Shares of fast-casual restaurant franchisor Jersey Mike’s were trading at near their initial public offering price of $23 on July 31, a day after the Tinton Falls company went public in what many market watchers considered a disappointing debut.

The stock, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol JMKE, closed at $23.19, up $1.57, or 7.24% on July 31.  

Jersey Mike’s shares had opened 8.7% below their initial public offering price on July 30, valuing the sandwich chain at about $6.7 billion in its New York Stock Exchange debut. The shares ended the day at $21.63, down 6%. The company debuted with a valuation of nearly $8 billion, 18 months after private-equity firm Blackstone took a majority-stake in the sandwich giant. Blackstone retained 68% of voting power after the IPO.

The initial public offering raised about $1 billion with the company selling roughly 43.5 million shares at $23 apiece, more than 10 times oversubscribed, according to Bloomberg News.

Jersey Mike’s has gone public at a time when restaurant businesses are struggling with higher interest rates, rising operating costs and budget-conscious consumers.

Historically, the public appetite for restaurant chains hasn’t been robust, according to an analyst at financial research platform Seeking Alpha. Restaurant analyst Pedro Goulart cautioned in his appraisal of the Jersey Mike’s IPO that “public markets tend not to be so kind to restaurant chains (especially company-operated ones),” adding that chains such as Denny’s, Potbelly, Del Taco and Pizza Hut have all left the public markets.

Jersey Mike’s Charlie Morrison was optimistic about the chain’s prospects.

“The business was well designed for a long time to be a great public company,” Morrison told Reuters in an interview. “It has all the predictability in performance that we know investors love to see…and tons of portability and white space ahead of us to grow this brand well into the future.”

Morrison added that the company operates more than 3,300 locations across the U.S. and Canada. Jersey Mike’s plans to expand overseas in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with the first store set to open later this year.

“We think we can have not only 7,500 stores or more in the U.S. but another 7,500 stores outside the U.S., that totals 15,000 stores of potential growth,” he said.