Penn Station East Coast Subs, the fast-casual restaurant known for its grilled, made-to-order sub sandwiches, hand-squeezed lemonade, and fresh-cut fries, signed leases for new restaurants in Dublin and Marion, Ohio. The Dublin restaurant will be located at 6175 Sawmill Road and is slated to open in fall 2016. The Marion location will open in May 2016 at 158 McMahan Boulevard.
Cincinnati-based Penn Station East Coast Subs features grilled sub sandwiches— including the chain’s renowned Philadelphia cheesesteak sandwich—and cold deli sandwiches made to order with high-quality ingredients on hearth-baked bread. The menu also includes fresh-cut fries, hand-squeezed lemonade, and chocolate chunk cookies baked daily in the restaurant. Penn Station offers eat-in dining, carryout, and catering.
The new restaurants will be owned by a franchisee group made up of Jim McKean, Tom Zaciewski, Jennifer Perry, Jon Perry, Andy McBride, and Dave Hammack. McKean, a Reynoldsburg, Ohio native, will be the managing owner of the restaurants and will oversee all restaurant operations. He was previously in charge of 29 Johnny Rockets restaurants.
“We relish the opportunity to serve America’s best sandwich in Dublin and Marion,” McKean says. “We strive to be ingrained with our local communities through local staffing, catering, supporting local fundraising events, and offering a $3,000 annual scholarship to one of 15 finalists through Penn Station’s Athlete of the Year program. We are very excited to begin building a long-term relationship with these great communities.”
The group also owns the Penn Station restaurants in Dublin Granville and Gahanna, as well as the stores near Polaris Fashion Place and the Ohio State University’s campus. They plan to open up to 12 additional locations throughout Columbus.
“We’ve all engaged in a variety of private investments—in addition to our existing careers—and we were ready for a new venture,” Zaciewski says. “We looked at a lot of franchises and decided on Penn Station because of its exclusivity and ROI.”
Zaciewski is an urologist, a resident of Findlay, Ohio, and is leading most of the development for the group. Jennifer is the physician assistant for Zaciewski’s medical practice, and her husband, Jon, is an IT professional at Marathon Petroleum Corporation. The Perrys are from Tiffin, Ohio and are handling marketing, IT, and social media for the restaurants. McBride hails from Forest, Ohio, and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and farmer. He is managing lease negotiations and team relations. Hammack, who is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a resident of Monclova, Ohio, is handling financing, contracting and accounting for the team.
