Downtown Delis Still in Style
By Cindy Teasdale
Sometimes it’s tough to sandwich a healthy meal between a meeting-packed morning and a hectic afternoon, but for employees of companies located downtown, there are a host of delis, both new and old, to tempt customers with healthy and quick alternatives to the fast food lunch for business people on the go.
Carl’s 2¢ Plain New York Style Delicatessen at 1114 Olive Street is the oldest and most infamous deli downtown. Owner Jack Carl started out in Gaslight Square in the ’60s, and then rented out a couple of locations downtown, including one around the corner from his present place on 11th where he stayed for 14 years, before buying the Olive building in 1986. The name comes from the “olden days,” according to Carl, when you could get a large glass of seltzer for two cents and for another cent get a flavor added.
2¢ Plain no longer peddles seltzer for pennies, but Carl does claim to be the proud vendor of the best corned beef and pastrami in town, and he’ll tell customers that when they come in, along with anything else that may be on his mind. One thing’s for sure if you’re eating at 2¢ Plain: you can count on both a mouthful and an earful, and it’s not always in good taste—the earful, that is. Carl says that more than 40 percent of his customers are regulars, whom he’s come to depend on to keep his meat slicers busy. The two regulars who happened in during our interview were addressed not by their names but by “ugly” and “funny face,” clearly terms of endearment in this eatery.
Another big name in the St. Louis sandwich business is Amighetti’s, whose downtown branch is located at 711 Olive. Owner Bob Hynes opened the shop six years ago as an investment (he also owns his own insurance company, Robert Hynes & Associates) and because he loved the food and the city. “I love downtown,” Hynes says, “and I wanted to be in on the action.” Hynes, and most of his counterparts at the other establishments, declare that the restaurant business is a tough one, especially in a market with such a small business window—the majority of the establishments mentioned in this article are closed by 3 p.m. weekdays, and aren’t open at all on weekends.
But Hynes is optimistic that as downtown continues to attract more corporations and more residents, small businesses like his will reap the benefits. “I’ve got my life savings invested in this place, and I want to be here when the pie starts to grow, when the number of people downtown will support more and more independent retailers.”
Other downtown staples are the two Wall Street Delis, located in the Metropolitan Square Building and the Channel 5 building on Market. Both locations have been open for six years now, reports Sam Henderson, city manager for the two locations. Wall Street is a national chain with over 130 stores nation-wide. “We’ve had really heavy traffic lately, so much that we’ve started an entirely new program called ‘Grab ’n Go,’” Henderson says, “where people can pick up ready-made sandwiches and salads. It seems most people downtown don’t have much time for lunch, so we’re trying to make it a little easier for them to get in and out quickly.” Wall Street doesn’t just sell sandwiches; they also serve hot breakfast every morning and are known for their healthy wraps.
Charles Santangelo, who opened his deli and market, The Bodega at 1216 Washington Avenue last July, says the future is brighter. “I see things continuing to pick up, especially in this area of downtown,” Santangelo says. “With each loft building that opens I see more customers; I’m very optimistic about the direction St. Louis is taking.”
Santangelo has enough business to remain open until 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with a cart outside serving hot dogs to the club crowds until 3 a.m. He also claims to serve the biggest sandwiches in town, each weighing in with over one-third of a pound of meat.
Amy Reeg and her partner Susan Lindsay, co-owners of the Edible Difference at 615 Pine, already feel the boom. They have moved to larger locations a number of times in their decade tenure downtown, and in November of ’98 expanded to seat 152 customers for breakfast and lunch, seats that are almost always filled between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. any given weekday.
“Downtown is the absolute ticket for anyone like me,” says Reeg, who was a chef for Hyatt Hotels before venturing out on her own. “We have 125,000 attentive people here in search of a good, inexpensive meal.” The Edible Difference has cornered the market for homemade soups, providing 10 fresh selections each day, and also offers at least three fresh quiches, in addition to their sandwiches made to order and their to-die-for grilled cheese.
The average cost of a meal at any of the delis mentioned is under six dollars—a bargain when you consider the alternatives. “People don’t want to pay five bucks for a bagel and a cup of coffee,” Reeg recounts, “when they can come here and get cream of tomato soup that’s better than their own mother’s.”
Reeg believes that the secret to her success is three-fold: she has found her own niche, she markets a great deal, and she gives back to the community that supports her through various charity ventures.
“We’ve started a fax list,” Reeg says, “because we were spending too much time on the phone telling people what we had that day. Now we fax the daily menu and specials to anyone interested; businesses tack it up in a public space and can make group orders more easily.”
“It saves all of us time,” Reeg says, “and it gets customers hungry for our food before they even have a chance to decide where they’re going for lunch!” The announcements currently go out to 300 fax machines in the vicinity, and “the response has been phenomenal,” Reeg reports.
In addition to innovative promotional techniques, Reeg believes a lot of customers come back because they see how involved The Edible Difference is in charitable endeavors. Participating in events like Dine Out for Life and One Hundred Neediest Cases helps both the owners and their customers feel like their doing something good, no matter how small.
“For Breast Cancer Awareness Week we baked up 400 or so brownies and gave them away, but asked for a dollar donation in return,” Reeg says. “So many people gave four or five dollars, just because they liked the fact that we were doing it, and that we have the attitude that we do.”
Reeg and Lindsay are doing so well that they confided they’re looking into opening a second location, and they are also hoping to branch out into the gourmet boxed-lunch business in the near future. “I see no end to the growth here, especially when the conventions start to come in,” Reeg admits. “We had our busiest lunch ever the day the National Catholic Youth Conference was here.”
And as downtown continues to harbor an economic boom, independent restaurateurs should all experience growing prosperity. “It’s all about figuring out how to capture a piece of the pie,” Reeg says, “how to cater to health trends but also consistently treating your customers well, in addition to feeding them well.” Speaking of sweets, The Edible Difference doesn’t actually serve pie, but they do make one mean Rice Krispie Treat.
Cindy Teasdale is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer.
