Thursday, May 8, 2008

Memories of Yellow Submarine


In the early 80's I lived in the Benton-Stephens community of Columbia along with probably another couple of thousand MU students. This was an area of old houses divided up into multiple apartment units. Landlords could get more bang for their buck because it was within walking distance of the campus. Well anyway, on Ripley St. there was a small building; I don't know what is was originally but it housed a restaurant called Yellow Submarine where you could get a pretty good sub sandwich. It was decorated with scenes from the Beatle's movie of the same name and the restaurant had a run down look with a few seats. I remember the big gas heater that hung from the ceiling, like those you would see in garages and warehouses built years ago with baffles and a fan. Overall the place was handy for a quick meal, the prices were right and it was located right around the corner from where I lived.

One day I was walking home from class when a friend asked me what did I think of the explosion the other night. I had no idea what he was talking about and he informed me that the Yellow Submarine burned down after a loud explosion. Fire trucks kept neighbors up that evening but I had slept right thought the incident. I remember hearing on the news that it may have been a natural gas leak that sparked the explosion and I thought of that old gas heater that hung from the ceiling. It was too bad, a good restaurant only five minutes away was gone. I walked by the burned out building on my way to work one afternoon and thought of the character from the Mork and Mindy show, a white robed guy named Exedor, who would announce "Time for a sandwich!" I would not be getting one from this place anymore.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

My friends and I would go to the Yellow Sub on the mornings of Mizzou football games and get subs to take to the game for half-time. YIKES!!!

We'd occasionally go on Sunday nights too... when the dorm cafeteria was closed.

Great little sandwich shop. Their subs remind me a bit of the chain that's around today, Jersey Mikes, but they were decidedly better. Same style sandwich though. The thing that made them so good, in my opinion, was the bread!! I'd always get mine on a yellow egg roll...soft and sweet, and a good counterpart to the Italian dressing. They loaded the subs down with great seasonings too.

I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall talking to the manager one day and finding out that the building had originally been a little neighborhood market... the kind that all but went away when the day of the supermarkets came.

I didn't recall that it had burned. Too sad.

Unknown said...

Fascinating post and thanks for writing it. I was just reminiscing myself about the Yellow Sub on my blog when I decided to Google for any other memories and found you.

I have a photograph here:

http://my.opera.com/musickna/blog/2009/03/22/the-yellow-submarine

Sad to read that it was destroyed. I probably even saw you there without knowing you.

Unknown said...

It was a neighborhood grocery store. My grandparents lived in the big white house on Broadway just aways down from Ripley on the opposite side (It is no longer there.) and we use to walk to the store with my Grandma after school to buy a piece or two of penny candy. When it became Yellow Submarine, us kids would get sandwiches there. I had no idea what happened to it. How sad!

Unknown said...

I knew it was gone but didn't know when or where. Used to get a toasted sub and a carton of chocolate milk 1973-1976. My weekly eat out treat. Loved the place. So sorry little hippy joint are long gone.

Unknown said...

As a MU undergraduate & year round Columbia resident I'd go to Yellow Submarine in the mid 70s for a sub. It was owned by a young couple with a child. The wife said they'd bought it from a couple much like them. She said she liked the idea that their little restaurant had helped them & prior owners work their way through college & support their family. =-)

Formr Columbian said...

It was a little run down store when I moved to Columia as a child. A female named Rutter ran it.Then a couple bought it named Tayler.The lady ran it. We were in there a lot when she ran it.She got pnuemonia and died.The man wanted to sell it to my parents.His grandchildren and I went to school together.A lady named Baumgartner bought it.After she sold the store it became The Yellow Sub.I was no longer in that area when it blew up,but I heard about it.

Anonymous said...

I used to eat there on lunch break from Benton school. It seemed like such a shame to waste my 25¢ lunch money on stewed tomatoes.