Table Rock Lake sandwich shop expands to Republic

Three years after opening a sandwich shop in the Table Rock Lake area, its owners are expanding the restaurant to their hometown of Republic.

Pending completion of final inspections from the city, The Submarina LLC is targeting a May 12 or 13 launch at 389 U.S. Highway 60 East, said co-owner Keri Bruton. A Republic native, Bruton co-owns the venture with Shelly Huff, who is the mother-in-law of her sister, Shannon Huff.

“We haven’t fully pushed it out there yet, but we expect a crowd already. People have been waiting for us to open,” Bruton said, adding Republic friends and family have been among those who’ve visited the women’s first eatery, which they opened in May 2022 in Shell Knob.

The Submarina serves submarine sandwiches with around a dozen signature creations – several of which have names with nods to lake life, among them The Captain, The Dock and The Dinghy, the latter of which includes toasted chopped chicken, bacon and pepper-jack cheese and is topped with lettuce and buttermilk ranch. Custom sandwich orders also are taken at the restaurant, whose menu also includes nachos, salads and desserts, along with catering services.

“It’s the exact same menu, exact same name as the one at the lake,” Bruton said of the Shell Knob location, which includes a six-slip dock on Table Rock Lake and fills space formerly occupied by a Subway shop. “All of our stuff is homemade. Shelly makes all of our pasta salad, our potato salad, our tuna chicken salad. We cut our own meats. We bake our bread.”

Bruton said startup costs for the Republic location are around $80,000, but she declined to disclose the three-year lease rate with landlord Victor Paulik. She said the building previously housed Little Caesars and Garden Cafe restaurants and most recently served as offices for Schuchmann Cattle Co.

While the sandwich shop’s Republic location doesn’t have a drive-thru, Bruton said a side door to the roughly 2,500-square-foot building will allow customers to easily access a to-go order area.

The Bruton and Huff families have been regular visitors to the Table Rock Lake area, the women said. Huff said upon learning the old Subway building was up for sale, she acted, even though she and Bruton didn’t have any restaurant experience. Bruton exited her 20-year health care career before opening the shop, noting she worked in the emergency room at Mercy Hospital Springfield as a phlebotomist.

“We didn’t have a plan,” Huff said, noting her family also owns Aaron’s Fireplace Co. LLC in Republic. “I love to cook. (Bruton) likes to decorate and entertain, and then just together, one thing led to another, and it was successful.”

Bruton added with a laugh: “It’s not like, ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted to own a sandwich shop.’ It just kind of happened.”

While the Shell Knob location has typically been open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. for several months of the year, the Republic shop will be open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. year-round. Bruton said The Submarina in Republic plans to open with 16 employees.

“The more we got into it, the more we always wanted to come home here because this is where we are. My grandkids are here, and she’s been here for 44 years,” Huff said, motioning toward Bruton. “We probably started looking two years ago, and this was actually the first building we looked at.”