Spud lovers rejoice! A second McAlister’s Deli is coming soon to Pensacola.
The new McAlister’s Deli will open at 8878 Ransley Station Blvd., where it will join a host of other restaurants catering to mealtime needs in a fast-growing area of Escambia County.
Site plans were turned in to Escambia County on May 27 by Sweet Tea Charm Inc. and Sierra Point Development, both entities run by Thomas Messina.
Messina, who began his military career at NAS Pensacola and has ties to Northwest Florida, brought the first McAlister’s Deli restaurant to the area when he opened a restaurant at 9496 W. U.S. Highway 98 in December of last year.
Lines formed outside the original McAlister’s Deli site on the day it opened as customers sought to be among the first 100 in the door to win a year’s worth of free club sandwiches, one of the deli’s popular staples.
What’s so special about McAlister’s Deli?
McAlister’s offers sandwiches galore, with well over 20 variations to choose from, including Cubans, French dips, Reubens, turkey melts, and the famous McAlister’s club, which comes layered with roasted turkey, Black Forest ham, bacon, sharp cheddar, Swiss, spring mix, tomato, mayo and McAlister’s Honey Mustard on wheat bread.
The spuds are another lure for diners. Super-sized baked potatoes that come topped with just about anything that isn’t a kitchen sink. Take for instance the Spud Max, covered with ham, turkey, bacon, cheddar-jack, green onions and black olives, or the Honey BBQ Pork Spud, featuring smoked pulled pork, cheddar-jack, honey BBQ sauce and green onions.
For washing down purposes, McAlister’s Deli serves up a famous 32-ounce sweet tea. The customizable teas are steeped from Rainforest Alliance Certified tea leaves and sweetened with pure cane sugar, according to McAlister’s website.
McAlister’s got its start in 1989, the website states, when an enterprising dentist decided he wanted to turn an abandoned movie-set diner in Oxford, Mississippi, into a “small yet charming neighborhood restaurant and gathering place.”
The concept took hold in a big way. There are now more than 500 McAlister’s Deli locations in 28 states, all of them welcoming customers with a time-honored salute of “we mean it when we say our table is your table.”
Plans to open the Ransley Station location were first revealed in November of 2025, about a month ahead of the opening of the first Pensacola McAlister’s Deli.
What is Ransley Station?
Ransley Station itself is a mixed-use development that sprang up near the intersection of Interstate 10 and Pine Forest Road after Navy Federal Credit Union made good on plans to locate in West Pensacola and bring 8,000 to 10,000 new jobs to the area.
As originally drawn up, the Ransley Station development was to be split into three districts.
Apartment complexes, the Flats at Ransley Station and The Hangar, have opened in a district set aside for multi-family housing, and Baptist Health Care and Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate announced plans in 2025 to collaborate to build an approximately 8,226-square-foot primary care facility within the confines of Ransley Station.
One district offered space set aside for 16 buildings ranging in size from 3,000 to 15,000 square feet for retail stores and restaurants.
Chipotle Mexican Grill opened in March and a Culver’s Restaurant has since followed. First Watch, a restaurant offering breakfast, brunch and lunch, is scheduled to open a new location at 8860 Boesch Lane in the middle of 2026.
Wawa and Panera Bread have also established themselves in or near the Ransley Station development.
The original plans for the Ransley Station McAlister’s Deli called for a 4,400-square-foot building that would house both the restaurant and a Supercuts Hair Salon. Documents revealing the introduction of the site plan to county zoning officials, however, indicate a different address than the one listed in the original proposal and make no mention of a Supercuts.
Efforts to reach Escambia County officials and David Fitzpatrick, the engineer of record for Sweet Tea Charm Inc., were not immediately successful.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Second McAlister’s Deli signals Ransley Station’s rapid growth
Reporting by Tom McLaughlin, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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