30 years of long lines at Andy’s Deli

By JEFF BLAKE - jblake@thestate.com

Molly Flynn was perhaps destined to be a lifelong regular at Andy’s Deli in Five Points.

“I’ve been coming here since I was little, he actually sent my mom a sandwich in the hospital when she was having me!” Flynn says of owner, Andy Shlon.

“Hello, my friend!” says Shlon, greeting regular customer Cubby Culbertson. Shlon, who opened Andy’s Deli in Five Points in 1978, greets all of his male customers with an enthusiastic “Hello, my friend!” and all of his female customers with “Hello, my dear!”

A native of Beirut, Lebanon, Shlon moved to America in 1967 to attend college and went to work at another Five Points deli institution, Groucho’s, for 11 years before striking out on his own.

Over the past three decades, the deli has garnered a loyal following, who first come for the good food but regularly return for Shlon’s customer-first attitude.

“It’s an honor to be Andy’s friend,” Culbertson says.