Tony & Pete’s opened four years ago amid pandemic uncertainty and limited resources. After relocating from Chicago, Justin Simmons and his wife Kathleen Roll relied on years of hospitality experience to launch the shop in downtown Dayton.
From those early days, the business has grown into one of the Fire Blocks District’s most recognizable food destinations.
Tony & Pete’s isn’t opening a second location, at least not yet. Instead, the Dayton sandwich shop is investing in infrastructure: a centralized prep kitchen and headquarters designed to support long-term growth. The new space will allow the business to shift production out of its main storefront, expand its house-made offerings, and improve overall efficiency.
Co-owner Justin Simmons said the added capacity will free up room for customers and better position the shop for potential future locations.
Simmons said the decision grew out of practical necessity.
“We know we’ve been leaving money on the table,” he said. “We just haven’t had the space to do everything the way we want to do it.”
Operating out of a single storefront has limited production and flexibility, he said, making a separate prep space the logical next step.
The new headquarters is also a strategic investment in what could come next. “Opening this space next door was absolutely us banking on the future,” Simmons said. “Right now, having a centralized commissary kitchen for one location is helpful in a lot of ways. But if we had two or three of these things, maybe even more someday, being able to push the bread all out of one location, push maybe all the side production out of one location, that’s really where the growth happens.”
Unlike some restaurant expansions, Tony & Pete’s is not backed by outside investors.
“My wife and I are the only partners on this. We don’t have any investors backing us,” Simmons said. “For better or worse, it’s us and our team making these decisions. We’re a couple of industry kids that scrapped and put together a down payment on an SBA loan to finance this thing. There’s nobody pulling the strings behind the scenes, which is beautiful, but it also means the buck fully stops with us.”
While the new headquarters creates the infrastructure for additional locations, Simmons said the team is cautious about what comes next.
“I’m always hesitant to say, ‘We’re opening this location on this day,’ because the second you do that, you put out a big press release, there are so many variables that come into play, and then it doesn’t happen,” he said. “We’re not trying to string people along or give out false hope.”
Even as opportunities emerge, Simmons said growth will only happen if it aligns with the couple’s long-term vision.
“As enticing as that sounds, we don’t want to jump just because it’s the shiny new thing,” he said. “We have to make sure it aligns with the life we want to live. It aligns with our ethos. Our goal of scaling is to create opportunities for our team, for us, for our newborn son. If we can’t accomplish those goals, then we’re not jumping into everything that comes our way.”
For now, the focus remains on building the foundation next door, strengthening operations, supporting staff, and preparing for whatever comes next. If additional locations follow, Simmons said, they will come the same way Tony & Pete’s began: deliberately and on their own terms.
MORE DETAILS
What: Tony & Pete’s
When: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Sunday
Location: 129 E. Third St., Dayton
Online: tonyandpetes.com
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