Charleston Restaurant Guide

This historic block was the wholesale district in the 1800s. Eli and Aaron’s great-grandfather, W.M. Karesh, a Jewish immigrant from eastern Europe, started Southern Wholesale in this location in 1890. This became one of our first distributors of Union & Hanes underwear in the Southeast.

Wolf Maier Karesh’s son-in-law, Herman Hyman, took over the business in 1924, changing the name to Hyman’s Wholesale Company. He then passed the business down to the third generation, to Wolf Maier Hyman, who continued on with the wholesale dry goods business until 1986. (He presently lives on the 3rd floor) At that time the Omni hotel was under construction and the City condemned the back 280 feet of these warehouses to make room for a parking garage. The floors are heart pine and the bricks are Old English, with the original Oyster mortar.

The wrought iron stair case was built in Kenton, Ohio in 1887 and shipped to Charleston upon construction of this building.

The two brothers, Eli and Aaron Hyman, the great grandsons, changed the name from Hyman’s Wholesale to Hyman’s Seafood and Aaron’s Deli in 1986, and are now operating Hyman’s Seafood and Aaron’s Deli in these same locations. Brad, Aaron’s son-in-law (5th generation) is Eli’s operating partner today. There has been 118 years of customer service in these buildings and they are proud of it. If you happen to see Eli, Brad, Mother Phyllis, Maier Hyman, Rita, Rusty or Phyllis Doobrow tell them hello. For those who are curious, we employ between 160-190 GREAT people!