A Day in the Life: A Subway Manager

"Hi honey! What you want?" she sings even before the welcoming door chime has the chance to fade out.

You debate: White or wheat? Cheddar or Swiss? Sweet onion or oven roasted? The possibilities are limitless.

"What else?" you can already hear her ask as her latex-gloved hand glides over the smorgasbord of tomatoes, banana peppers and provolone cheese.

Farakhanda, who prefers to go by Farah, has been working at Subway in the Village Shopping Center on Three Chopt Road for three years.

Before she came to Richmond six years ago, she was a biology teacher in her home country, Afghanistan. She taught preschool and kindergarten at the YMCA in Richmond before accepting a managerial position at our favorite place to "Eat Fresh." She said she loved to serve students from the University of Richmond because they were always so polite and friendly.

"I know all of them," she said. "Most of them, I know their name. Some of them I don't know their name, but I still know them and we joke."

She said she had never had a rude student and thought that if a customer was rude, they were not from the area. "Mostly I have regulars," she said.

She did admit that some customers got a little intense about their sandwiches.

"Some people, they are annoying," she said. "They say, 'I want extra tomato, extra sweet pepper,' and it does not fit! It is falling over but they keep going, 'I like this one, I like that one,' and we cannot say, 'No ma'am.' We don't want to disappoint any customer."

On some days, Farah comes into work early because there is so much to do before the lunch rush, which can last until 2:30 p.m. In addition to baking all the bread and cookies, Farah has to use the slicing machine to chop all the veggies (except the lettuce which is pre-shredded) and wipe down all the glass.

"Everything needs to be organized by 11 a.m." she said. The bread dough is already made, either white or wheat, but she has to add the spices and seasonings to create the different varieties, she said.

The Chicken and Bacon Ranch and Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki are always popular items, she said, but she noticed that men and women tended to have different favorites.

"Men like to get the roast beef, pastrami, the B.L.T." she said. "But the women get turkey or chicken teriyaki. They love it."

Farah can eat Subway for free, as long as her shift lasts at least four hours. Her Subway favorite is the Chicken and Bacon Ranch, she said, but if she is not working, she loves to eat veggie pizza.

On her days off, Farah likes to clean her apartment and cook for her three sons who are 20, 18 and 16 years old. She said she had gotten married in Afghanistan when she was 14 and had had her first son when she was 15.

"When I am with my oldest son, everyone thinks that this is my boyfriend," she said with a laugh. "It is just the culture where I am from. People get married very young."

Her favorite dishes to prepare are traditional Afghan recipes: Ashaka Manto and Kabul Bakul. But if she doesn't have time to be gourmet, Farah knows that the turkey, steak and Veggie Delite are her sons' favorites.

"They don't like Subway everyday," she said. "But some days I do bring it for them."

Farah hoped one day she would have the opportunity to open her own restaurant.

"In the future, not right now," she said. "It takes time"