Exactly twenty-two years after its original launch in Cranbrook Village—the owners’ first venture outside of New York state—DiBella’s Subs reopened on May 15, twenty-five months after a fire at a neighboring business under construction forced a total rebuild.
“The smoke damage was significant, so most of the materials in the building were just a total loss,” says A.J. Shear, director of marketing for the Rochester, NY, company founded in 1918 as an Italian import store and deli. “We really kind of had to look at this as a brand-new location build-out.”
Times have changed since the southside store opened as just the fourth DiBella’s Old Fashioned Submarines. The company now has more than forty locations in five states, and the redesign incorporates lessons learned in the process, Shear notes. It looks more modern, with new flooring and brighter materials. Gone are the neon signs, which proved expensive to repair, and hard-to-clean picture frames have given way to wall graphics of food and local scenes.
In the past, customers would be greeted by a sub maker who would take their order and fill it personally. This is their third store to adopt the more familiar model of ordering at the register. “That really cuts down on some of the errors that we’ve had in the past and allows one sub maker to make multiple subs at one time and really speed up the process,” Shear says.
There are a few more salad choices, but otherwise the menu is much the same, anchored by the crusty yet soft sub rolls baked at least twice a day in the large oven set prominently up front.
Shear says that he and their social media manager didn’t go more than three days without fielding questions about when the Godfather, Dagwood, or Uncle Louis subs would again be available locally. A crew of fifty employees were on hand for the well-promoted and long-awaited reopening.
“Ann Arbor has always supported us really in an incredible way,” Shear says. Despite construction and materials challenges, “There was never a question we were going to come back.”
DiBella’s Subs, 904 W. Eisenhower (Cranbrook Village). (734) 997–9011. Daily 10 a.m.–9 p.m. dibellas.com
Got a retail or restaurant change? Email [email protected]