CITY BITES

Should you invest in a sandwich franchise that has outlasted hundreds of regional competitors, survived multiple economic cycles, and built a loyal customer base in one of America's most competitive quick-service restaurant markets over nearly four decades? That is the central question any serious franchise investor must answer before evaluating the CITY BITES franchise opportunity. Founded on October 16, 1986, by three brothers — Brad, Gary, and Eric Blevins — CITY BITES began as an 800-square-foot sandwich shop off NW 23rd Street in Bethany, Oklahoma, conceived by landscapers looking for a way to earn income on rainy days when outdoor work was impossible. What started as a practical side business evolved into a full regional brand with 17 metro-area locations, over $10 million in annual sales, and 330 employees as of the most recent reporting period. The eldest Blevins brother, Mark, joined the company in 1990, and the family collectively steered the brand through decades of operational refinement, earning recognition in 1991 as Oklahoma's Small Business of the Year — an honor that brought the founders to Washington D.C. to meet President George H.W. Bush. CITY BITES today operates primarily in the Oklahoma City metro area with some presence in Kansas, competing in the quick-casual sandwich and deli segment of the U.S. foodservice market, a category that generated over $1.52 trillion in foodservice outlet sales alone in 2024. The brand occupies a clear niche as a long-tenured, family-owned regional operator with a proven concept, proprietary baked goods including 17 varieties of cookies and brownies from its own bakery commissary, and a multi-year track record of awards including Best Deli recognition from both The Daily Oklahoman and Oklahoma Gazette. Co-founder Brad Blevins passed away on October 29, 2022, marking a significant chapter in the company's leadership history, but the family operation has continued under the remaining Blevins brothers. This independent analysis, not marketing copy, examines what the CITY BITES franchise opportunity actually represents in 2025 for prospective investors.

The industry context surrounding CITY BITES is critical to understanding both the opportunity and the competitive pressures any franchisee would face. The global franchise market was valued at $3,070 billion in 2025 and is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 10.41% through 2033, driven by the scalability of proven business models, increasing consumer demand for convenience, and the continued growth of branded food experiences. Within that broader market, the U.S. foodservice sector is a powerful sub-segment: total food sales at foodservice and food retailing outlets exceeded $2.00 trillion annually since 2021, reaching $2.58 trillion in 2024, with food sales at foodservice outlets alone accounting for $1.52 trillion. Limited-service restaurants, the category most closely aligned with CITY BITES, represented approximately 36.3% of the total Food-Away-From-Home market in 2024, placing this segment in a near-equal position with full-service dining at 36.4%. The quick-casual segment specifically — where CITY BITES competes with its made-to-order sandwiches, fresh baked bread, and counter-service model — is experiencing faster growth than traditional QSR formats, driven by consumers who want fast service without sacrificing ingredient quality. New business applications in the accommodation and foodservice sector have remained consistently above 20,000 per month since mid-2020, peaking near 30,000 monthly, signaling sustained entrepreneurial interest in food concepts. Consumer trends increasingly favor fresh, made-to-order food with visible ingredient quality, which aligns directly with the CITY BITES operating model of daily baked breads, fresh meats, and fresh produce. Operators in this space also face pressure to deploy technology for ordering, loyalty, and delivery integration, and how a regional brand like CITY BITES navigates digital transformation will be a meaningful factor in long-term competitiveness. The market dynamics are favorable for fresh sandwich concepts broadly, but the translation of that macro tailwind into franchise-level unit economics depends heavily on the specific operational and financial structure the brand offers its partners.

The CITY BITES franchise investment structure presents a profile that is unlike almost anything else in the quick-casual segment, and prospective investors need to engage with that reality carefully before drawing conclusions. According to the most specific financial data publicly reported, the franchise fee is listed at $1 and the cash investment is listed at approximately $9,500 — figures that are dramatically below the industry norm for any restaurant franchise in 2025. For context, Quick-Service Restaurant initial franchise fees in 2025 range from $6,250 to $90,000, with the typical range for most established brands falling between $20,000 and $50,000 for initial startup costs alone, and overall system investment routinely running from several hundred thousand dollars into the millions depending on format and geography. These reported CITY BITES figures are so far below industry averages that they either reflect a specific, historically limited offering, a unique arrangement designed to attract a particular type of franchisee, or data that has not been updated to reflect current franchise offering terms. The low reported investment figures stand in notable contrast to what is described operationally: a turn-key franchise solution that includes real estate acquisition and negotiation services, information technology support, payroll processing, insurance, benefits, and accounting — a support infrastructure that typically costs a franchisor significant resources to deploy and would ordinarily be reflected in higher initial investment requirements. For the prototype store concept the Blevins brothers were developing as of 2006, the planned footprint was 2,400 square feet for franchised locations, smaller than the corporate store average of 3,000-plus square feet, with drive-thru integration where feasible — a format that would ordinarily require a total investment well above the reported $9,500 in any modern commercial real estate environment. Investors serious about the CITY BITES franchise cost should request the current Franchise Disclosure Document directly from C.B. Franchise Systems to obtain verified, up-to-date investment figures, as the publicly available data may not reflect current offering terms.

Understanding what daily life looks like as a CITY BITES franchisee is essential to assessing fit, and the company has articulated a clearly defined operating model built around its family-ownership culture. The operational philosophy of the Blevins brothers emphasizes hands-on management, with the founders themselves historically working alongside employees making sandwiches and running registers — a culture they explicitly expect to translate into how franchisee-operators engage with their own teams. The labor model requires personnel finesse: as of 2006 the company employed 260 people, many of them students with irregular schedules, and that figure has grown to 330 employees more recently, reflecting a staffing approach that prioritizes flexibility and supports student workers balancing school and family responsibilities. The format for franchised locations was being developed around a 2,400-square-foot prototype with drive-thru capability, contrasting with the larger 3,000-plus square foot corporate store footprint, giving the franchise format a potentially more efficient revenue-per-square-foot operating model. Training is described as a thorough management program combined with opening and ongoing operational support, with the Blevins brothers providing their personal cell phone numbers to at least one franchisee as an illustration of their accessibility — a detail confirmed by Brian Bishop, the Wichita, Kansas franchisee as of 2006, who specifically cited their personal availability as a major advantage. The support infrastructure provided through C.B. Franchise Systems includes real estate acquisition and negotiation, information technology, payroll processing, insurance, benefits, and accounting, effectively offering franchisees a corporate back-office function from day one. CITY BITES also operates its own bakery commissary that manufactures and distributes 17 varieties of cookies and brownies to all locations, providing a proprietary product supply chain that differentiates the brand and creates consistency across units. The brand's menu of made-to-order sub-style sandwiches, stuffed baked potatoes, homemade Baja Tacos, and signature spicy ranch dressing gives franchisees a differentiated product set relative to more commoditized sandwich brands. The operational model appears best suited to owner-operators who want active, in-store management engagement rather than absentee investors.

Item 19 financial performance data is not disclosed in the current Franchise Disclosure Document for CITY BITES, which means prospective investors do not have access to verified average revenue per unit, median revenue, or profit margin data through the standard FDD review process. This is a material limitation for due diligence purposes: without Item 19 disclosure, investors must rely on publicly available information and their own operational modeling to estimate unit-level financial performance. The most concrete public financial data available indicates that in 2006, total anticipated company-wide sales ranged from $7.5 million to $8 million, at a time when the brand had approximately 16 to 17 units, implying an average unit volume of roughly $440,000 to $500,000 per location. The average check at that time was between $13 and $14, up from $5.50 ten years prior, demonstrating meaningful ticket size growth over the brand's history. More recent reporting indicates that CITY BITES has achieved over $10 million in current annual sales system-wide, and if that figure is divided across approximately 17 metro locations, it implies an average unit volume in the range of $580,000 to $600,000 — a figure consistent with a well-established regional quick-casual brand with strong repeat customer traffic. Brian Bishop, the Wichita franchisee quoted in 2006, confirmed his location was "definitely profitable" but declined to project ROI for future franchisees, a characteristically cautious but honest assessment. Industry benchmarks for limited-service sandwich and deli concepts suggest that mature units in established markets with strong brand loyalty can achieve EBITDA margins in the 10% to 18% range depending on labor costs, rent as a percentage of sales, and food cost management — but without verified CITY BITES-specific Item 19 data, applying these benchmarks involves meaningful uncertainty. Investors should request franchise-level financial performance documentation directly and, if available, speak with current and former CITY BITES franchise operators as part of a thorough validation process.

CITY BITES has demonstrated remarkable brand longevity — operating for almost 40 years as of 2025 — but its franchising growth trajectory has been notably constrained relative to the company's operational history. The company attempted franchising as early as 1996, experienced what was described as a "false start," and by 2006 had only one franchisee, Brian Bishop in Wichita, Kansas, despite having 16 to 17 company-owned units in the Oklahoma City market. The most recent franchise database information lists 2 total franchise units, which suggests the external franchise system has expanded only marginally from its 2006 baseline, even as the overall brand maintained and grew its company-owned store count. This trajectory stands in contrast to the national expansion aspirations the Blevins brothers described in 2006, when they were redrafting their franchise offering circular and developing a prototype store designed specifically for franchising. The competitive moat for CITY BITES rests on several durable advantages: nearly four decades of brand equity in the Oklahoma City market, a proprietary bakery commissary producing 17 varieties of cookies and brownies, a distinct menu identity including the famous spicy ranch dressing and Baja Tacos, and a culture of hands-on ownership that has consistently earned Best Deli recognition from The Daily Oklahoman and Oklahoma Gazette across multiple years. The brand was recognized by the American Cancer Society in 1989 as the first completely smoke-free restaurant in Oklahoma, demonstrating an early alignment with consumer health trends that has only grown more relevant. In 2019, CITY BITES donated over $100,000 for local teacher appreciation, reinforcing a community connection that drives loyal repeat patronage in the Oklahoma City metro. The brand has been recognized as a Four-Time Top 50 Growth Company in the Oklahoma City Metro 50, signaling consistent financial performance within its home market. Customer reviews from as recently as 2025 cite fresh bread, generous portions, and strong customer traffic at Oklahoma City area locations, suggesting the core product proposition remains compelling.

The ideal CITY BITES franchisee candidate is an owner-operator rather than an absentee investor, based on everything the company's operational philosophy and franchise history communicate. The Blevins brothers' management culture — which explicitly discourages asking employees to perform tasks they wouldn't do themselves and prioritizes a relaxed, empowered work environment — is most naturally replicated by a franchisee who intends to be present and actively engaged in daily store operations. The staffing model's emphasis on student workers with irregular schedules requires genuine personnel management capability, the kind that comes from in-store presence rather than remote oversight. Given the brand's geographic concentration in Oklahoma and Kansas, available territories for new franchisees are most logically positioned within the Oklahoma City metro expansion corridor or potentially in adjacent markets where the brand has some existing consumer awareness. The prototype store concept designed for franchising was scaled to 2,400 square feet with drive-thru compatibility, targeting commercial real estate sites where that footprint is achievable within reasonable lease economics. The franchise agreement term length is not publicly disclosed in currently available sources, and prospective franchisees should specifically negotiate and clarify renewal, transfer, and resale terms during the FDD review process with qualified franchise legal counsel. Multi-unit development expectations are not explicitly stated in available public materials, but the brand's historical pattern of company-owned expansion alongside very limited franchising suggests the system may be most appropriate for single-unit or small multi-unit operators in targeted markets. Candidates with prior foodservice management experience, comfort with high-volume made-to-order operations, and a genuine connection to community-oriented brand values are most likely to align with what CITY BITES culture demands from its franchise partners.

The CITY BITES franchise opportunity presents a genuinely unusual investment profile that warrants thoughtful, data-driven due diligence rather than a reflexive positive or negative conclusion. On one hand, the brand has demonstrated nearly four decades of survival and growth in a notoriously difficult industry, achieved over $10 million in annual system sales, built proprietary supply chain infrastructure through its bakery commissary, and earned consistent market recognition as a Best Deli winner in one of the most food-competitive cities in the American Southwest. On the other hand, the franchise unit count of 2 units is exceptionally low for a brand of this vintage, Item 19 financial performance data is not disclosed in the current FDD, and the reported franchise investment figures of $1 in franchise fees and $9,500 total investment are so far below industry norms that they raise legitimate questions about the current state and structure of the franchise offering. The PeerSense Franchise Performance Index score for CITY BITES is 39, rated Fair, which reflects the combination of limited franchise unit growth, absence of Item 19 disclosure, and the data gaps that characterize this brand's public franchise profile — a score that signals the need for deeper investigation rather than a pass or invest decision at face value. The global franchise market growing at a 10.41% CAGR through 2033 and U.S. foodservice sales hitting $2.58 trillion in 2024 confirm that the macro environment is favorable for well-positioned food franchise concepts, and CITY BITES' product quality and brand loyalty data suggest genuine consumer demand exists. PeerSense provides exclusive due diligence data including SBA lending history, FPI score, location maps with Google ratings, FDD financial data, and side-by-side comparison tools that allow investors to benchmark CITY BITES against every comparable franchise in the quick-casual sandwich and deli category. Explore the complete CITY BITES franchise profile on PeerSense to access the full suite of independent franchise intelligence data before making any investment commitment.