In the wake of Ebert’s Meats closing, the store’s next door neighbor, Rub House, has announced they will be closing their Monmouth Street location, instead choosing to relocate to Alexandria.
The announcement was made on Rub House’s official Facebook page, with founder and owner Dan Stankiewicz along with his wife Kathy Ashcraft writing that with Ebert’s no longer in business, it didn’t make sense to continue at the 937 Monmouth Street location.
“I don’t see us continuing in that spot without Ebert’s,” said Stankiewicz’ post on Facebook.
Rub House will be moving to 405 Washington Street in Alexandria, which is across the street from Campbell County Middle School and is currently being remodeled. As of now, Rub House plans to open their new location during the second week of February.
Stankiewicz told LINK nky he plans to open a Polish deli in collaboration with their Rub House spice store. The deli will feature canned goods imported from Europe.
“We are very excited, but in many ways it’s hard to leave the “comfort zone” we had for so long being next to Ebert’s,” said Stankiewicz.
Rub House started in Stankiewicz’s one-car garage two years ago, and grew into a business capable of expanding into a brick-and-mortar location with an online store
Stankiewicz said the customer demographics of Alexandria work in the store’s favor. The Monmouth Street location provided Rub House with foot traffic, something that’s hard to leave behind, but a necessary sacrifice in order to expand the business.
“We’ve worked to get to where we are,” Stankiewicz said. “We’ve always made pretty smart moves when it comes to that. Alexandria is just a good fit for us.”
Being located directly next door to Ebert’s Meats forged a symbiotic relationship between the two stores. In fact, Ebert’s asked Rub House to create exclusive spice blends specifically for their meats. Rub House also creates special blends for other Newport restaurants such as Pompilios.
For Stankiewicz, using only the freshest ingredients is vitally important. Rub House’s blends use ingredients imported from European countries such as Poland, Hungary, Greece and France, as well as US states like California and Texas. Stankiewicz has experience living in Europe, which is where he learned about the unique spices that he incorporates into his blends today.
“We’re just really, really conscious about the ingredients,” Stankiewicz said. “I know our customer base knows that. I know people are very conscientious today about what they’re eating and what they’re using.”
Both Stankiewicz and Ashcraft told LINK nky they are grateful for the City of Newport and its residents for their continued support over the years.
“Newport’s a great city and has great people,” Stankiewicz said. “We’ve received plenty of support here.”
