After 21 years in business, South College Sandwich & Deli has announced that it is closing permanently.

In a Facebook post dated June 10, owners of the restaurant stated, “Even though restrictions have been lifted or loosened for quarantine, South College Sandwich & Deli will remain closed. We are unable to recover from COVID-19.

"We would not be able to operate to our normal capacity and it would just not be South College Deli. We want to thank our very valued customers for 21 wonderful years, we miss you all!”

Marcy Fricon, who owns the South College Road business with her husband, Jimmy, declined to comment on the closure, saying only that after 21 years in business, the closure is devastating.

South College Sandwich & Deli was perhaps best known for its beef on weck, a sandwich the Fricons brought to the area from their hometown of Buffalo, New York. 

The Fricons moved to Wilmington from Atlanta in early 1999, after Marcy’s brother and his wife, Rick and Martha Blanchard, found them a sandwich shop to purchase.

At the time, the location was run by Priddyboy’s, a local chain of sandwich shops.

In an October 2019 Greater Wilmington Business Journal interview, Marcy Fricon said that at the time they purchased the deli, both she and Jimmy had been in the restaurant and hospitality industries throughout their careers and had looked forward to owning a place of their own. 

“I thought this would be so easy, just a little sandwich shop,” Fricon said.  “But it’s been more work than I ever imagined.”

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