MASH Hoagies
190 Malabar Road SW Suite #119, Palm Bay, FL - Palm Bay West
 |
| Today's post is a presentation of Brevard County retail |
There are many big names in the chain sandwich shop industry - Subway, Jimmy John's, Jersey Mike's, Firehouse Subs, etc. that push sandwiches on the national level, with plenty more regional players in this game too, like Larry's Giant Subs, Primo Hoagies, and Potbelly, and that's not including other grocers and gas stations (like Publix and Wawa) famous for sandwiches too. In addition to all those big national and regional players today, there are many others who tried to make their name known in the sandwich field that are practically unheard of today, those others eventually scaling back after being eclipsed by the gains of the competition or internal issues. Quizno's and Blimpie are two famous examples of sandwich chains that have scaled back considerably in recent times, but are still around with locations few and far between. While Quizno's and Blimpie's issues are more famous due to their national presence, Central Florida had a sandwich chain of its own that expanded rapidly in the 1980's and 1990's just to have shrunken down to a single location today - MASH Hoagies. Once peaking at around 15-20 locations throughout Central Florida in the 1990's, MASH was a common name in the sandwich game in these parts, particularly along Florida's Space Coast and Brevard County (the county in which the chain was founded and headquartered). Brevard County is also where the final MASH location stands today, which we'll visit once we learn a little more about the lost history of this former sandwich shop chain:
 |
| Finally get to dust this graphic off again! |
MASH Hoagies traces its origins back to 1982, when 22-year-old Joe Allison, fresh out of Florida State University, returned home to Brevard County and decided to open a Philadelphia-style sandwich shop. While a native of nearby Satellite Beach, Allison ended up opening his first sandwich shop in Northeastern Palm Bay, strategically located near a large complex that housed operations for one of the county's largest employers - Harris Inc. - an aerospace defense company. Allison worked at a sandwich shop while in school at Florida State, and decided to put those skills he learned while on the job as a student to the test with a shop of his own. In order to differentiate his shop from the others in the field, Allison decided to theme his shop after his favorite TV show - M*A*S*H.
 |
| The first location of MASH Hoagies was located in this shopping center located at 2135 Palm Bay Road NE in Palm Bay, FL, pictured as it was in 2011 by Google Street View. Today, Thrifty Produce (located at the far right of the image above) has expanded into this entire building as of the late 2010's, erasing any traces of the original MASH location that may have been left behind. |
For those of you in the younger age brackets who may not be as familiar with the show, M*A*S*H was a TV show that ran on CBS from 1972 until 1983, depicting over its 11 seasons the trials and tribulations of the members of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (aka MASH) during the Korean War. Typically described as a "comedic drama" due to its mix of humor from the lives of the staff mixed with the seriousness war and surgery, M*A*S*H became a cultural icon of the 1970's and is still regarded to this day as one of the greatest television shows of all-time by numerous television pollsters. The airing of show's final episode, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", on February 28, 1983 still holds the record for the most-watched episode of scripted television too. When the first MASH Hoagies opened during the show's penultimate season, there was certainly plenty of hype about the show and many loyal fans, and I'm sure the quirky theme helped draw folks to the shop for that reason as well. M*A*S*H enjoyed success in syndication after its original run ended, and still airs on many classic television stations today (although these days, I still think a lot of the theming is probably lost on the 35-and-under crowd who may venture into the last remining shop today - probably one of the negative side effects of theming a restaurant around a TV show as a long-term plan, although at least M*A*S*H has had much more cultural staying power through the years compared to other television shows).
In addition to the placing of M*A*S*H TV show memorabilia around the restaurant, Allison also named all of his sandwiches after characters on the program. Customers could come in and order a "Hawkeye" sandwich (the Italian special) or the "Klinger" with ham and roast beef, for example, all prepared in MASH's signature style with the meat wrapped around the edge of the sandwich to keep all the toppings from falling out.
Between the theme and the sandwiches themselves, Allison's original sandwich shop had proven to be a success. MASH Hoagies had expanded to 13 locations in Brevard, Indian River, Orange, and Seminole Counties by 1985 via franchising agreements. That same year, Joe Allison also sold the MASH chain (inclusive of the original Palm Bay location he owned fully plus the franchise rights for all the others) to investors Duane Speanberg and Garry Collins of Indialantic for $100,000 plus ongoing royalties. While Speanburg and Collins felt the TV show theming helped draw some business, they were mostly impressed by the quality product the chain was putting out.
Under the ownership of Speanburg and Collins, MASH would enter one additional county, Volusia, and began seeking out franchisees to open locations in St. Lucie and Duval Counties, although I have not found record that either of those expansions ever panned out. While further expansion plans may not have worked out in the end, MASH Hoagies did enjoy additional growth within its home base of Brevard County during the 1990's, where the chain had a considerable reputation being its home turf.
Another method of expansion by MASH in the 1990's was partnering with Brevard County locations of Mapco Express gas stations. Mapco locations in Titusville, Cocoa, Rockledge, and Palm Bay would all feature MASH Hoagies as their primary convenience store food service offering, with that partnership continuing after all the Mapco locations in the area were converted to the Starvin' Marvin brand. MASH also became the official food service partner for the new Brevard County Government Complex in Viera when that opened in 1994, with full-service MASH counters located in the main office complex as well as in the courthouse across the street.
 |
| The only photo I could find of a Brevard County Starvin' Marvin location. Starvin' Marvin was owned by Speedway, hence the shared "Moving S" logo. By the late 1990's the Starvin' Marvin stores were converted to the Speedway brand, with Speedway pulling out of Florida in 2004 and selling most of their locations to Sunoco at that time. Speedway would return to Florida a decade later after buying the retail assets of Hess Corporation. |
By the early 2000's, MASH had mostly contracted back to being a Brevard County-only chain. MASH's locations in the Orlando and Daytona Beach areas had closed during the 1990's, with the Indian River County locations in Sebastian and Vero Beach closing by the end of the 1990's. The MASH locations within the Starvin' Marvin (later Speedway) stations also appear to have closed in the early 2000's as well, although I don't know if that happened before or as part of Speedway's sale of its Southeastern assets to Sunoco in 2004. The two MASH locations within the Brevard County Government Complex also closed around 2004 from what I could find as well. With other franchisees across the county closing their MASH shops around the same time as the Speedway and Government Complex locations, by the mid-2000's, the only shops I can find record of still being open were located in Titusville, Cocoa, Rockledge, and Palm Bay.
Of those 4 locations I just mentioned, two of them didn't last much longer past the mid-2000's, with record of the Titusville and Rockledge locations all disappearing by the 2006-2007 timeframe. The Cocoa location was the second longest holdout, remaining in operation until ca. 2014, which is the last time I found record of it being open. With Cocoa gone, for the last decade the Palm Bay West MASH Hoagies has been left as the last of its kind from a chain that peaked loudly by the 1990's, just to slowly and quietly fade into obscurity during the 2000's.
Before we get to taking a look at the last MASH, I have a few of the former locations to show. We'll start off with an article about the owner of the Lake Washington MASH Hoagies in Melbourne, published in the Florida Today in 2000. The owner, Jeanne Lee, explains how she became a MASH franchisee and her thoughts about the brand, along with a glimpse of what MASH looked like at the turn of the 21st Century.
Located in Lake Washington Square just to the right of a Publix that was recently rebuilt, the former Lake Washington MASH is now home to a hair salon.
Near downtown Melbourne, the former MASH located at 225 W. Hibiscus Boulevard is now a gyro shop.
Mostly locating in in-line, nondescript strip mall locations, there really isn't too much to see as far as remnants of MASH's past go, so I didn't go too crazy trying to photograph all of them myself since there wasn't much to look at. However, as I was scouring Google Street View trying to see if any MASH relics remained in the wild, I spotted this interesting sight in a 2011 Google Streetview capture. Pictured here is the former Merritt Island MASH location at 2068 N. Courtenay Parkway, and the sub shop to inherit this location following MASH's closure (Magic Hoagies) reused part of MASH's sign - the "MA" and the "Hoagies" part with the underline are straight from MASH's logo, with the new lettering painted over the old "SH". Magic Hoagies has since closed and the sign was taken down, with this space having served as a few different tenants in recent years.
The MASH Hoagies in Rockledge located at 563 Barton Boulevard managed to keep its signage up by the time the first Google Streetview car drove through in 2007. I'm not sure if the location was still open when this Streetview image was taken, but a new tenant was in this space by 2011.
The Cocoa MASH located at 908 Dixon Boulevard closed sometime around 2014, however, its signage remained up until 2019!
While the space was still empty when I stopped by for a few photos in 2021, the landlord had installed new sign boxes for each tenant space, bringing to an end the old MASH sign (as well as the remaining window graphics too).
When I stopped by Dixon plaza in 2021, it was mostly empty, with the only tenant at the time being a barber shop to the right of the former MASH space.
Peeking through the window, we find the bones of a former sub shop, but no remaining decor or other MASH relics except for a counter, which like M*A*S*H the TV show, ended its run after many years of service to its fans. Since these pictures were taken, Dixon Plaza has shown a bit of a revival, with a few new tenants taking space in the once mostly-empty strip. The former MASH Hoagies is one of the spaces that has found new life after almost a decade of sitting empty, and is now home to a new salon (much like the former Lake Washington MASH we just saw).
Now that we've learned a bit about the history of MASH Hoagies, it's about time we try one of the "Best Subs in Brevard" at the world's last MASH Hoagies, right? So we'll jump in the helicopter car and head over to Palm Bay West shopping center to try one of these elusive sandwiches...
 |
| Like a sandwich, I'm on a roll with dusting off these special feature graphics today! |
Like many of its locations from the past, the Palm Bay West MASH Hoagies lies amongst a strip of small stores, this location "sandwiched" between a payday loan shop and a chain tutoring center. Overall though, Palm Bay West is a rather large shopping center located in the center of Palm Bay, a regional draw with big-name anchors such as Rose's, Ollie's, Winn-Dixie, NCG Cinema, and Dollar Tree. Those anchors bring quite a bit of foot traffic to this center, which may throw some extra business to the last MASH.
The Palm Bay West MASH Hoagies opened in August 1997, a later opening in MASH's tenure, possibly making this location one of the last (or potentially the very last) new MASH to open, as the chain began its slow decline shortly after.
Even though MASH is down to this single location, they still claim to offer the "Best Subs in Brevard", a phrase that appears on many of their posters and advertisements hung around the restaurant. You can see that slogan on the Pepsi-sponsored window sign as well as on the fittingly named "sandwich board" just out of frame to my right:
Even in 2025, MASH still continues to use its vintage 1980's style logo to this day, using a font very reminiscent of the one Sears was using around the same time MASH was founded.
 |
| Seems ironic seeing the word "Tofu" on the TV screen while walking into a sandwich shop |
Going inside MASH, the restaurant still looks and feels a lot like 1997 with the choice of furnishings, the modern flatscreen TVs and the newer looking tile floor being some of the only more updated touches. However, while the furnishings were older, they were still in decent shape and the restaurant itself was clean. The walls were covered with pieces of M*A*S*H memorabilia, including pieces from the run of the TV show as well as references to the book and the movie that started the original M*A*S*H mania. There were some interesting memorabilia pieces too, as that framed photo you see above the trash can was a signed portrait of William Christopher, the man who played Father Mulcahy in the M*A*S*H TV series.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Jonathan L. on Google Maps |
During my visit, there were a few people inside the small dining area eating, so I wasn't able to get a good overview photo of the dining area. The above photo from Google Maps will have to suffice, showing the few booths and tables available for eat-in patrons to use.
Toward the back of the restaurant was the ordering and assembly counter. Orders are placed at the front of the counter, with the sandwich prep area stretching along the counter toward the wall where the "Hoagies" sign is hanging. I believe that "Hoagies" sign is the same as the one we saw in the restaurant's exterior signage out front, as it looks identical.
Two flatscreen menu boards are hung above the ordering counter, common in many modern restaurants. The item names are hard to see on the menu board, so here's a close-up of some of the offerings as seen on the paper take-home menu:
In 2025, you can still order MASH's signature sandwiches named after the characters from the show, this portion of the menu dating back to the chain's founding in 1982 (however, the original $3.10 average cost for a sandwich in mentioned in that 1985 article sounded much better than these modern prices!).
In addition to the TV show memorabilia, memorabilia from MASH's own past was hung on the walls, like these older posters from when MASH had multiple locations throughout East Central Florida. While most holdout locations of once-sizeable chains tend to brush off those glory days or play down past attempts at expansion, MASH's website takes an opposite approach and states this: "The first MASH Hoagies Sandwich Shop opened in 1981 [sic] in Palm Bay, Florida and had expanded to 12 stores spanning from Vero to Cocoa Beach [sic]. Unfortunately over time locations closed, but have no fear the new ownership plans to open more Deli Restaurants near you." At least MASH isn't trying to hide its former days as a major local chain like many other broken chains do. The part about a future expansion is interesting too. There are still a lot of people online who fondly remember MASH from the glory days who would like to see that happen, so I guess we'll have to see if MASH tries to become a chain once again (although I've yet to find anything definitive about such plans besides that statement).
The ordering station and cash register are located in the cutout to my left, with the counter to my right home to the soda machine and some snack items for sale. The photo above also looks out into the small dining room too. Sandwich shops aren't know for being large places, so that's all I have to share of the physical MASH restaurant itself. With my sandwich in hand, let's take a moment to observe the food:
I will say this - it was a good sandwich! At over $10 it was a bit on the pricey side for a sub (at least in my mind, although Pub Subs, when not on special, run about the same price these days, which is why I've cut back on those too). During my visit there was a constant stream of people coming in to order sandwiches, mostly to go, so it seemed like the last MASH still had a following. Having survived over a decade now on its own, the current owners must be doing something right to keep pressing on and hinting at expansion again. While I'm not a foodie by any means, I would recommend MASH to anyone looking for a decent sandwich while in Palm Bay, as you get good food and an interesting glimpse into the past when you visit MASH!
While that's all I have to say about MASH, for those of you who are longtime readers of AFB and MFR, you may remember the Palm Bay West shopping center as being notable for another reason (besides being home to the last location of a sandwich shop chain). If I pan my camera a little more to the left, we'll see one of the other interesting tenants housed at Palm Bay West:
A few doors down from MASH Hoagies, we find the Palm Bay West Winn-Dixie, one of the handful of Central Florida Winn-Dixie stores given a full remodel to the chain's "Transformational" design in the early 2010's. We originally toured the Palm Bay West Winn-Dixie in a really old AFB post from 2015. Being that a decade(!) has passed since our lest check-up on this store, being we're a few doors down at MASH, why not stop by the Winn-Dixie again to see what's new, and for me to share some sad news about this store's future too (and I think you can probably guess what that means). For the next part of this post, I present to you one of the supermarket industries most unwanted M*A*S*H-ups:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 |
| And a special new graphic just for today's post too! |
Winn-Dixie #2230 / Future Aldi #XXX
190 Malabar Road SW, Palm Bay, FL - Palm Bay West
It seems like Aldi really has it out for these Transformational stores. Per the blog's sources, only 4 Transformational stores will be left in the chain by 2027 - Margate, Lake Worth, Fern Park, and Miramar Beach. Unfortunately, this store in Palm Bay did not make the cut to be spared, however, it came very close to staying as a go-forward location had some events transpired at their original intended timelines. Back in 2021, Aldi announced plans to open a second Palm Bay store (to relieve the overcrowded first) in the new Crown Center plaza development a few miles east of here near the Malabar Road Walmart Supercenter. Had all gone as planned, that new Aldi should have opened around 2023 or so, however, the retail plaza portion of that development has been plagued with delays, delays that caused Aldi's planned neighbor, Del Taco, to pull out of the development early in the process. Unfortunately, the new Aldi never made it out of the ground by the time Aldi finalized its plans to buy Winn-Dixie in 2023. Considering the newly acquired real estate from Winn-Dixie and the ongoing delays at Crown Plaza, Aldi, like Del Taco, backed out of Crown Plaza in 2023, seemingly in favor of opening the chain's second Palm Bay store in the town's Transformational Winn-Dixie down the road. I had assumed from the start of the Winn-Dixie conversions that this store would eventually become one of them, seeing how Aldi's plans at Crown Center disappeared from Palm Bay's permitting site around the same time the Winn-Dixie deal went through. As of mid-2025, the formal announcement of this store's conversion has not been released, but this is one of the locations we have on good accord as being in the pipeline for conversion, confirming my original thoughts.
As you can see, since we last toured this store in 2015, it received a remodel. That remodel happened in early 2020, meaning this store received the Down Down decor. Many Transformational stores received remodels to the Down Down decor in the late 2010's (even though these were already some of the nicest and most modern stores in the chain at the time), so I can only guess that meant many of these Transformational stores were good performers for the chain. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, considering these stores were quite nice compared to the average Winn-Dixie!
As I went to grab a cart, I noticed that one of the carts in the line was prepped with the hardware to accommodate a quarter deposit - a practice run for the conversion, I see!
Actually, I've seen those carts with the handles to accommodate the quarter deposits at a few Winn-Dixies of late, and they actually pre-date Aldi by a few years. While I've never seen the quarter deposits on these carts put to use, maybe these were a sign of what was to come?
Stepping inside, we see the Down Down remodel was mostly cosmetic, as outside of the new wall decor all of the fixtures date back to this store's Transformational remodel from 2012. Much like Down Down, the original Transformational wall decor wasn't anything too elaborate, and Down Down actually doesn't look too bad in here. The original decor had more pops of color, which was nice, but Down Down suits these stores well, as this decor was designed to pair with a higher ceiling like this. At the end of this post, you'll have to let me know which decor you think looks better in here - the original Transformational decor or Down Down.
When the Transformational stores first rolled out, one of the biggest changes they brought to Winn-Dixie was the expansion of the prepared foods offerings. While many of the prepared foods offerings (like the salad, olive, and BBQ bars, as well as the custom sub station seen in the original post) were removed over time, this store still had a solid prepared foods offering. Interestingly, having mentioned that old custom sub station, I should note that this store recently brought that back to life, but with a twist. Instead of making custom subs again, the sub counter was transformed into custom burger counter, stocked with burger toppings for the new cooked to order hamburgers this store sells. While I've been seeing the new hamburgers roll out to Winn-Dixie stores of late as a pre-made offering alongside the chicken sandwiches, this store is so far the only example of a Winn-Dixie where you order the burgers custom made fresh with choice of toppings. I really liked the concept, and at $3.99 for a fully dressed custom burger (either plain or with choice of cheese) was a steal, especially when you consider how much a Big Mac is these days! I'm surprised Winn-Dixie took the effort to install such a new offering in a store destined for conversion in the next year or two, but I hope this custom burger option finds its way into more stores soon (and if you know of any others with it, please let me know!).
The bright afternoon sunlight from the entrance door washed out this photo, but even with the recent changes and simplification of the prepared foods offerings (minus what I just described in my burger tangent), all of the trays within the counter were filled with food. Facing the customer service desk was the self-serve wing bar, with a selection of full-service sides in the trays next to that facing the door. Full-service main dishes (like ribs) were placed on the angle, with the portion of the counter directly in front of me being the former custom sub-turned-burger bar (although when this photo was taken, the conversion to the burger bar had not happened yet, with that area then serving as the spot where all the pre-made subs were put together before being placed in the cooler just out of frame to my right). There were a number of people here ordering the dinner special of a meat and two sides while I was here on this afternoon too, so it seems like this store still does decent prepared food sales.
The front half of the grand aisle near the deli department is home to produce, with the service floral counter in the front right corner.
Moving further back, after produce are a few short aisles running parallel to the front wall. Formerly home to natural foods, these aisles were now home to prepackaged breads, rolls, and PB&J accessories.
The store's bakery is located just out of frame to my left, behind the deli, with beer and wine located in the back right corner of the store at the end of the grand aisle.
Leaving the grand aisle, the service seafood counter appears to my right, followed by the self-service meat coolers as you press further along the back wall.
The back of the service island is visible to my right as we look down aisle 1, with a companion "BEVERAGES" sign painted on the back of the island to fill the space which formerly housed this sign. Also to note in that linked photo, the warehouse-style steel racks that used to be placed against the wall were removed in favor of more traditional shelving during the Down Down remodel.
Looking across the store's front end, not only do we find very large bags of popcorn, but we see the check lanes off to my left, with the former pharmacy counter in the distance beyond those.
A small Dollar Shop was added during the store's Down Down remodel, that occupying the front half of aisle 3. The back half of the aisle was home to greeting cards, office products, and other non-food et cetera.
While these Transformational Winn-Dixie stores were quite nice, one of the biggest criticisms about them has always been the floors. With this store originating back in 1989 as an early-generation Marketplace that was expanded in the 1990's, you know the original concrete slabs weren't going to look very pretty when exposed. Here in aisle 4 the condition of the floors wasn't a huge problem, however...
…the scars of remodels past start to show on the floor in aisle 6. Throughout our tour you'll see more examples of the floor scaring and the filled troughs from pipe installation/replacement that look like something straight out of a cheap Kroger remodel.
Looking at the back of the store again, here's another view toward the service seafood counter and the grand aisle.
Aisle 9 is home to the beauty department, which received extra signage during the Down Down remodel.
From aisle 10, here's a look at the closed pharmacy counter. The pharmacy closure at this store was spurred from the Aldi acquisition in 2023, with this store not doing much to hide or block the closed counter from view.
The last aisle in this store, aisle 14, is home to not only a very noticeable floor scar, but also the dairy department as well as part of the frozen foods. More frozen foods were located next door in aisle 13, with the remainder located in an alcove straight ahead:
Between the left wall and the former pharmacy was this alcove, home to the store's Ice Cream department. Prior to the Transformational remodel, this area would have been home to the store's original bakery. When that was removed, it created this alcove, which blends in nicely with the new layout as an ice cream alcove.
Even though the pharmacy is now closed, a few short aisles of pharmaceuticals remain in front of the old pharmacy counter. Beyond that we see the store's "Thank You" sign, under which was the old "Community Connection" seating area, converted in a random alcove of self-serve kiosks following the Down Down remodel.
It's going to be sad saying good-bye to this store when its time comes for an Aldi conversion. So far, only one Transformational Winn-Dixie has fully completed its new "transformation" into an Aldi, that being the Government Street location in Mobile, AL. For some pictures of what this store may look like in a few years, you can see what the final product in Mobile looks like here. As you can see in that Mobile example, Aldi took over the side of the building opposite the main glass entrance from Winn-Dixie, where the island was. I wonder if the other upcoming Transformational conversions will be of a similar nature, as Aldi may not want to deal with the expense of ripping out the service island and leaving that to be someone else's problem for the future.
Anyway, to wrap this post back around to our original subject of MASH Hoagies, the Palm Bay West Winn-Dixie does have a small connection to the sub shop a few doors down. For as long as I can remember, MASH has been offering coupons on the back of the Winn-Dixie receipts at this store as part of a promo deal some Winn-Dixie stores participate in with local businesses. It was these ads on the back of the Winn-Dixie receipt that first made me aware of MASH to begin with, and it wasn't until I accidently found an old MASH ad that I realized MASH was once a chain. If it wasn't for the Palm Bay West Winn-Dixie, this post may have never came to be!
Hopefully everyone enjoyed this look at a piece of "lost" Floridian retail history, as well as the update on the Palm Bay West Winn-Dixie while we're at it. Being that the primary subject of today's post was a M*A*S*H-themed sandwich shop, I can only think of this as a fitting way to conclude our post:
 |
| Photo courtesy of IMDb |
More to come in the future, so until the next post,
AFB
