," right? That's what the sauce does here. Sure, the sandwich needs the beef, the bread, and the crunch, but without the Thousand Island, it would be lacking. So don't hold the sauce, if you want our take.