Penn Station East Coast Subs, the fast-casual restaurant known for its Philadelphia Cheesesteak Sub sandwich served hot and made-to-order on freshly baked French bread, will open its first Northern Virginia restaurant in early February in the Haymarket Village Center.
Penn Station will bring 40 new jobs to Haymarket with this store opening. The owner is Anna Prendergast, whose second Penn Station location is already under construction in Fairfax, Virginia, and will open in March.
Prendergast will be a hands-on investor, who left a successful career in television news as an investigative reporter and anchor to bring Penn Station to her hometown in Northern Virginia.
“I went into television news straight out of college,” Prendergast says. “I moved every two years and even covered the war in Iraq. I was introduced to Penn Station East Coast Subs while working in Louisville, Kentucky. Once I tried it, I was hooked and I knew it would do really well in Northern Virginia.
“Northern Virginia is filled with restaurants, but it was missing a great sub sandwich shop,” she adds. “Penn Station serves the freshest and most delicious subs I have ever had. We know people will keep coming to our restaurant because of one thing—the quality of the food.”
Penn Station plans to open between five and seven restaurants in the Washington, D.C., area over the next three years. Originally founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1985, Penn Station serves a variety of grilled and cold deli subs, as well as hand-cut, made-to-order french fries; hand-squeezed lemonade made throughout the day; and chocolate chunk cookies baked fresh in the restaurant.
Penn Station has more than 250 restaurants in 13 states, including Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
All but one location is franchised. Projections call for the opening of 40 restaurants in 2013, and 45 in 2014. Markets targeted for growth include Kansas City, Missouri; Richmond, Virginia; Chicago; Detroit; Nashville, Tennessee; and North and South Carolina, as well as a number of other existing markets.
