TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO the Bremerton neighborhood of Manette started having a party each summer…
Now, it’s an established community event, run by the Manette Business Association, lauding itself for ‘The World’s Tiniest Parade’ plus a row of merchants and food vendors lining the roughly three-block stretch from the corner of 11th and Perry Avenue down to the waterfront park. The street is closed to traffic. The saloon opens early. There’s a stage set up in the intersection with family-friendly music throughout the day. There’s facepainters and kids stuff.
However, noticeably absent (for the old-schoolers) are sandwiches from the business that started the whole thing back in 1999. So, we caught up with the Pete of Pete’s Jersey Subs from his home in, well, Jersey…
CRAVIN MOORE: You are from New Jersey. How did you end up in Bremerton the first time? PETE: My friend Zach got beat out of an apartment in Fremont, and with two days notice, Bremerton was the only place he could find. I laughed at him for moving there… Five years in Seattle, from New Jersey, and I’d never been. Never been on a ferry. Never wanted to. Then, I went to see his place a few days later (on the corner of Perry & E 16th St) and we walked through Manette (hungover) looking for coffee and saw the corner of E 11th and Pitt available for rent. I loved the corner, the space, the price and the blue collar nature of the area – especially compared to the inflating .com bubble in Seattle. I signed a lease seven days later and moved right after that!
What made you decide to then open a sandwich shop in Bremerton? Bremerton decided on me, I had little to do with it.
What years did Pete’s Jersey Subs operate in Bremerton? 10/10/1997 – 10/16/2003. At the time the Manette neighborhood had very little to offer. The Manette Saloon, and a hair salon were about the only solid businesses at the time.
Some locals would say you revitalized this sleepy little lower Manette neighborhood. What was Pete of Pete’s Jersey Subs secret to success? It was a good idea at a good time in the right place – a good product and price. And, people saw how hard we worked at it. I was there 80 – 100 hours a week for the first two years and I think people respected how much was going into it to make it work AND it was a fun place to be, to hang out, to work. It was a perfect balance of being meticulous and thoughtful in the details, but also not taking ourselves too seriously.
Manette Fest is coming up, with its tiny parade, local vendors, and whatnot. Some locals talk about Pete’s Jersey Subs actually starting what is now known as “Manette Fest.” Are the locals right, Is this rumor true? Yes it’s true. It was conceived in my living room as a way to give back to the neighborhood. I am 99% sure the first one was in 1999 but it may have been 1998, I could go check in a box in the basement I’m sure. We built the stage with Rich Hladky and a guy named Shane who had a CD store there for a bit and paid to book a few bands to play. And that was about it. It was a great way to support local artists too. The first year we had a barbershop quartet called Cheeze and what I think was the first professional gig for a guitar player named Jack Parker…maybe you’ve heard of him. We also had KW Miller and for a couple years. Our good friends Phat Sidy Smokehouse came over from Seattle to headline it.
With only a small handful of businesses located in the ‘Lower Manette’ neighborhood, did you have much as far as support or sponsors? Like was the ‘Manette Business Association’ selling merchandise, was the Manette Church making cheese burgers to support the cause? Hahah, no. But we probably should have done all of that. It was completely out of the pocket of Pete’s, we never asked anyone for anything.
Where was the “Manette Fest” main stage located in the beginning? It was located right at the end of the building where the sub shop was in the vacant lot there. The same family owned that lot and let us use it. And, in fact, the deck of the stage was made with recycled wood from the old sail loft building up on the next corner. There was also a small bookstore owned by the Mossyrock family in the building to the east of the lot and their kids always had fun at Manette-fest.
How many people would you say attended ‘Manette Fest” the first year? Throughout the day maybe 100 people came and went. We had four or five bands playing so its hard to say….maybe 150.
What made you close up shop, and leave Manette when things were at what some folks would call ‘the brink of success?’ There were a couple investors who wanted me to consider a regional chain and the idea of driving to Silverdale and Port Orchard everyday to do what I had already done in Manette six years earlier really gave me a moment to pause and take stock of what I was doing. Having one small restaurant is not a great career move so it felt like a go big or go home moment. I went home. Well at least I went back to Seattle and worked for the next ten years in Youth Development nonprofits (Big Brothers Big Sisters and Community for Youth) and then decided to really go home and I’ve been back in Jersey for ten years now. Great to be close to family….and be able to get a good hoagie at the pizza place so I don’t have to make it myself. // CRAVIN MOORE
MANETTE FEST w/ food, vendors, live music and more 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sept. 7. More at manettebusiness.org
