By Mark Woolsey

It was a visit to a college-town eatery that changed the lives of Lauren Balas, her husband Tommy and the couple’s three daughters.

Balas was in Clemson, SC, at a cheerleading clinic her youngest daughter, Gracie, was attending in the spring of 2023.

At the behest of said daughter and some others, a group of the teens and their moms headed to a modest, laid-back sandwich shop bearing a slightly unusual name : Sully’s Steamers. Their sammies were an undeniable hit.

 The meal concluded,  “Every single person said ‘can we come back tomorrow?’” recalls Ballas, who was impressed herself.

That breakfast kicked off a two-year odyssey which culminated with the Balas’s opening the first Sully’s Steamers in metro Atlanta, on Marietta Square. It’s at 50 Powder Springs St., perched between Two Birds Taphouse and Kiosco.

Co-owner (with her husband) Balas says founder Robert Sullivan (Sully) “came up with the concept of wanting to mix a couple of things together, a deli sandwich in the middle of a (split) bagel, then steaming it to the point where it’s ooey gooey and super soft.”

“It’s different from a deli sandwich and also different from a toasted bagel,” she clarifies. This is most definitely not a bagel and cream cheese shop.

Sullivan originated the concept in Greenville, SC in 2013, then began expanding the brand’s footprint, opening more than a dozen locations.

Balas and husband had been checking into franchises as they sought an alternative to the corporate world but nothing had clicked. One factor or another always felt “off.”

 Sullivan and his organization checked all the boxes. Good people. Solid franchise agreement. Training and continuing support. Good vibes in the brand’s locations they checked. And what they regarded as a superior product, a twice-steamed melty soft concoction of a sandwich living up to the company’s slogan, “It’s a hot mess.”         
“This just struck us as such an original idea,” as she puts it.

That originality is also reflected in their menu.

Says daughter and general manager Sophie: “I would say out of our breakfast items (the most popular) is something called the meat chimney. It’s a whole bunch of sausage, bacon, egg and cheese,”  which a great many customers prefer on a French Toast bagel.

Then there’s the lunchtime  crowd, many of them opting for the Griswold, a nod to the National Lampoon “ Vacation” movies and piled high with turkey, bacon, provolone, pepper jack, lettuce, bbq and parm peppercorn.

Others chomp away at the “Hello Newman” (inspired by Seinfeld) and loaded with pastrami, bacon, and horseradish, “The Partridge Family,” a chicken-salad offering and the ever-popular “Mr. Burns.”

Lauren Balas says one of the toughest challenges was finding suitable space, which took a number of months. They wanted to land a spot that meshed well with the surrounding area. It was Marietta Square that turned out to be a  hand-in-glove fit.

“It’s got a family feel to it,” she said, also lauding its vibrancy, its plethora of festivals and events and healthy foot traffic.

Having a multi-use trail behind them and a back entrance haven’t hurt either, she says.

With the Balas couple as co-owners and their oldest daughter Sophie in the general manager’s slot they seem poised to become a downtown fixture.

“You get excited about something and you want to share it with the community,” Balas says. “It doesn’t really feel like work when you enjoy what you do.”

Sully’s is open from 7 a.m to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.