‘It was time.’ Whiffer Randall says goodbye to North End deli
June 11, 2020
Longtime customers of Whiffer’s Sandwiches will be able to buy a piece of nostalgia to remember the North End deli that hasn’t changed since it opened 42 years ago.
Owner Whiffer Randall, who turned 86 this spring, decided it was time to retire and didn’t reopen the restaurant on North Minnesota Avenue after her usual winter break.
Whiffer’s is filled with Randall’s collection of pigs — everything from ceramic and brass to stuffed and plastic – given to her by customers over the years.
“I had one priest who was at the pen(itentiary), he used to come with an armload of pigs. I said, ‘Father, you don’t have to bring me pigs!’ He loved it.”
Randall is keeping her Miss Piggy pieces, and her grandchildren also took a few as mementos.
There’s a mishmash of old wooden chairs, large wooden spools that served as tables and framed artwork that covered the walls. She’d love to find a buyer for the Frigidaire deli case that she has had since Whiffer’s opened in 1978. It was used when she bought it, but it still runs great, she said.
She’s planning to keep the sign out front, and her daughters are taking the old pop coolers.
Randall initially planned to have a sale Saturday, but postponed it because of construction on Bailey Street, which is the only access to the building’s parking lot. Once it’s rescheduled, the date will be posted on Whiffer’s Facebook page.
Randall got the idea to open a deli after eating at one on a trip to Sarasota, Fla. There wasn’t anything like it in Sioux Falls, and “some of my acquaintances said I was crazy.”
She gave up her career as a teacher and bought a building in the North End, the neighborhood where she grew up. It had housed The Buggy Whip, a Western wear store — hence the hitching post outside.
Randall had no experience, but “I knew what I wanted: good food, friendly service and good prices.”
Her signature sandwiches were a pile of deli meat, which was never weighed, cheese, sliced onion and a mixture of mustard and mayo served on wheat or pumpernickel bread. Randall’s favorite was the Humdinger with roast beef, ham and turkey.
Randall used her grandmother’s recipes for desserts. She set the baking sheets filled with oversized cookies and brownies cut into huge slabs right on the counter where customers paid – only in cash.
Whiffer’s Sandwiches was open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, which allowed Randall to be home by the time her four children were out of school. Over the years, they all worked with her at some point.
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” joked daughter Jeannie Randall, who has spent the past few years serving as her mom’s “sandwich assistant.”
That gave Randall uninterrupted time to play cards with her friends in the dining room after the lunch rush was over.
Retiring gives Randall more time for playing cards and mahjong, going for walks, golfing and bowling.
“People said, ‘Are you going to miss it?’ I said no. It was time to retire. I’m going to miss the people, but it was time.”
