What you Crave: Meet the Midlands sandwich shop The State readers chose as their favorite
Cult followings are typically reserved for certain movies or TV shows or bands. Artistic endeavors that inspire a particular level of zeal and loyalty.
But apparently sandwiches can inspire that kind of devotion, too. Especially the ones at Columbia’s Crave Artisan Market.
Fans of Crave, located at 2843 Millwood Ave., recently cast ballots in droves as part of The State’s poll asking readers to choose their favorite sandwich shop in the Midlands from a list of 20 restaurants selected by the newspaper’s staff.
There were nearly 30,000 votes in the poll, and, when the last of the mustard was spread, Crave came out on top with more than 16,500 votes, good for about 56%. No Name Deli finished second with more than 9,800 votes.
Crave has been delighting customers along Millwood Avenue since 2016. Initially opened by John Brunty and some partners, the business was purchased in January 2023 by brothers Louis and James Williams and their father Jimmy Williams. They are a part of the Williams family that has long run another Midlands restaurant favorite, the country-cooking mainstay Lizard’s Thicket.
Louis Williams offered an affable smile as he bounded out of the kitchen to greet a reporter on a recent morning at Crave. The Columbia native and University of South Carolina graduate said he was both thrilled and grateful to see Crave fare so well in the recent sandwich poll.
“It feels great, absolutely,” Louis Williams said. “Just to be recognized as a favorite sandwich shop in Columbia, especially along with all those other restaurants, places that have been around for a long time. It feels good to be a part of that kind of tier of sandwich shops.”
Williams, 27, said he grew up working in restaurants, noting that pulling shifts at Lizard’s Thicket as a teenager was a sort of rite of passage in the family. Crave marks his first foray into restaurant ownership, and he noted that he’s always been fond of sandwich shops. In fact, he says he used to drive past Crave when he was in college and think to himself that he’d like to have a place like that.
And now, there he is. Williams said it was important to him to keep the Crave menu largely the same, as it has long proven popular with the restaurant’s regular customers.
“The easiest part of this whole thing is that Crave was so good that we didn’t want to come in here and change anything,” Williams said. “We didn’t want to come in here and knock down walls and change recipes. So, essentially we’ve kept Crave about the exact same. We really haven’t done anything to the menu.”
It’s a menu that includes a host of sandwiches that have become favorites of Crave regulars. Among others, there’s The Carlisle Korean Pulled Pork, which features house-braised pulled pork, napa cabbage slaw, sriracha lime mayo, cucumbers, sesame ginger and hoisin sauce, all on a grilled sub roll. Or The Melrose, which comes with curry chicken salad with dried cranberries and pecans, with lettuce and tomatoes on grilled Turano bread.
And there’s The Hagood, which is Crave’s popular hot dog. Those come with homemade chili, ketchup, mustard, slaw and onions.
The market is also known for refrigerated items customers can grab and cook at home, such as chicken pot pie and veggie lasagna.
Benjamin Bodie was working as an expediter at Crave during a recent lunch rush, serving as a sort of go-between for the kitchen and the front counter. He said Crave has customers who are loyal not only to the shop, but to specific sandwiches.
“Actually, every sandwich seems to have its own cult following,” Bodie said. “Some days it’s like a Devine (panini) day. All the sandwich (orders) are Devines. The next day, it’s The Carlisle. Everything’s The Carlisle. I would say each one of the sandwiches, because they are all so unique, they have their own special following. And then, of course, there are the hot dogs. On the weekends, those seem to do particularly well.”
Crave is known for, among other things, making its various sauces and dressings in-house.
While he doesn’t see much change coming for the Crave menu, Louis Williams admits he does think about the brand’s path in the future. That includes the possibility of other Crave locations.
“We would love to have two, three, four Craves,” he said. “We would love to have these all over the Midlands. ... We would absolutely like to grow.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
