New York-style pizza joint Andolini’s Pizza celebrates 30 years of serving Charlestonians this month with rotating daily specials and live events now through Dec. 31.
On Mondays, guests can get any specialty pizza for $19.92, a testament to the year the restaurant opened. Individual chicken wings are just 75 cents on Tuesdays. Sing your heart out Wednesday evenings with karaoke from 6-9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays are family night with a free beverage and dessert offered for children younger than 12 years old. Dance to music played by a DJ every Saturday night this month from 7-10 p.m.
You can indulge in two slices of pizza and a Pabst Blue Ribbon or soft drink for $8 or a one-topping slice of pizza, salad and soft drink for $10 every day of the week.
Michael Rabin and his wife Edie opened Andolini’s in 1992 on Wentworth Street in downtown Charleston. Twelve years later, David and Mindy Odle joined the team as partners. The Rabins and Odles have since stepped away from the franchise at the beginning of this year, leaving it in the hands of Tom Milligan, David’s longtime accountant.
In the 30 years since its inception, the pizza place has been a gathering spot for many, including families, high school teens and local sports teams to share pizza and memories.
“The best thing I like about pizza is not from a taste perspective,” David Odle said. “Pizza is social. Most people get a large pizza and share it. And I love hanging out with friends and I love hanging out with family and grabbing a couple pies. It’s a community dish.”
After the success of the downtown Andolini’s, the Rabins and Odles opened multiple locations in West Ashley and Mount Pleasant a few years later. Then, the company took a different direction and opened Juanita Greenberg’s Burrito Palace in the early 2000s (now known as Juanita Greenberg’s Nacho Royale).
According to Odle, he and the Rabins split the businesses, with Michael and Edie taking the Juanita Greenberg’s and David and Mindy taking over Andolini’s.
With the effects of the pandemic seemingly behind us, Andolini’s West Ashley location on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard is back and ready to celebrate its decades-long tradition of good pizza and good times. Though its other locations in North Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Folly Beach have since closed, Andolini’s on Sam Rittenberg is considered its flagship location and houses indoor and outdoor seating, a bar stocked with cold beers and liquor, an area for live events and its own private event room.
Milligan said the food and beverage industry has always been his passion and is excited to lead Andolini’s into another 30 years. “For me, it’s kind of just like the Earl of Sandwich. The thing is, pizza allows you to eat a meal in one hand.”
Andolini’s is open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sun.-Thurs. and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat.
And if you’ve wondered where Rabin originally got the name for Andolini’s all those years ago, just watch The Godfather 2, Odle said.
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