Tell me about your favorite deli food. (We're doing it!)

I had a fantastic sandwich at the Corner MArket today. Fresh baked harvest bread with turkey that could have been better but more than made up for by good thick crisp bacon and ripe avocado. Also a cup of coffee jsut the way I like it - thick enough to chew! LOL!

A potentially excellent experience almost completely spoiled by the constant rocking of the wonky table. Please, please check your tables and have on hand whatever you need to fix them when they are wonky. Arrrggghhh!

I promise no wonky tables. :0) And we do have a limit on our finances. I’m prepared to walk away if we reach that limit.

Agreed a great french dip is always a plus and something i try anywhere thats new to me. I generally gauge the quality of a place based on the quality of the tuna and chicken salad since these are made in house. Alot of deli’s around south florida always have something that they make inhouse such as Homemade Ketchup or Homemade Mayo, do you have any such specialities?

My husband makes a very good Au Jus since that is his favorite sandwich. We do have some unique recipes, but I’d love to have a signature spread of some sort instead of just mayo/mustard.

I do get compliments on my Tuna/Chicken salads, so you might be okay with our food. :slight_smile:

p.s. I was raised in Florida. We’re going to have a Cuban sandwich, but it may not be on authentic Cuban bread since we can’t find a bakery to do it for us. Darn it.

That shouldn’t be a bad thing if you put your own spin on a cuban sandwich lots of places here don’t make it correctly and people still would order them. I’ve had a cuban at a authentic cuban restaurant here and they used french bread some days. Im close to Miami so wth right?

Have u thought about hiring a human sign to drive business to your door you know the people on the side of the road holding a arrow with some wordage? They are cheap around here.

Don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but I absolutely LOATHE tuna salad that is made with a ratio of roughly one (1) 55-gallon drum of mayo for each can of tuna. Sadly, this is the recipe that dear old Mom follows to this day…:smiley:

Seriously, good tuna salad is a favorite for many, with just enough mayo and maybe some celery and onion chopped up for texture. Some of that spread on a french roll with tomato, sliced onion, provolone, sweet or banana peppers—Heaven.

My best to you in your new endeavor.

Thanks MPB, I promise not too much mayo. I don’t like that either.

Lurkedtolong, That’s just sad that you would get a french roll even in Florida. I guess I’ve been gone from there too long. :slight_smile:

How’s about an update thread? I wanna hear all about it!

Yes! I too would like to hear more.
You don’t need to provide receipts, but it would be fun to hear about the challenges, what has worked and not worked, how satisfied you have been with the experience, what you would have done differently - if anything - and generally, how things are going!

Count me in as wanting an update as well. C’mon! Don’t hold out on us!

Put a menu board before you get to the counter so the maroon at the head of the line isn’t staring off going: “uh…duh…I’ll have…uh…”. :slight_smile:

So true - as only a moron would wear maroon before Labor Day…but having a menu at the beginning of a line is always a great idea!
However, I have seen idiots at In 'n Out Burger get the to the front of the line, after waiting in line for 10 minutes, and think for another 5 minutes before ordering - and they ONLY have burgers and fries…

Update would be great! Meanwhile, here’s my delicious sandwich:

-Toasted whole wheat
-Deli turkey
-Veggies (lettuce, tomato, pickled onions are typical)
-Avocado
-Bacon
-and the key: mayonnaise mixed liberally with Sriracha, spread on each slice of toast.

These are wonderful with a cold beer, but I imagine a Coke wouldn’t be bad, either.

Hi TruCelt, thanks for asking!

Well, we finally opened on April 10th. We are getting very good feedback on our food and on how nice the place looks. We did a quiet opening and haven’t done any advertising yet. So our numbers are still pretty small, but we are okay with that while we work to improve our sandwich making time and front counter time.

The process took much longer and cost more than we had initially anticipated. I said I was prepared to walk away if I reached a certain point, but of course, once you invest $25,000.00, it’s a tad difficult, so I had to eat my words on that, but at least it wasn’t too much over our initial budget. All the delays have hurt our finances though, that’s for sure.

The process itself was less fun than you might imagine. All the delays and tight finances have been very stressful, but it has been exciting too. And the place really does look nice. I’ve had more than one customer pull me aside to compliment us on the decor.

Our pulled pork is very popular. People love my chili and my whoopie pies are a hit with everyone that tries them. We can’t get people to try the jalapeno bacon and I may remove the seafood salad from the menu before long since it doesn’t sell well. It’s really tasty too, but our customers are not too adventurous. We are still making adjustments every day.
**
Harborwolf** has been a huge help to me. I’ve pestered him with questions.

So all in all, it’s scary and fun and exciting and stressful and sometimes I can’t believe we did it.

Okay, I’m going to need your location so we can stop by and try some delicious deli food. :slight_smile:

(But seriously, you’re a small business owner now - time to change your location field and get more business!)

Congratulations! I’m sorry it’s been so hard - but it sounds like so far you’ve accomplished what you set out to do, so Yay!!! What colors did you end up going with?

Samples!!! Put some out and they will follow. Have you considered taste spoons like they have at ColdStone? Offer a try to anyone who’s waffling about what to get. . .

Ansd remember, the adventure level will change when the crowd begins to grow.

Cat Whisperer, we are in Placerville, CA. Old hangtown, right on Main Street. The Courtyard Deli. It would be great to meet some dopers. :slight_smile:

We are giving away a lot of samples and always offer to let someone try before they buy. We even send one of the girls out to the main entrance of the courtyard with samples. It’s helping. But we do still need to advertise. A lot of people don’t know yet that we are finally open.

We ended up with two shades of gray and a dark maroon accent on some trim, which matches the window frame. The tables really came out great. We painted the legs black and put flooring
slats on the tops. We’ve had four customers tell us they are stealing our idea for their own old oak table. The wood slats are sort of cherry colored.

We got most of the art from Home Goods, but we also have a local artist that has placed four of his prints on the walls on consignment. That was helpful.

So we’re learning and improving and adjusting things as needed. The food is good and our service is friendly but we are still a little slow. Hopefully it will be less stressful when we know more and are more practiced.

That’s excellent - we’re driving to California this summer! See you in a couple of months! :slight_smile:

Let us know when and we’ll meet you there for lunch! We’re about 45 minutes away in Sacramento.

not what you’d expect, I am trying to coordinate with my mom to go there for lunch one day next week. Hope to see you soon!

Holy crap! Who drew those town boundries?!