Sub Station near UC Riverside announces its ‘final farewell'

The Sub Station will end its 54 years near UC Riverside with a two-day party Friday and Saturday, June 19-20.

The “final farewell” will include free ice cream, a disc jockey and a photo booth, according to a post on the restaurant’s Instagram page.

The Sub Station is part of Bannockburn Village, a housing and retail development bordering the campus that is slated for demolition due to old age.

Sub Station calls itself the oldest eatery at UCR. It was co-founded in 1972 by Richard Munio, who continues to run it with largely the same menu it had at the beginning.

It serves East Coast-style sub sandwiches, tightly wrapped in white butcher paper with peppers and carrot sticks.

The signature sandwich is the Big Dude, made with cappacolla, dry salami, pepperoni, ham and cheese.

The Sub Station provided decades of employment for UCR students, called Subbers.

Munio said he was blindsided by news of the demolition, which came to light last winter. Since then, loyal customers and former Subbers have been coming by to get their last Big Dudes and say goodbye.

The Sub Station was one of the last businesses to be housed in Bannockburn Village. Another longtime hangout, a pizza parlor called the Getaway Cafe, closed in April 2025 in a dispute with the university.

Demolition of Bannockburn Village is projected to begin later this summer and take a few months, according to UCR spokesperson John Warren.

Apartments at Bannockburn Village housed about 340 students. Off-campus housing recently took another hit when a fire destroyed 50 units at University Riverside Gardens Apartments

Information: substationucr.com

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