He never established that hot dog stand he always dreamed of opening; instead he is the namesake and inventor of a $100 million gourmet sandwich company franchise that originated in Charleston.

Jimmy John Liautaud is his name; the man behind the scrumptious subs and wacky sandwich names at Jimmy John’s gourmet sandwich shop.

Liautaud, an alumnus of Eastern, found himself hungry to enter the work world as an entrepreneur in 1983.

“My plan was to open a hot dog stand,” Liautaud said. “I went to do the hot dog stand though, and I didn’t have enough money.”

After frequenting a popular sandwich shop in Carbondale, Ill., called Boobie’s, Liautaud tossed around the idea of buying the freshest meats, sauces and vegetables available in hopes of creating his own gourmet sandwich shop.

Thanks to his father’s generous loan of close to $24,000, Liautaud was able to bring his idea into fruition.

“It was all my idea,” Liautaud said with a laugh. “I opened my first Jimmy John’s sub shop in January of 1983, in a small garage of a house [in Charleston] that was surrounded by three bars. They rented it for $200 a month, I put up a counter, bought a used meat slicer, a new oven, a used refrigerator and a Sears chest freezer.”

His first menu featured only four sandwiches and 25 cent cokes, which is skeletal in comparison to the franchise’s complex menu customers know today.

“I made some samples of my sandwiches and brought them to a few nearby businesses to taste,” he said. “They came in and bought one. I recruited my two cousins, my big brother Greg, made hundreds of samples, printed my menu on a business card…and any place we could find a concentration of people, we [handed samples out].”

Liautaud said within 60 days of establishing the operation, he was selling enough subs to pay his $200 salary as well as the bills for his business.

The current Jimmy John’s menu, with goofy sandwich names such as “Turkey Tom” and the humorous slogan, “Your mom wants you to eat at Jimmy John’s!”, are facets of Liautaud’s personality, he said.

“I’m a lot of fun to hang around,” he said. “I’m a joker. That’s just something that’s been natural to me.”

What may be aggravating to long-time Jimmy John’s customers is the entrepreneur literally ignores any suggestions he receives regarding new menu items. Liautaud shrugs off the rumors that litter the Internet that claim his menu will undergo a facelift to spice it up a bit.

“I tweak the menu from time to time (like bringing bacon into the fresh line of ingredients),” said the current chairman and chief executive officer of the successful franchise.

“It hasn’t changed in [nearly] 20 years. It has pretty much stayed the same. My business is a formula; it is very mechanical. There is no art in it, except for baking the bread.”

With 130 restaurants open and his business growing by 40 percent a year and the franchise having well surpassed the million dollar mark in sales, it would appear to that Liautaud is filthy rich and has been on easy street since his sandwiches began selling. That is not the case, however.

The last 15 years have indeed been heart-wrenching for the 35-year-old.

He watched his marriage crumble, and the death of two individual key employees took an enormous toll on the company. Other adversities he faced included numerous lawsuits and battling other restaurants who attempted to rip off his concept.

“As I look back on the setbacks I incurred in my life, I have come to recognize one redeeming factor in the journey,” Liautaud said.

“I realized that these setbacks were not setbacks but actual opportunity, opportunity to stretch myself, to see what I could handle, to test me, to give me real life experience, gain new discipline to be called upon in the future. It helps me by putting it in that perspective to have a better attitude.”

You see, when Liautaud started out he was rather naive. The entrepreneur was ripped off time and again, he said.

He may not have known much about the business aspect of his sandwich shop, but he forced himself to learn quickly.

“After being screwed so many times, you learn,” Liautaud said. “You’re affected by (being ripped off). I learned everything about business, I wrote the checks, ran the stores, hired and trained the people and did it all. I was not afraid.”