If I am really hungry and craving a sub at school, I am going to one place and one place only. That place is Our Hero. The white building located across from the cemetery on Plum Street in Springfield, Ohio, has a variety of different foods ranging from sandwiches, hot dogs, chili, onion rings, to fried mushrooms. She said, “We have all sorts of artery cloggers.” But if Our Hero is known for one thing, it surely is their sandwiches.

Lisa Rolland has been involved in the food industry since she was 15 years old. She is currently 40 years old, married with two daughters, and is the manager of the Our Hero on Plum Street. Her husband’s father owns the Our Hero franchise, which is a locally owned business with three restaurants here in Springfield.

Lisa grew up in Ohio and attended Urbana University in hopes of becoming a teacher focusing on elementary education. At this point in her life, she had no intention of running a business at some point in her life. This quickly changed though. She became server at a restaurant called Scooters, where she was a server. Then, in 2005, she was an unemployed single parent when she first got involved with Our Hero through her future husband. She started out working as a cashier but shortly became the manager of the restaurant.

She worked at Our Hero until 2008 when she moved to Virginia where she and her husband opened up Gionettis sandwich shop in downtown Roanoke. Very similar to Our Hero, she worked there for about a year but then came back to Springfield, due to her husband having health issues.

Back at Our Hero, Lisa has a great relationship with the Wittenberg students. She stated, “I absolutely love Witt Students. You guys are a wonderful class of a person.” She also stated that Wittenberg definitely gives them a good boost in terms of business.
Since Lisa first began working, she has not really encountered too many problems within the business. There has been no dining and dashing due to the fact that you have to pay before you eat. Sometimes in the summer though, people use the bathroom to either bathe or take a few hits of their drug of choice or the skateboarders use their parking lot. “This only happens on occasion though”, she stated.

When I asked her what her favorite sandwich was, she said that she makes her own chicken Philly combining chicken, cheddar, bacon and ranch. The weirdest request for a sandwich she ever has gotten was someone who asked for a sandwich with every single type of meat they had. She replied that she was definitely going to have charge extra for that one.

It doesn’t seem like Lisa will be leaving Our Hero anytime soon, but when she does she will probably pass on the business to her kids. She said that she definitely wants it to stay in the family. When she does retire and pass the business on, she could always go back and teach with her degree, something she said she wouldn’t mind doing.

I asked Lisa if she ever gets sick of sandwiches and she said, “Sure I do. I’m sure you get sick of going to class.” She said she just goes to bed, wakes up with a better attitude the next day. “I guess it’s just what I love to do”, she said.