Tuesday, July 23, 2024

[COMING IN HOT] Sully's Steamers Secures Spaces For Subsequent Georgia Shops

A new kind of franchise is preparing to make its greater metro Atlanta debut.  Sully's Steamers, a steamed bagel sandwich eatery, has signed a franchise agreement to open a new location in Gainesville.  The restaurant, at 311 Jesse Jewell Parkway, Suite 103 (Mule Camp Springs), is being opened by husband and wife franchisees Chris and Amy Williams.  

The new Sully's is 3,200 square feet, larger than the typical location, but with appealing parking and proximity to several areas of interest.  The restaurant will also feature an outside patio.  Despite not being a second-generation restaurant space (Foxhole Guns & Archery occupied the space before relocating elsewhere), the fact that the restaurant is generally "clean," with no need for a fryer or hood, should make the conversion relatively easy.  The main menu is centered on "steamed" bagel sandwiches served with a variety of toppings and ingredients.  Most sandwiches are priced between eight and ten dollars.    

Work is expected to start on the space in August with the goal of opening by late fall.  

Robert "Sully" Sullivan opened the first Sully's Steamers in Downtown Greenville, South Carolina in March 2013 and opened a second location in Clemson in February 2020.  The brand launched franchising in 2021 and has since grown to eleven locations (primarily in North and South Carolina) with a twelfth slated to open Monday, July 29 in Johnson City, Tennessee, where it is replacing a former Which Wich. 

Sully's Steamers entered the Georgia market this past February when it opened a franchise in Statesboro not far from the campus of Georgia Southern University.  

The restaurant serves more than thirty bagel sandwiches with nearly endless customization options.  ToNeTo Atlanta visited the original Greenville location in 2021 at which time we were told that Atlanta-based Masada Bakery was supplying the restaurant's bagels.  Today, Sully's gets their bagels from Just Bagels from The Bronx, a New York bagel shop that provides authentic New York bagels for the public and the food-service industry.  Just Bagels reportedly created a custom bagel for Sully's to use in their restaurants.  The New York bakery produces a fresh-frozen bagel for Sully's that creates efficiency and ensures consistency as the brand grows.  

Sully's partnered with Greenville's West End Coffee as its coffee purveyor.  

The restaurant typically offers one Limited Time Offer (LTO) per quarter and occasionally does store-specific specials.  

Sully's indicated in 2023 that it planned to have at least 50 locations open before the end of the decade.  Sully's Steamers is actively seeking owner/operator franchisees to help grow throughout the southeast.  Given the color scheme and playful messaging, one cannot help but think of Tom+Chee, a once high-flying Shark Tank success story, but Sully's seems far more measured and methodical in their growth plans.  

Josh Riley, Sully's COO, said in a phone call with ToNeTo Atlanta Tuesday that the company is also in discussions with franchisees for locations in downtown Athens, downtown Evans in the greater Augusta area, and the Marietta/Kennesaw area.  The downtown Athens location is planned for 255 E. Clayton, previously home to On the Rocks, a local bar and currently home to a temporary leasing center for Rambler Athens, a new student housing development.  All of the currently planned Georgia locations should open between the end of this year and the first half of 2025, pending permits and construction.    

Most Sully's restaurants are open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with those near college campuses typically open for late night dining on Fridays and Saturdays, too.  

Have you ever been to Sully's Steamers?  Have you ever had a steamed bagel sandwich?  Where in Marietta/Kennesaw or elsewhere in metro Atlanta would you like to see Sully's Steamers open?

Please share your thoughts below.  

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

First he lands a plane in the river, now makes cleveland steamer sandwiches. What’s next for this wacky guy?

Anonymous said...

So frozen bagels that they heat up and add toppings. Big expensive whoop

Anonymous said...

Been to the Greenville location. Very good. Quality ingredients. Should do well in Georgia. Didn't know the bagels weren't fresh but doesn't really matter after the steaming I guess...Bag chips and self service drinks. Should be a low cost operation.

Anonymous said...

I recently dined at the Columbia (SC) location for lunch and it was excellent. I had a hard time deciding because they have so many different sandwiches to choose from and many of them sounded really good.

Anonymous said...

No way! My brother in law loves the Sully’s in Brevard, NC. We’ve been once during a visit there and it’s really good. I had a turkey one with bacon and some type of sauce that was delicious. The warm chewy bagel it comes on is incredible. I’m excited to have a Sully’s near me now!

Anonymous said...

Yum!!! I can’t wait!!

Anonymous said...

Oy oy oy!!
I am all for steaming the meat portions of the sandwich for example, pastrami, corned beef, brisket, even turkey. I’m really good if you pull them from the steamer and sliced them paper, thin however, steaming the entire sandwich sounds very convoluted to me. It sounds like they’re steaming the whole sandwich to save time on defrosting that bagel they actually have a really good bagel from New York and even here, Masada is not that bad. they need to do this differently if they want to really scale the business for future growth. It looks like they’ve been somewhat successful, but then when you see where the locations are these locations have kind of a them and probably restaurant deserts.

Anonymous said...

I really want mom pop small business to not only survive but to greatly prosper. I just went to. I think it was trip Advisor for their Clemson location and went through the pictures. Everything is messy greasy and they all look very weird. lots of people make a big mess of their sandwiches as they’re eating it, it should not be a mess coming out of, a package! I tried really hard to like it because I wanted to like it, but after looking at those pictures, I just cannot bring myself to that place. Such drama!

Anonymous said...

There’s a time and place to enjoy a mess coming out of a package and this ain’t it.

Anonymous said...

there was a place in Charleston, Eastside Bagel, that did these types of sandwiches. It was really good. Then they closed a week or so after we went (I think moreso due to the owner wanting to do something different; they did decent business).

The steaming makes the flavor come out, makes it very easy to bite and chew. The biggest problem in this glorious era of food inflation is that things like this that should really cost around $5 instead are more like $10. But almost every place is like this, so I don't blame Sully's. Anyone skeptical of the concept should try it.

Anonymous said...

Bagels are not made for meat sandwiches. sorry. The true way is for a schmear of cream cheese with or without lox or whitefish. End of story. Nothing is sacred anymore.

Anonymous said...

You’re absolutely right. I guarantee those that came up with a concept of building a sandwich on a bagel and that includes silly‘s einStein‘s etc. really don’t know what they’re doing. Bagels are for dairy and fish dressing or jams or just plain butter. PB&J on a bagel or pizza bagel once in a while is something that’s entertaining, but even those are really not made to go together.

Bring on the smears bring on the nova bring on sablefish I could go on and on now I’m starting to sound like a Mocky!

Anonymous said...

Or some butter and jam. Oy, what a schmetzig!

Anonymous said...

I really hope I am not the only one who understood the innuendo or double entendre. What does that say about me?

Anonymous said...

What innuendo? It’s bagels sandwiches. I’m confused.

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