Old sandwich lore tells us that a guy from the east moved to Milwaukee in the late ‘60s and he wasn’t too happy with the sandwich selection in his new town. He really missed those tasty sandwiches he grew up eating back east. From the way things were looking, he’d have to learn to live without them. Fortunately, Bill Specht was less than passionate about his job at the time. He found himself thinking more and more about why nobody in town was making those wonderful subs he had loved so much when he was a kid. Bill sensed an opportunity brewing so he asked his cousin Jim Sheppard to come join him to start a sandwich shop. Along with their wives Sandy Specht and Mary Sheppard, they opened the first Cousins Subs on June 19, 1972. Now that they had a sandwich shop they didn’t want to make an average sandwich so the two cousins enlisted the help of a local baker. With time, effort and a little food for thought they created their very own unique recipe for bread. It was so delicious the bread became the cornerstone of our brand: “Better Bread. Better Subs.” Even today it still holds true. Our bread is baked fresh several times a day in every Cousins store.