Augusta Eats: 'House divided' in Grovetown unites to offer sought-after sandwiches, sweets

Janwiches is a popular lunch spot for shift workers on Columbia Nitrogen Drive. The Li’l Dutch Bakery does brisk business with freshly made sweets on Washington Road.

Both of those businesses are about 12 miles apart. Their newest locations are closer.

Much, much closer.

Thanks to a unique father-daughter team-up, Janwiches and Li’l Dutch Bakery now share the same roof side-by-side at 725 Gateway Center Blvd. in Grovetown.

“One guy , he came in this door, I think, and he was trying to get to the bakery,” said co-owner Katie Carter. “But he walked in and he looked and walked back out, looked at the sign, came back in and said, ‘Just trying to make sure this was the right place!’”

For people looking for ample sandwiches and baked goods, it definitely could be the right place.

Ms. Carter's father, Richard, is a serial entrepreneur. The many local businesses he’s owned and operated through the years include nightspots such as Shooters, Backyard Tavern and Carson’s, now Coyote’s. After purchasing a lemonade stand at the Backyard Flea Market about a decade ago, he now runs the market’s entire concessions.

Mr. Carter rarely meets a good deal he's willing to pass up. That intuition led to his purchasing Janwiches and Li’l Dutch Bakery separately a few years ago. But knowing little about running restaurants, he turned to his daughter Katie, who had worked in the restaurant business for more than a decade.

Ms. Carter had worked in the insurance business for the past 10 years when her father approached her with an offer to run the bakery. Looking for a change, she readily agreed.

Growing up, she said, “I was always in the kitchen baking or cooking. My dad has always owned his own businesses ever since I was young.”

Later, Mr. Carter found an ideal property to test a new concept. Mexican restaurant El Toro Taqueria was moving out of two adjoining suites in a commercial strip of Horizon South Parkway. The plan: Half the space would be Janwiches and the other half Li’l Dutch. Customers craving a dessert after a meal can just walk a few feet to the bakery display cases.

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The two-signs, one-business-space approached has puzzled a couple of drop-in customers, but to the Carters the reasoning is sound.

“We didn’t want people to have to walk outside to get to the other one,” Ms. Carter said. It’s a good concept. People love it. Everybody in Grovetown tells me, 'We love the bakery. We’ve been wanting something like this here. We’re so glad you’re here.’”

While the original Janwiches exclusively serves lunch, the new Janwiches takes advantage of its longer 8 a.m.-to-7 p.m. operating hours by offering breakfast, lunch and dinner – all day.

“You come here at 8 in the morning and get a Philly if you want to,” she said. “Come in here at 7 at night and get pancakes. We serve it all, every day.”

Customers already have staked out favorites on both sides of the culinary aisle.

“Over here it’s all about the Reuben, the club and the Philly,” Ms. Carter said. “Over there, I can’t keep a cupcake in that case. They always sell.”

Specifically, it’s the red velvet cupcakes, with the cream cheese icing almost as thick as the cupcake itself, Ms. Carter said “it’s such a killer” because of the recipe – authentically Southern instead of more commercially available chocolate cake dyed with red food coloring.

Li’l Dutch location cranks out dozens of pans of fresh rolls each day, often selling out. The rolls can be sweet, such as cinnamon, cream cheese and caramel nut, or savory, such as Li’l Dutch’s ham and cheese roll. Other featured flavors have included Oreo and strawberry crunch.

Jessica Hall of Grovetown has visited before and likely will come back.

"I got a spicy chicken wrap, and it was very good. I like spicy,” she said. “And it was really fresh.” Also fresh, she said, was the perfectly sweetened freshly squeezed lemonade.

Lately, talk about the Carters opening another location starts more with the word “when,” not “if,” Ms. Carter said.

“Oh yes,” she said. “He’s ready to go to the next one. He wants to do something off of Mike Padgett Highway, in that area. But who knows?”

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Augusta Eats: Sandwich shop finds sweet neighbor in Grovetown