DALLAS — The Great American Hero will remain open after all.
The legendary Dallas sandwich shop is set to remain open under new management.
Dominick Oliverie has run the business for nearly five decades until his retirement last week.
“It’s been a wonderful 47 years” Oliverie said. “It’s been wonderful, but it’s time to stop.”
Last summer, Oliverie announced plans to retire and close the sub shop. It caught the eye of Jacob Cox who was saddened to see it go.
“That’s when the regular visits started to happen when I came in here pretty much every day for 30 days straight,” said Cox.
Eventually, Cox decided he wanted to take over the copyright and keep the business alive.
“They remember who comes in, they remember your order, they remember faces and names, that started to speak to me, and I thought there’s something to this,” Cox said. “Built a relationship with Dominick, he gave me a little bit of time, which turned into a lot of time, and here we are today.”
Oliverie sold the land, and the cost of the lease will be too expensive to keep Great American Hero at the Lemmon location, but the plan is to take the business elsewhere.
“We cannot justify the expense to stay in this location, so we will be finding a new location and hopefully three or four spots in the next 18 months,” Cox said. “Then, we hope to grow nationally and our tentative business approach is that it will be a franchise business that will be 100% veteran owned.”
Oliverie is happy to see the name and business live-on.
“I'm really proud of them. They’re going to make some changes to make it work better for them,” he said. “I told them I’m a phone call away, and if they need any type of support in any type of way, except for getting me behind the counter, I am there for them.”
Oliverie said he looks forward to watching it grow.
“They got a good plan, it’s a 2020 plan instead of a 1975 plan,” he said. “I’d like to see them take it to the highest point that they can.”