Goodbye, my friend: Columbia mourns beloved founder of Andy’s Deli in Five Points
Everybody who’s ever gone into Andy’s Deli felt like they were visiting an old friend, even if it was their first time through the door.
For 42 years, Andy Shlon would greet each person who came through the door with a “Hello, my friend,” or “Hello, my dear.” The Five Points deli and its gregarious, hard-working founder both became fixtures of Columbia’s community.
The Greene Street deli will never be the same after Shlon died Thursday at the age of 79.
On Friday, the Five Points community and many people far beyond mourned the loss of one of the village’s longest residents.
“You thought he’d be there forever,” said Tim Smith, owner of Papa Jazz Record Shoppe, who couldn’t remember a day he hadn’t seen Shlon’s car parked at the deli across the street from his music store. “Just like the sun comes up, Andy will be there.”
For those who knew him, Shlon was as much a Five Points icon as the neighborhood fountain that sits at the corner of Harden and Greene streets.
Bud Ferillo, a frequent customer, would visit Andy’s Deli three to four times a week.
Friday was no different, except that Andy’s Deli was closed.
“It rocked its soul,” Ferillo said about Shlon’s impact on the Columbia community.
When Ferillo pulled up into the empty parking lot, he saw a woman standing in the rain. It was Gloria, who worked for Andy’s Deli.
She was speechless, he said.
Since the deli opened in August 1978, the native of Beirut, Lebanon, had greeted customers and served up sandwiches in his red apron and white baseball cap. After working as an accountant for Kuwait Airways in the Middle East, Shlon came to America in the 1960s for school at Palmer College, the forerunner of Midlands Technical College.
He got a job at Groucho’s Deli while he pursued a degree in business management and worked at the Five Points delicatessen for a decade before striking out on his own. He was known for working long hours six days a week without fail.
Shlon’s nephew, former Columbia City Councilman Moe Baddourah, followed his uncle’s footsteps by moving to Columbia from Lebanon at the age of 16, and later opening restaurants of his own.
“Today, just as many of you feel the impact of losing him, my family and I are heartbroken,” Baddourah wrote in a statement Friday. Andy loved Columbia. He was a friend to everyone that came into Andy’s Deli. ...
“What Andy loved more than anything was his family. Please keep my Aunt Carole, their sons Andy Jr. and Adam and their grandchildren in your thoughts and prayers in the coming days.
“His dedication and his service to our City will never be replaced or forgotten.”
Mike Campbell remembered meeting Shlon for the first time as a high schooler in the 1980s, when he and friends would tailgate at Andy’s during Five Points’ annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration. As a young business owner in the ‘90s, Campbell regularly looked to Shlon for advice, which Shlon gave freely, he said.
”He was such a fixture in Five Points and so identified with Five Points,” said Campbell, a longtime customer, friend of Shlon’s and son of the late S.C. Gov. Carroll Campbell, whose portrait still hangs in Andy’s Deli. “He would go out of his way to take time to give us advice. ... He didn’t have to do that.”
Richard Burts, a longtime Five Points developer and property owner, said one of his distinct memories of Andy’s Deli was when he would walk down the hill from USC’s campus to eat there.
“He always took care of us,” Burts said.
Burts was a cheerleader at USC in the 80s and is in one of the photos hanging in Andy’s Deli.
When Burts and his partner were looking to start their own business they looked to Shlon.
“He was always running the register,” Burts said. “That’s what stood out to us.”
Steve Cook, president of the Five Points Association and owner of Saluda’s, works just across the street from Andy’s. Cook knew Shlon for about 20 years.
“The way he greeted me was exactly the same as he would greet a person who would walk in probably for the first time,” Cook said. ” That’s kind of what made it special.”
Smith had a similar experience when he first visited the deli.
“The first time I went in there, I felt bad, because this really nice man sounds like he knows me, and I couldn’t remember where I met him,” Smith remembers. “It was the second or third time before I realized he just talked like that with everybody.”
Up until recently, Cook didn’t even know what the sandwich he ordered was called. “I would just sort of make eye contact with Andy, and he would just ring me up,” Cook said. “It was the Andy Special. That’s what I would always do.”
That’s S.C. Sen Lindsey Graham’s favorite sandwich, too.
A longtime Andy’s customer, the Seneca Republican tweeted a message Friday expressing his sadness over Shlon’s passing.
“I’ve been a regular customer since Andy’s opened and was always greeted with kindness and provided a terrific meal. The Andy special is one of the best sandwiches in the history of food,” Graham wrote. “Andy was an American success story who provided jobs to many and service to his community.”
Shlon had just left Grouchos Deli when Hassan Addahoumi, owner of Sammi’s Deli, started working under Grouchos owner, Ivan Miller. Both would go on to open their own delis right next to each other.
Shlon was consistent. He was never three minutes late or three minutes early. He was always at the deli at the same time every day, Addahoumi said.
“His business is very unique in Columbia,” Addahoumi said. ”The rye bread, Lebonese bologna, kosher salami — you don’t find that in Columbia.”
Shlon was just as good a neighbor at home as he was in Five Points. David Ruff grew up next door to Shlon and his wife, Carol, with adjoining fences in the backyard.
“He was like family,” Ruff remembers. “He had a little gate that he came through, and there was a little shop where he was always making something.”
David’s wife, Julie Ruff, often took her “supper club” to eat at Andy’s, where many of them worked when they attended the University of South Carolina. She said she last saw him two days before Christmas when she stopped by the deli to give him a gift.
“He was very thin,” she said. “He’d been ill on and off for some time, but he told me he was trying to gain some weight. ... He turned 79 in November, and I told him we’d have a big birthday party for him next year. He was tickled by that.”
In 2013, the city of Columbia recognized Shlon’s contributions by naming him a “business spotlight honoree.”
“Andy’s Deli continues to thrive because Mr. Shlon is committed to both the City of Columbia and to making all our families his family as well,” the city’s announcement reads. “At Andy’s Deli, everyone is a ‘friend’ and is always ‘welcome.’”
This story may be updated.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 12:00 PM.
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