Sleepy Hollow's Legendary Potato Salad Turns Heads

The on E. Springfield Road, isn’t your average sandwich shop, especially during the holiday season.

This time of the year is when they are the busiest.

Why?

Well, 2,000 pounds of potato salad can keep any business quite busy.

“Yes, around 2,000 pounds,” said current owner Erin Gruwell. “Around the holidays we sell about 2,000 pounds in four days. On Christmas Eve alone we’ll sell 1,100 pounds in one day.”

The business is family-owned. Passed down from her grandfather Frank and grandmother Grace, to her father Norman, now Erin is in charge. She has run the deli for nearly a decade.

“My father had it before me and my grandfather had it before that,”  she said.

Since Frank and Grace Gruwell opened the establishment in 1957, it has had the same location. Many visit during the day, to select from a large sandwich menu.

“We have a lot of sandwiches on the menu, about 150 of them,” Erin said. “We are known for our potato salad but we sell a lot of other foods.”

Other items served are cheese steaks and hoagies. Add macaroni salad and coleslaw and you can have a complete lunch.

“People come here for our hoagies too because we’ve been here so long,” Erin said. “I think we have a lot of sandwiches on our menu that other places in Springfield don’t have. There are a lot of pizza shops around here. We try to have a few sandwiches a lot of the other places don’t have.”

Erin's father continues to work at the shop once or twice a week to help out. All of the recipes are Erin's grandmother Grace's. Erin said she doesn’t know what is in the potato salad that keeps people coming for more.

“No idea. It is very simple: potatoes, celery, onions and some seasoning,” she said. “We make all of our potato salads here in the back room. We do everything by hand with no machines. We cut and peal everything by hand. I have a woman who can peal 150 pounds in an hour. We mix and cut everything.”

The recipe keeps people coming back for more.