One of my favorite places in Kailua for many years was Gee…a Deli. They had great sandwiches, and the owner, Doug Izak, was very friendly and inviting. I loved his onion rolls, made especially for him. Any sandwich on them was heavenly.

The name was a double-entendre. “A lot of people asked if we were related to Ghirardelli Chocolate from San Francisco, which is pronounced similarly, but we were not,” Izak said.

Gee…a Deli was a hidden treasure. It had a Kuulei Road address but was in the rear, close to the back of McDonald’s.

“Gee…a Deli was started in 1982 by Bernard Sherman, an emergency room doctor at Castle Medical Center, because he wanted a place to eat,” Izak says. Izak worked for Sherman and bought the deli in 1985.

Izak brought in exclusive products from the mainland. “The best roast beef, pastrami and corned beef. No one else in Hawaii had them,” he said.

The menu covered a 40-foot-wide wall with each sandwich named for someone.

“The joke was, if you eat it 100 times, we’d name it for you,” Izak said. “John Dilks, who ordered turkey with cheddar every day, had the Dilkswich named for him.”

Randy Robbins was a 27-year-old instrument maker who died of cancer.

“We sent him a turkey, roast beef, ham and cheddar sandwich at Castle Hospital and named the sandwich in his memory,” Izak said.

The Gorga Sub was named for Bob Gorga, who, while hiking with Izak on Kodiak Island, Alaska, fell 1,500 feet from Barometer Mountain and lived. Doug, Bob and another person had just arrived at the summit when Bob slipped. “He couldn’t dig in and stop,” Izak recalled. “He fell into the clouds.”

Izak spent hours in panic looking for him, but his friend got the Coast Guard and they sent 40 guys who found him halfway down the 3,000-foot mountain. “He had hit his head but had no broken bones. He’s a miracle guy,” Izak said. “The hand of God must have caught him and sat him down. He was in rehab for two years and had to learn how to walk, talk and write all over again. He became a special-education teacher in Michigan.

“Lots of famous people have eaten here,” Izak said. “Regular golfer Scott Simpson brought actor Bill Murray in one day. One of my girls, who had seen “Caddyshack,” said ‘Scott, you brought your caddy!’ San Francisco 49er Steve Young was here, as was sailor Dennis Conner. But the group that got my daughters to seventh heaven was the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They all freaked out when they came to eat here.”

Unfortunately, Gee…a Deli burned down in 2005. Izak wasn’t insured and never reopened the deli. Camille Komine, who owns the food truck Camille’s on Wheels, says Izak had his own food truck, Gee…a Deli on Wheels, in Kailua for a short time in 2010.

“Doug is a real sweetheart,” Camille says. “I often see him driving around Kailua, and I’m sure old friends and customers reminisce with him about his great deli sandwiches.”

Bob Sigall, author of the Companies We Keep books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@yahoo.com.