Chicago has 149 licensed Subways. We pulled the business license behind every one.
137 different corporations hold them, and no corporation holds more than 8. The city's Business Owners records collapse those 137 companies into 65 owner groups. The biggest operator is not a company at all: the name Ashvinkumar A. Patel appears as an officer on 14 single-store corporations.
| Owner group | Locations | Principals (per city records) |
|---|---|---|
| Ashvinkumar A. Patel network (14 corporations) | 14 | Ashvinkumar A. Patel; Jagadishkumar Patel on one |
| Fazal family (3 entities) | 10 | Murad Fazal, Feroz Fazal, Iqbal Y. Ali |
| Shailesh R. and Nayana S. Patel (9 corporations) | 9 | Shailesh R. Patel, Nayana S. Patel |
| Jay Jay group (8 corporations) | 8 | Hiralkumar P. Shah, Mukeshkumar S. Patel |
| Hetal J. and Jwalit Patel (8 corporations) | 8 | Hetal J. Patel, Jwalit Patel |
| Maharishi group (3 entities) | 8 | Manoj Mahapatra, Saroj Mahapatra |
| Aziz Abdul Rupshi and Jitendra Kumar D. Patel (5 corporations) | 5 | Aziz Abdul Rupshi, Jitendra Kumar D. Patel |
| Priyank Patel (5 corporations) | 5 | Priyank Patel |
| Sunil G. and Gautam R. Patel (4 corporations) | 4 | Sunil G. Patel, Gautam R. Patel |
| Prakashkumar Patel, OM 103 / Janvi (4 corporations) | 4 | Prakashkumar R. Patel |
| Narendra B. Patel and Jayeshbharthi M. Goswami (4 corporations) | 4 | Narendra B. Patel, Jayeshbharthi M. Goswami |
| Ladhani family (3 corporations) | 3 | Nizarali S. Ladhani, Fatemah Ladhani |
| Darshan R. Patel (3 LLCs) | 3 | Darshan R. Patel |
| 52 smaller owner groups | 64 | Single-store and two-store operators |
The top 6 groups hold 57 of the 149 locations, 38 percent of the map.
Jaimadi Brothers, Krish Foods, Ganpati Sub, Shiv Subs, and ten more read as unrelated single-store operators. The owner records put the same name on all 14: Ashvinkumar A. Patel, president, sole officer on 12 of them. No shared co-officer ties the corporations together, so we label the merge an inference. It is still the largest operation on the map.
The largest group we could verify against a second source is the Fazal family. Fazal Development Network and Elston Investments share the same two officers in the city records, Murad Fazal and Iqbal Ali, and press coverage corroborates the family's Subway holdings. 10 locations across 3 entities.
Where a common name was the only signal, we left the companies unmerged. The two Shilpa Patel entities stay separate. So do the two Jyoti Patels and the two Jignesh Patels.
The license history goes back to February 2000. 562 legal entities have held a Subway license in Chicago since then, across 513 addresses:
Chicago has lost roughly 100 Subways, 40 percent of the peak, in twelve years. The curve counts addresses with a license in force each July 1; on pull day, August 6, the active roster was 149.
The churn shows at the address level too. Of the 513 addresses that have ever held a Subway license, 103 have had two or more different operators. 30 of today's 149 locations run under a different corporation than an earlier license at the same address.
Limitations: city limits only, no suburbs. Owner names are self-reported at license time, and merges built on a name match alone are labeled inference.
Download the dataset: 149 rows with address, owner entity, named principals, and license dates.
Ora tracks the license filings, transfers, and closures that change this table. Contact us to learn more.