Deli Shop East at 588 East Broad Street
Deli Shop West at 40 West Broad Street
“Good morning, gentlemen!” A voice saluted from across the deli counter. My grandfather momentarily paused from slicing the smoked turkey to glance over his shoulder at the man extending the salutation. “Hey, we don’t call you names!” he replied. He had a million of those kinds of sharp-witted comments. I keep many in my conversational quiver to this day. They were reserved for his most beloved customers who frequented The Deli Shop.
From 1968 to 1998, Bob and Shirley Derstine, my grandparents, were the owners and operators of The Deli Shops’ two locations along Broad Street in Souderton. “Deli East” was located in the storefront adjacent to Souderton High School off of School Lane. “Deli West” was across from Hunsicker’s Pharmacy, now Univest Investments, down the street from The Broad Movie Theater.
Bob grew up in the market business. His father owned a small store on Noble Street, near the corner of Front Street, during the Great Depression. Many customers could not afford to pay for basic needs so my greatgrandfather kept tabs based on the “honor system,” allowing them to pay “when they got back on their feet.” That was the spirit my grandfather continued as his business legacy.
In the 1960’s Bob and Shirley attended an Allentown expo introducing entrepreneurs to the novel idea of combining a delicatessen with the common country store. It was a growing trend throughout the new “suburban” America and my grandparents were the first to bring it to Souderton. For the first time, people could pick up sandwiches, hoagies, homemade side salads and groceries in a one-stop-shop experience. For the regulars it became a place to converse and caffeinate themselves before a long day and, like Cheers, was where everybody knew your name.
Fun fact (and improvement opportunity): the Deli Shop became known for making the no-mess hoagie,
because we insisted on putting the meat on top to hold everything else in. You’re welcome.
During their three decades in business, The Deli Shops became the first job experience for many high school students. It was my mother’s first and only job from her last year of high school up through my first year of college. Another high school lifer was Wanda (a.k.a. Lynda Carter) who faithfully commanded the checkout counter at Deli West for much of that time. I never understood how my grandfather got Wonder Woman to work for him. Bob and Shirley became mentors to teachers, architects, pastors, bankers, vineyard owners, and many more. They passed on a legacy of hard work, honesty, kindness, and generosity to all those who were fortunate to be trained by them.
The Deli Shop was my first full-time job as well. My time there was made necessary after I crashed my grandparent’s Dodge Horizon, rushing to deliver tickets to my high school graduation. The following week I started my bright, post high-school future stocking shelves at Deli West to pay for the damage. It was a Monday, so the sandwich of the day was something called a “Reuben”. My first life-lesson working at The Deli Shop was that sometimes you can put everything you hate together and end up with something delicious. I hated Jewish Rye. I hated Swiss cheese. I hated sauerkraut. I hated corned beef, but put it all together, slather it with Thousand Island dressing, toast it and, as southern church ladies say, “Praise the LAUD!”
My grandfather used to say, “It takes a village to raise a village idiot”, and I definitely tested that theory at The Deli; but we were all like family, even the customers, and my encounters with people there have left lasting impressions. For example, during the summer I had the habit of disappearing into the walk-in fridge behind the store. Once my mother called me out on it and I made the bad decision to give her lip in front of everyone. Wanda, the cashier, wasted no time setting me straight in front of the entire store. She yelled, “YOU WANT TO GO INTO MINISTRY AND YOU TALK TO YOUR MOTHER LIKE THAT?! YOU HAVE A LOT TO LEARN, BOY! A LOT TO LEARN!” I saw a few of the customers nodding their heads in approval. I was either going to die of embarrassment or else I would man up, grow up and straighten out. I chose the former and retreated into the car. Still, the seeds were planted and eventually I decided that behaving like an adult is a lot less embarrassing.
When The Deli Shop closed its doors in September of 1998 it was marking the twilight of an era. The dawn of franchise convenience stores and supermarkets was upon us. Still, you will be hard pressed to feel as welcome and well known at Wawa as you would feel at The Deli. In reading this, you are like my customer so I will leave you with one of the great pearls of wisdom my grandfather reserved for his dearest patrons:
“You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, BUT you dare not pick your friend’s nose and then go and make a hoagie.”
