Syracuse-based sub shop continues to expand — eight stores spread across two states
By Mary Beth Roach
The Brooklyn Pickle sandwich shop is a success story 50 years in the making.
Founded by Syracuse native Ken Sniper in 1975, the sandwich shops are now owned by Craig Kowadla, who had worked for Sniper for years before buying the business in 2022.
The success, Kowadla said, comes from establishing a personal relationship with customers and delivering on its mission statement in all of his eight stores, spread across two states.
“We’ll serve the customer the freshest product, in the most pleasant manner in the least amount of time. What’s iconic are the size of the sandwich, the value, the service and the speed and that’s what we try to harp on in all the stores,” he said.
Kowadla, who was about 2 years old when the first Pickle opened, celebrated the Brooklyn Pickle’s golden anniversary earlier this year with a $5 promotion on sandwiches and an announcement that he would be opening his eighth location later in the summer.
Sniper started working out of a modest space on Midler and Burnet avenues, near the Eastwood neighborhood of Syracuse. He opened his second shop on West Genesee Street, near Tipperary Hill, several years later.
Subsequently, he significantly expanded both locations. A third location was opened in 2019 on Buckley Road, near Taft Road, with Kowadla at the helm.
After Kowadla bought the stores from Sniper, the 52-year-old has been expanding the enterprise, opening a store in Utica in the spring of 2023; three in North Carolina in 2023 and 2024; and the latest one — the eighth — on Marshall Street, near Syracuse University, this summer.
The newest one, called Brooklyn Pickle on the Run, opened in August.
Unlike its predecessors, this Pickle provides on-the-go service, focusing on its target market of students, staff from the area and event-goers to the JMA Wireless Dome.
Kowadla may not have planned to open so many shops in such a short amount of time, but after acquiring the restaurants and fully realizing the caliber of his employees, he felt that it was a must.
“I have fantastic employees,” he said. “There was talent waiting to do their own thing. You can’t just sit on it. It almost forced me to grow. If you don’t have good people, you just can’t do it.”
The Utica location in the historic Utica Cotton Steam Mill is a little more unique in its look and history than its Syracuse counterparts.
Owned by one of Kowadla’s friends, Joe Gehm and his real estate and development group, the Steam Mill it is a mixed-use office, retail and residential space. The eatery there may look similar to the Syracuse spots behind the counter, but the overall aesthetic has a more industrial feel, reflective of the building’s history.
The North Carolina spots — Pinehurst, Raleigh and Charlotte — allow Kowadla to bring together two of his passions — business and golf. He owns Pinehurst himself; he owns the other two, as well, but has licensed them to another individual.
The North Carolina spots, he said, offer him different challenges, which he loves. As he explained, while Central New York is familiar with the Brooklyn Pickle’s oversized sandwiches, he and his team have had to introduce the business to a new market.
Opening the Marshall Street store was an idea that intrigued him for a while. He said was first approached in 2023 by well-known area entrepreneur and former SU football star Dave Jacobs, who was closing his Shirt World store after 48 years in business. Kowadla said that with the recent expansions in the other locales, he needed a breather. But yet the notion of having a place so close to Syracuse University, the JMA Wireless Dome and the hospitals was interesting to him. Then when the national chain Jimmy John’s closed its Marshall Street location, leaving behind much of its equipment, Kowadla saw the opportunity.
“We don’t know what to expect up here, but we’re excited,” he said.
