There’s a new sandwich shop in town, but the name will be familiar to some.
After many months of grinding away as a pop-up option, Brandon Abbott and Justin Anello are ready to open the doors to Rockets Subs’ new brick-and-mortar location.
The popular pop-up, which has been a staple at Kelowna’s Railside Brewing in recent months, will be quietly opening its own space right next door, at 1180 High Rd., in the coming days
It’s a new era and the biggest move yet for Abbott and Anello’s passion project that has rapidly accumulated loyal fans thanks to their delicious east coast roll-style subs.
“We made them and people told us to keep making them, so we started doing a weekly pop-up,” Abbott explained of Rockets Subs’ humble origins during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rewinding even further, Abbott and Anello are both Ontario transplants with extensive experience in British Columbia’s food and beverage industry.
They first crossed paths while Abbott was working downtown at Krafty Kitchen and their friendship blossomed when both ended up employed at the Modest Butcher at Mt. Boucherie Estate Winery.
When the pandemic shut things down in 2020, both men were looking for ways to continue cooking food for people and pop-ups were a great way to do that.
While they dabbled in other foods, Abbott says it was Anello’s Italian heritage and long-burning desire to open some sort of sandwich shop that led to the birth of Rocket Subs.
They made a bunch of their now-signature east coast roll-style subs for friends at Abbott’s apartment one day and the positive feedback set the business in motion.
If you check out the Rocket Subs Instagram page, the bio says their sandwiches are “the most exclusive back-alley subs in the Okanagan.”
That’s exactly how Abbott described it to KelownaNow when he discussed the earliest days of their weekly pop-up operation at Mt. Boucherie Estate Winery.
People would pre-order subs and the duo would prepare them in a licensed kitchen before taking them to the winery on delivery day.
"Basically, people would just show up in the back alley and call us and we would just appear in the back alley with their food and leave,” Abbott said.
“I think people just kind of liked the, 'if you know you know,' type thing about it.”
The stressful nature of working during the pandemic left both men with a desire to be their own bosses instead of returning to more typical jobs, but they were having trouble finding a retail space in a good location.
"I just didn't really feel like going back to work for somebody, same with Justin, and we just kept looking and kept looking,” noted Abbott.
As their pop-ups expanded beyond Mt. Boucherie Estate Winery, it led them to the connections that helped springboard Rocket Subs into the public eye.
Craft 42 Roasters, now their neighbour as they enter their brick-and-mortar chapter, was their local coffee shop, and it was owner Aaron Moore who introduced them to Rob Leinemann and Matt Grieve from Railside Brewing.
Not only do those two own Railside, they own that entire little strip mall on High Road beside the brewery, and they told Abbott and Anello that retail space would soon be available for them.
Until it was, they were offered a chance to do their pop-ups at Railside on days when the Wasabi Ramen food truck was not on site.
It was the break they needed to go from a back-alley to high-demand sub shop.
"We were selling out in like an hour or two, every week bringing more buns and it just kept getting more crazy and crazy,” Abbott explained. “It seemed like a perfect fit, so we just kept rolling with that. They've been nothing but helpful."
And that leads us to where we are today, as Abbott and Anello officially took possession of their new space in the fall and are ready to open the doors as early as this weekend.
It will be a grab-and-go style sandwich shop, with six to eight staple subs available to start that you can either take to go or bring over to Railside to enjoy with a pint.
While they plan on keeping things simple to start, hence the very quiet debut before grand opening celebrations later this month, they have some big ideas.
Abbott didn’t want to spoil too much of their future plans, but noted that they will look to expand their offerings in a variety of ways and work closely with both Craft 42 and Railside as neighbours.
They’ll even be selling bags of coffee beans from local roasters who don’t have their own retail space.
“We try to do everything as local as possible,” Abbott said with pride, adding that they’ll soon be offering up catering services for local parties and events.
Even their eye-catching logo, which is embedded into the floor of their new space, is a product of a local tattoo artist.
While she has since left the Okanagan for Saskatoon, Abbott was sure to give @mac.widow a shoutout during his interview with KelownaNow in case anyone is ever looking for new ink while in the Prairies.
The pair is hoping to open the Rocket Subs doors to the public as early as this weekend, but will be treating the next week or two as a very quiet soft opening.
That means anyone wanting to try a sandwich in the near future should walk or drive down High Road to see if they’re open or keep tabs on the Rocket Subs Instagram account.
Their Instagram is also where they will share details of their grand opening celebration that will take place at some point in January.
