Downtown Columbia’s No Name Deli to open second location in Forest Acres

Photo by Hannah Wade for Free Times
By Jane Godinger for Free Times

No Name Deli, a popular lunch spot with more than three decades near Main Street, is expanding.

The new location will be located on 4712 Forest Drive, which previously housed a franchise of Jimmy John’s.

Deli co-owner Chris Davis said the facilities and amenities at this lot — including its redeveloped building, large parking lot and spacious commercial kitchen and dining areas — solidified his team’s decision to move forward with expansion.

“We’ve always been open to opening up another location,” Davis said. “We found a place that already had some of the infrastructure needed for a restaurant, and it met a lot of the criteria that we needed to go ahead.”

While Davis and his team have not yet finalized an opening date for this second location, the new No Name Deli is currently under construction and code review.

While the No Name Deli team is gaining new space and facilities, Davis insists they plan to stick to the menu and ethos of their Marion Street restaurant.

“We maintain a traditional menu for deli and grill, and we can turn a line very quickly — we can get to about 300 people in two-and-a-half hours,” said Davis. “Those things are extremely important as we move forward to our new location.”

Davis said his team is pleased with the reception by the Forest Acres community, including the city’s mayor, and are looking forward to the road ahead. After all, in the words of the linked music track on No Name Deli’s Instagram announcement post, the “Best is Yet to Come.”