Gateway Subs to serve up massive gourmet hoagies in Kenwood
/Gateway Subs will be located at 3112 3rd Avenue North in the Shoppes of Kenwood
They’re known as grinders in Boston, heroes in Long Island, Italian sandwiches in Maine, and subs just about everywhere else. But regardless of what you call them, we can all agree on our love for them. In fact, the largest chain restaurant in the United States isn’t McDonalds. It’s Subway.
And in a few short weeks, a new sub shop will be joining the St. Pete sandwich scene. Gateway Subs will debut at 3112 3rd Avenue North in the Shoppes of Kenwood across from the Elements on Third apartment community. Jenna Malowany and Hal Holder of KW Commercial represented the landlord in the deal.
Many residents may remember this space as the former home of Georgie's Alibi, a popular gay bar that closed in 2015. After the bar’s closure, owner Ron Gofrank sold the retail strip, which has been sitting mostly vacant ever since. However recently, the property has started to attract new tenants, such as St. Pete Dance, Back Alley Nails, and now Gateway Subs.
Big Beach - for the person who loves all the deli cuts but can’t decide which meat they love most. Includes roast beef, Turkey, and Ham.
St. Pete’s newest sub shop is being brought to life by Grant Strayer and a few of his old college and childhood friends Henry Love, Brandon Ruditz, and Morgan Zook. The foursome moved to St. Pete a few months ago with the sole purpose of opening Gateway Subs and putting their new business degrees to the test.
“We were originally planning to open in Austin or Boca Raton, where a few of us grew up,” said Love. “But once we found St. Pete, we fell in love with it.” The group cited the vibrant art community, the walkability, and the recent growth of the city as to what attracted them to St. Pete.
Drawing inspiration from two Boca Raton sub shops, Laspada’s Original Hoagies and 620 Subs, Gateway Subs won’t be serving your average, everyday subs. These will be hearty, gourmet subs that’ll keep you full and fueled all day long. “No one is going to leave our shop hungry. You’ll get your money’s worth,” Ruditz said with a smile.
The menu will feature eight subs served on a freshly baked hoagie roll. Keep it simple with the Plain Jane, which is your choice of meat (ham, turkey, or roast beef), provolone, and mayo. Or kick it up a notch by ordering the Spice Mélange, which starts with a heaping pile of sliced buffalo chicken breast paired with hot capicola, and is then topped with mayo, tomato, onion, hot peppers, and banana peppers as well as kettle-cooked jalapeño chips.
Spice Mélange - a heaping pile of sliced buffalo chicken breast paired with hot capicola, and topped with mayo, tomato, onion, hot peppers and banana peppers as well as kettle-cooked jalapeño chips
You’ll also be able to create your own custom sub. Select each topping individually or just ask them to “run it through the garden” for a healthy serving of all available veggies. Gateway will offer all the popular toppings such as lettuce, spinach, tomato, onion, pickles, cucumber, banana pepper, hot pepper, and oil & vinegar. You can even throw a bag of chips on your sub!
For those looking for a healthier option, you can swap out the hoagie roll for a lettuce wrap or choose from a selection of salads that’ll be on the menu. A vegan shake with monthly rotating flavors will also be available.
To wash down your meal, Gateway Subs will offer soda from OliPop, energy drinks from Celsius, kombucha from Mother Kombucha, and freshly roasted and brewed coffee.
Gateway Subs will open at 7 am every day, so make it a habit to swing by for your morning coffee. An assortment of local pastries will be for sale as well as a variety of “flats”, thick slices of sourdough bread topped with ingredients like avocado spread, honey, and everything bagel seasoning.
Gateway Subs will offer Freshly roasted and brewed drip and cold brew coffee
Although Gateway Subs won’t have an espresso machine, they will have a strong coffee program. The shop invested in their own Ambex Coffee Roaster in order to guarantee the freshest small-batch specialty coffee for their customers. Gateway will serve drip coffee, cold brew, half-caff cold brew, and nitro cold brew.
But Gateway Subs won’t just sell subs. Strayer wants the shop to be a gateway for professional growth and development for young entrepreneurs disguised as a sub shop.
“All of us have a degree in business or extensive knowledge of how to run a business,” said Strayer. “We will be teaching our employees business and management skills through a common curriculum with the hope of them opening up their own shop and passing down those skills to their own team.”
The Gateway Subs crew. From Left to Right, Henry Love, Marielle Eustace, Saige Johnson, Brandon Ruditz, Morgan Zook, and Grant Strayer.
Strayer wants to take people that don’t see college as the route they want to go down and grow them into something they want to be, whether that’s an entrepreneur or something else. His goal is to bring back the culture of being able to support a family of four off a high school degree.
“We love St. Pete and can’t wait to dive headfirst into the community,” said Strayer.
Gateway Subs is opening mid-August at 3112 3rd Avenue North in the Shoppes of Kenwood. Be sure to follow them on Instagram to stay up to date on grand opening plans and the latest sub specials.
