Good news for fans of the Potbelly sandwich chain: The downtown Rockville location, closed since February after a flood, will reopen by December with a whole new look. Bryant Keil, a Potomac native and Potbelly franchisee, tells us repairs have been delayed by insurance issues but will finally begin next month. Keil and his son Hampden, who co-own 13 Potbelly restaurants in Maryland and Virginia, are taking this opportunity to refresh the 25-year-old location. “It’s going to look completely different,” Hampden Keil says. “Totally new brighter color palette, new lighting, flooring, cabinetry, countertops, and a new point-of-sale system that will pump out the orders more quickly.”
Fun fact: Bryant Keil, a 1982 graduate of Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, is the reason the entire Potbelly chain even exists. Keil bought the original Chicago shop in 1996, when it was a ’70s-era antique store with a side gig selling sandwiches. (The sandwiches were toasted on the store’s potbelly stove, hence the name.) Keil grew Potbelly into a chain of 250 locations before stepping down as CEO in 2008. Fifteen years later, he returned to the company — this time as a franchisee. The father-son duo plan to open three more locations in Maryland and Virginia this year.
