Main Street Deli: A Dream Decades In The Making

By Kaaren Valenta

Debbie Kaza will tell you that good things are worth waiting for.

Ms Kaza opened the Main Street Deli next to the Phone Forum, across from the Citgo station, on South Main Street earlier this year, fulfilling a dream that she has nurtured for more than two decades.

“I wanted to do this before I got pregnant with my first child. I even had a location picked out in Monroe, but it wasn’t the right time,” she said.

Now that her youngest child is a senior in high school, the time looked perfect. Ms Kaza found a location on South Main Street that had formerly been a bait and tackle shop, and spent a long time making the necessary renovations to house a deli.

The new storeowner takes pride in the fact that almost everything in the deli is made from scratch.

“We aren’t a typical deli,” she said. “We have all Boar’s Head meat but we have a lot of other things such as have 32 different kinds of macaroni and cheese, including Mexican, shepherd pie, corned beef and cabbage, and macaroni and cheese with beans and franks.”

There also is a grilled cheese sandwich special everyday, but not an ordinary cheese on white bread. The daily special might feature provolone cheese and capicolla ham or American cheese with fried green tomatoes and Cajun spices.

“We make our own chili, meat loaf, lasagna, salads, soups, and chowders,” she said. “Our signature sandwich is a chicken bacon cheddar with lettuce and tomato on a hard roll. We make our own potato salad, pasta salad, egg salad, and a chicken salad that features apricots, grapes, and slivered almonds.”

She strives to keep on hand items that her customers ask for such as regular and diet Moxie, an old-fashioned beverage that is hard to find. “To me it tastes like a combination of root beer, Dr Pepper, and cough syrup, which isn’t surprising because it first came out in 1884 as a medicinal drink,” she said. “That what sodas all were at first — medicinal drinks.”

She also stocks Boylan’s regular and diet drinks in flavors like cream, birch beer, and red birch, and Joe Tea, a specialty product from New Jersey. She even stocks a lip balm, LipIvo, that was first produced in 1904.

“I try to have what my customers want,” she said. “I want everyone who walks through the door to feel at home.”

She first became interested in the food business while studying to be a teacher at the University of Southern Maine.

“I worked in restaurants and diners while I was in college,” she said, “and I have visited plenty of delis in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. I tried to take the best of everything I saw, and combine them here. It’s a blending of a lot of small places that give you the feeling of a friendly place to eat.

“We’re not an Italian deli, not a Greek deli, but I do sell those foods. I also sell chicken fried rice, so our concept is a little broader. We also sell fried chicken and my cook, Jim, makes chili from dried beans and spices.”

Ms Kaza got her teaching degree, taught for a year in New Hampshire, and earned a master’s in education from the University of Bridgeport. But when she got married in 1979, she and her husband, Bill, moved to Newtown into a house that her brother built.

Their son, David, now 23, was born, followed by Nicole, 17.

“I worked as a substitute teacher in the Newtown schools for 20 years, doing everything from preschool and special education to high school,” Ms Kaza said. “I also worked for Mary Kelly in the transportation office for two years.”

She also became a scout leader, serving for 18 years as assist scoutmaster of Troop 770, where David became an Eagle Scout. She spent eight years as a Girl Scout leader, starting a troop of Brownies at Middle Gate School, and one year ran the Girl Scout Camporee.

“The girls that started in that troop [at Middle Gate] are now seniors in high school,” Mrs Kaza said. “Nichole is one of them. She is the wicked witch in the current production of Snow White.”

Ms Kaza was a Gail Smith Award nominee and has been very active in the community. She comes from a musical family. Her mother was a concert pianist and church organist; her father was a paid singer at St Johnson’s Cathedral in New York City. While she does not claim great musical skills herself, David plays the trumpet and piano, and Nicole sings and plays violin well enough to be part of the Bridgeport Youth Symphony for five years and in the Hamden Adult Symphony Orchestra for two years.

After spending so many years involved with the schools, Ms Kaza said she knew that when she hired a staff to help at the deli, she wanted students who were involved in things beyond school and a job.

“I have a great afternoon crew that are all part-time,” she said. “For kids, their first job is school and their second job is to be involved in school-related activities and community service. Work should come next. I think that’s very important.”

“I’m proud of the fact that I have well-rounded kids working here,” she said. “It works for them and it works for me.”

Ms Kaza is at the deli every morning at 4:30 am to get the grill ready, send her daily menu out via fax, and greet her first customers at 5 am.

“We offer a full breakfast with omelets, home fried potatoes, pancakes, French toast, and all kinds of egg sandwiches,” she said. “Many mornings I will make fresh cinnamon rolls, pumpkin breads, or spice cake.”

The deli offers burgers, wraps, wedges, and specialty sandwiches. Sometimes there are crab cakes or other seafood with store-made tartar sauce and cocktail sauce.

She is also amenable to making whatever her customers want. “If I have the ingredients, I will do it,” she said. The deli is open until 4 pm during the week and 3 pm on weekends.

“We do dinners to take home. And we offer catering. I’ve done a wedding already,” she said.

Debbie Kaza encourages everyone to give her deli a try.

“Stop in, say hi, and have a cup of coffee,” she said. “We try to get to know all of our customers. There isn’t a stranger here.”

For more information, call Debbie Kaza at South Main Deli, 150 South Main Street, at 426-8499.