Another restaurant will soon begin calling Cullman home.

The Gadsden-based Daggum Group, LLC said Tuesday it already has begun work on the newest Alabama location of the Jersey Mike’s Subs franchise, prepping a storefront in South Cullman for a late July or early August opening.

Jersey Mike’s will open in Suite C at 1850 Cherokee Avenue Southwest, between GameStop and the Jade Nail salon. The restaurant has committed to a 10-year lease with the option to extend or renew at the end of the lease term.

The franchise, which began in 1956 as a single-owner store, has approximately 1,500 locations across 45 states, and ten franchises in Alabama, according to Daggum co-investor Joe Livengood, who confirmed that the Cullman location of Jersey Mike’s will be his newly-formed company’s first.

“We want to make it an experience where we interact with the folks coming in, and really want to go for a local restaurant kind of feel,” Livengood explained. 

Livengood, who lives in Gadsden, said he and business partner Dewayne Boyd selected Cullman after Livengood began exploring the area’s demographics following his past travels through the area.

“Cullman is unique, and we’re really excited about it: fantastic people; friendly people. There’s a lot going on up here, and I was impressed with what y’all have done in dealing with the aftermath of the 2011 tornado,” Livengood said. 

“I decided to open up a Jersey Mike’s because I truly love it,” he added. “In all my travels — and I’ve been all over the country — for whatever reason, I just really love Jersey Mike’s. Over the past 20 years, I’ve probably eaten at more Jersey Mike’s than any other person in the United States,” he joked.

Once open, the store will employ between 20 and 25 people in a mixture of full-time and part-time positions. Livengood said he is currently meeting with leaders from a number of local charitable organizations in an effort to select a long-term local partner for community outreach.

The Cullman location is intended to serve as a training base for the company’s future franchise expansions in other North Alabama cities, said Livengood.

“We’re going to actually end up with two general managers here, because one will leave and go to Gadsden eventually. We’re also thinking about opening in Decatur, Oxford…ideally, we’d like to get it up to eight stores. We really want our store to be managed by folks who are from Cullman. We need shift managers and shift leaders, and both full-time and part-time folks. We feel like we’ve got a good opportunity for someone who wants to be a general manager at Jersey Mike’s,” he said.

Cullman’s comparatively small population and increasing supply of fast-casual restaurants didn’t pose a concern that the area is nearing market saturation for a restaurant like Jersey Mike’s, he added.

“I had no concerns about that whatsoever,” he said. “The more we see of Cullman, the better we like it. Our food is amazing, we source it locally as much as we can, and the quality of the meats and produce that we use is really exceptional. We feel great about having the opportunity to bring Jersey Mike’s to Cullman.”