These Columbia restaurants operate inside other local businesses. Why?

Sometimes a new restaurant needs an extra revenue stream. Sometimes a bar needs food service to keep its liquor license and lower insurance. And other times, a store full of imported goods needs a hedge against economic uncertainty.

These are the reasons why three Columbia restaurant concepts told The State they ended up embedding themselves within existing businesses. And while their exact reasons differ, they’re unified by striving to reduce expenses in an industry with famously thin profit margins.

With the hot chicken concept Chickieboom’s, which serves up its product out of taco spot Publico Kitchen + Tap, it’s a case of a restaurant owner opening up a new operation within his own kitchen to boost sales. Granby Burger finds a business that had been forced to shutter reopening in the kitchen of Five Points bar Lucky’s. And with Enzo’s Delicatessen and Italian grocery Alimentari Don Luigi, the shared owners brought their two separate businesses together inside the same storefront.

Slinging burgers so the bar can sling drinks

First known as Granby Grill, Kipp Shives’ greasy spoon started its life in a suite at The Mills apartment complex in the Olympia neighborhood. The grill fired up just before COVID paused indoor dining, sealing its reputation as a place to get to-go food, the owner said.

After fighting through a difficult climate for food service – including a 2022 shift to becoming a BYOB establishment as far as alcoholic beverages – the restaurant shuttered in 2023.

After asking around the University of South Carolina-adjacent Five Points neighborhood for two years, Shives said he made a deal with Lucky’s bar at 2100 Devine Street, beginning service in May. The setup lets him use the kitchen free of charge, while the bar benefits from having food sales, a legal requirement for a liquor license in South Carolina.

“I don’t want to have anything to do with the sale of alcohol, and they don’t want anything to do with the sale of food,” Shives said.

Customers can either order food through the bar or use a delivery service like DoorDash, GrubHub or Uber Eats.

Granby Burger is a “ghost kitchen” insofar that it doesn’t directly sell its food to anyone, Shives said. Coined during the pandemic, the term refers to delivery concepts that operate out of kitchens with no storefront or which belong to other restaurants.

But lacking its own storefront poses challenges for Granby Burger. Shives said many people don’t know that they can get food from Lucky’s, or they presume it is not of a good quality. He added that his ability to attract previous Granby Grill customers is hampered by the move into a more college-focused neighborhood.

Still, the benefits of the arrangement far outweigh the negatives, Shives said.

By honing in on online delivery, Granby Burger is getting ahead of a larger trend with younger customers, Shives said.

“They don’t want to call me on the phone and order a bacon cheeseburger. They don’t want to talk to us,” Shives said. “In the last five or six years, that whole thing has changed, and the younger generation, they just want to go on their phone and have food.”

Shives intends to stay with Lucky’s as long as the bar will have him, but he would consider opening a full service location in Olympia again while continuing to use the bar’s kitchen for delivery service, he said.

A challenge as far as finding a brick-and-mortar location all his own is a lack of properly sized buildings, Shives said. After Granby Grill closed, he was looking for a small building to restart in but had trouble, he said.

“Rental agents don’t really have small spaces,” Shives said. “Everything’s rented by the square foot, so they’re not exactly looking to rent you a 500-1000-square-foot restaurant counter.”

Granby Burger is open Tuesday-Saturday, with delivery available from 5 p.m.- midnight and bar ordering available within Lucky’s from 7 p.m.-midnight.

Adding a new brand

Michael Duganier opened Publico’s BullStreet District location, right next to Segra Park, while much of the area was under construction.

“You didn’t even know we existed unless you were going to a Fireflies game,” Duganier said.

When the baseball season ended, he started to think about new ways to bring in money from that location, his second Columbia Publico following the original in Five Points. So he revisited a business idea he had years prior. Duganier, who has previously lived in Nashville, had an idea for a hot chicken restaurant. When his business partner died and he was tied up opening two other restaurants, the idea was put to the backburner, he said.

Chickieboom’s Hot Chicken, taking its brand from Duganier’s grandmother’s nickname, began operating out of the BullStreet Publico’s kitchen in 2023, becoming available on DoorDash.

Similar to Granby Burger, Duganier said it’s a challenge to spread the word about Chickieboom’s without a physical storefront.

“Once I have the social media going, it’s like, ‘Okay, well it’s out there,’” Duganier said. “But now who’s searching for Chickieboom’s Hot Chicken on social media?”

Publico’s Sunday brunch menu at both locations has a Chickieboom’s sandwich on it, which helps alert potential customers to its existence. The BullStreet District location also serves Chickieboom’s for lunch and dinner on Thursdays.

Another challenge in Chickeboom’s situation is that it shares a staff with Publico, meaning they have to train for and prepare the ghost kitchen’s items alongside those served by the regular restaurant. Despite the challenges, the ghost kitchen model gave Duganier a great deal of flexibility as he developed the concept, Duganier said.

“It gave us time to work on it,” the owner said. “If the opportunity does come to put it somewhere, we’re ready, and we can present a consistent, great product.”

Chickieboom’s website lists its hours as 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 am.-midnight Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday.

Merging concepts

Enzo’s Delicatessen has made a few moves in recent years. First located in Five Points, the Italian sandwich shop moved in with its breakfast-focused counterpart, Enzo’s Spuntino, within The Mills apartment complex Olympia in 2024. And in May of this year, it crossed the street to another part of the complex to join Alimentari Don Luigi, an Italian market with the same owners.

The most recent move is a return to Enzo’s old concept, where it was both a market and sandwich shop. After starting like that, the components were eventually separated.

Co-owner Joe Cardinale said that he decided to move Enzo’s in with Don Luigi to protect the market, which sells a variety of imported Italian products, from tariffs.

“We needed to kind of do something to protect this really unique, cool store that we worked really hard to open,” Caridinale said.

Combining the two shops reduces overhead and provides a buffer from the tariff costs, he added. Additionally, Don Luigi benefits from the extra exposure it gets from Enzo’s regulars stopping by.

“Some people who come in for lunch will grab stuff to take home, whether it’s wine or fresh mozzarella,” Cardinale said. “And people that are coming in looking for wine are just like, ‘Oh, that’s a lunch. Now I don’t have to go make two stops,’ so it’s more convenient for guests and it’s more convenient for me.”

The one benefit of having the business separated was that they could have different operating hours, Cardinale said. He added that he is open to breaking them up in the future, but it all depends on how the economy is looking.

“It’s really good to all be under one roof,” Cardinale said. “I sleep better too.”

Enzo’s is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. every day except Sunday, according to its Instagram. Don Luigi’s Facebook shows its hours as 11 a.m.-7 p.m. every day except Sunday, when the market is open between noon and 5 p.m.

This story was originally published August 18, 2025 at 12:13 PM.