‘Iconic’ for our local delis: Why Columbia’s so in love with this signature sandwich

Columbia is a town of institutions.

It is the seat of South Carolina’s government, where the State House towers — metaphorically and literally — over the center of town. It’s the home of the University of South Carolina, the state’s flagship university and an institution that seemingly fuses itself, directly and indirectly, to every facet of city life. And it’s where Fort Jackson is one of the nation’s largest U.S. Army training installations, prepping men and women to be the soldiers of tomorrow.

But Columbia and the nearby area also has at least one culinary institution in the form of a sandwich style that has, through the decades, become a city signature. It, simply, is Columbia’s sandwich.

Chances are you’ve had one (or a hundred) if you’ve spent any time in the Midlands, and are familiar with the type. It’s typically a warm sub roll, filled with turkey, roast beef, bacon bits and melted Swiss cheese, with a bit of special sauce on the side, and some chips that are perfect for dipping in the sauce.

It’s a meal that has long been enjoyed by families after youth league baseball games, by college students looking for sustenance after a bout of late night partying, and by working men and businesswomen on their lunch breaks.

Groucho’s Deli is the key touchstone in this particular sandwich arena, with its trademark STP Dipper and its accompanying Formula 45 sauce. Originally opened in 1941 by Harold “Groucho” Miller — who, with his mustache and ever-present cigar, bore a striking resemblance to actor Groucho Marx — Groucho’s debuted the now-famed STP Dipper in the 1960s, according to company CEO Bruce Miller, Harold’s grandson.

While Groucho’s is most associated in Columbia with its longtime, landmark location on Harden Street in Five Points, it has seen its influence spread across the region in the last two decades and now has more than 30 franchised and corporate locations across South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

Another well-known purveyor of Columbia’s popular sandwich style is Andy’s Deli on Greene Street in Five Points. Opened in 1978 by the late Adnan “Andy” Shlon, it offers, among other sandwiches, the Andy’s Special, which it bills as an “irresistible combination of roast beef and turkey sandwiched by two layers of melted Swiss cheese and sprinkled with bacon bits.” Shlon worked with Groucho’s for a number of years before opening Andy’s Deli in 1978 in the Greene Street building that formerly was home to Lum’s restaurant.

The elder Andy Shlon, who died in 2021 at the age of 79, was famous for greeting all of his men customers as “My friend” and greeting the ladies as “My dear.” It’s a tradition that continues as his sons, Andy and Adam, now oversee the business.

And while there are subtle tweaks in its construction, there are a host of other restaurants across Columbia and nearby that offer a similar version of this style of sandwich. There’s the Bob Special at Swanson’s Deli, the Captain’s Special at Albert’s, the Vella Special at Vella’s Restaurant and Tavern in West Columbia, and the Five Points Special at the longtime late-night haunt Bar None, just to name a few.

Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann has a background in the restaurant business, having worked his way through college as a bartender in Five Points and later owning a couple eateries. He said he has tried versions of the the Columbia sandwich at several places but ultimately thinks of Groucho’s and Andy’s as the icons of the style, because of the generational nature of those businesses.

“If you are going to get what I call our signature sandwich, you have to go to one of those institutions,” the mayor said.

‘It’s a sandwich for any time’

For Bruce Miller, Groucho’s is simply family.

It was founded in the 1940s by his grandfather Harold, who came to Columbia after a childhood in which he spent time in a Philadelphia orphanage. Later, Bruce’s father, Ivan Miller — who Bruce refers to lovingly as “Pop” — became the proprietor of the business, before his death in 2001. Since then, the company has grown under Bruce’s watchful eye, and now a fourth generation has entered the family business, as Bruce’s son Max owns a Groucho’s store in Mount Pleasant.

The hallways of the Groucho’s corporate office in Five Points are lined with 85 years worth of historical artifacts from the restaurant, photos of Harold “Groucho” Miller and other members of the family’s ancestry, and countless newspaper and magazine articles about the business through the last eight decades. It’s a fiercely protected family legacy — the company literally has trademarks on the names of its hallmark sandwiches such as the STP Dipper.

Miller also nodded to the celestial roots of the names of some of the other Dipper sandwiches on the Groucho’s menu, which he said were inspired by the space race in the 1960s.

“To my granddad, the STP and the whole Dipper family of subs looked a lot like NASA’s space capsules as they famously descended into the ocean,” he said. “That was the catalyst for the spaced-themed Dippers at Groucho’s, the Apollo Dipper, the Big Dipper and so on.”

Cumulatively across all of its stores, Groucho’s sells 550,000 STP Dippers per year, Miller said. The company also sells 2 million pickles, 65,000 gallons worth of its Formula 45 sauce, and 3 million bags of its Groucho’s branded potato chips annually, the CEO noted.

While Groucho’s has grown and evolved as a company through the years, Miller said the Dippers will remain a fixture of the enterprise.

“That is one of the innovative attributes of our restaurant that will always be a part of our menu,” said Miller.

On a recent morning when a reporter from The State popped into Andy’s Deli, Adam Shlon was bustling around the behind the counter, taking orders, checking on sandwich prep and chatting up customers. He was wearing a black Andy’s T-shirt with the restaurant’s well-known “Hello, my friend” and “Hello, my dear” phrasing emblazoned on the back.

Adam said he has seen countless regular customers — and people who have moved away from Columbia, but come back to town for holidays and other occasions — approach the counter and order an Andy’s Special.

“I think it’s a comfort food,” Adam said. “I believe it’s a sandwich for any time. You could have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You could have it in good times or bad. I’ve seen people come in after funerals. I’ve seen people bring in their children when they have their first-born. I’ve seen first dates and I’ve seen wedding proposals. And they return and tell us about these things.“

The younger Andy Shlon said there is a certain simplicity to the Andy’s Special

“It’s the turkey and the roast beef, combined with the bacon and the Swiss cheese melted,” Andy said. “Then you have the twist, with the dipping sauce. You can’t go wrong. Why do I think it’s so popular? I would say it’s just a go-to sandwich, and you can’t get them everywhere. It’s a Southern thing.”

‘They are generational businesses’

Robert Moss knows his sandwiches.

The Charleston-based Moss is a well-known chronicler of food and food traditions across the South and has written a host of books, including “Barbecue: The History of an American Institution.” He’s also written food features and reviews for a number of publications, including Southern Living, the Post and Courier, Charleston Magazine, Epicurious and others.

And the writer remembers well his experiences with well-known Columbia-style sandwiches.

“I’ve eaten lots and lots of Apollo Dippers at Groucho’s,” Moss told The State, with a chuckle. (The Apollo Dipper comes with hot ham, turkey and Swiss cheese, with a side of Formula 45 sauce.)

Moss said Groucho’s was a go-to spot for him when he was in school at USC.

“I came across that style first at Groucho’s, which was one of our regulars for a Saturday spot when my wife and I were in grad school,” Moss said. “Before we had kids, we would hang out a lot in Groucho’s with friends on Saturday mornings.”

There are cities across the country that have become synonymous with certain sandwiches, Moss notes. The Philly cheesesteak in Philadelphia, for instance. Or the po’ boy in New Orleans, or the beef-on-weck in Buffalo, New York.

There are a number of factors that can connect a given culinary dish to a place, Moss said, including competition between restaurants that carry a similar item. But one of the key ingredients, Moss notes, is simply time. It often takes years for an item to develop as a tradition in a community.

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” Moss said. “It can’t be something like the cronut that blows up and is a flash in the pan.”

While Miller acknowledges that other restaurants have sandwiches that are similar to the STP Dipper, he has a different perspective when it comes whether the style of sandwich is synonymous with Columbia

“That’s kind of a double-edged sword,” Miller said. “From my perspective, that sandwich is synonymous with Groucho’s, whether Groucho’s is in Greenville or Raleigh or Charlotte.”

While Rickenmann, who is in his first term as Columbia’s mayor after many years on Columbia City Council, called the type of sandwich in question “iconic,” he was quick to say part of that feeling comes as much from the folks who have served it through the years as it does the delicacy itself.

“For me it’s iconic because of the people behind it and the fact that they are generational businesses,” the mayor said. “I remember going into Groucho’s as a student, and they’d be back there making sauces and talking to everybody, and it was part of it. And you’d go by Andy’s and Andy would talk to everybody and that would be part of it.

“It wasn’t just sandwiches. It was the people behind the sandwiches.”