Business: Schmaltz Delicatessen
Address: 1512 N. Naper Blvd., Naperville
Phone/website: 630-245-7595, www.schmaltzdeli.com
Owner’s name: Howard Bender
Number of years in business: 11 years
What does this business sell? “We have great sandwiches, with great pastrami, great corned beef. That’s really what we are (known) for,” says Kristin McCann, director of brand, speaking on behalf of Bender, who lost his voice. “We have some very creative sandwiches that you are not going to find anyplace else. Some of them have great names like the Big Al, the Maccabeast. But we are also a full-service deli. All the meats we put on your sandwiches, we also slice by the pound. … We also do catering. And delivery within a certain radius.”
How many workers do you employ? “Anywhere from 20 to 25. Our staff is really fun, and the atmosphere is unique, (with) yelling and sliding sandwiches down the line. It’s an old-school way of doing business.”
What was the impetus for opening? “Howard is a chef, and he went to culinary school in New York, and he’s Jewish. He lived out here in the western suburbs, and there was no close-by Jewish deli. You can’t take the hike up to the North Shore every day to get your great bagel or bowl of hot matzo ball soup, so he wanted to open this deli. He’s got a long career in food management and food service. This was his dream.”
Why did you choose Naperville? “(The location) was in close proximity between the two Jewish temples here. And it’s a great place to have a business.”
When is your busiest time of year? “I’m going to say fall, but the busiest day of the year is St. Patrick’s Day. We do six times our (normal) business on St. Patrick’s Day (because of the corned beef they sell).”
What is the most popular item on the menu? “The basic corned beef sandwich and the basic pastrami sandwich. And the next one is the Reuben, what we call the Sloppy Paul — corned beef with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing on marbled rye bread. … We have a sandwich of the week every week.”
What lesser-known menu item would you recommend? “You know, I love a knish. And we have different flavors. The standard is a potato-flavored, and we also have spinach, meat and Schmacon (their own all-beef bacon brand also sold at Fresh Thyme Market and select Jewel-Osco stores). What a knish is is a mashed potato or other filling surrounded by a pastry dough and then baked. It’s a full meal.”
What’s the best thing about owning your own business? “Being able to see this business grow. So many businesses go out of business after a couple of years, and we’ve been here for 11 years. We’ve been able to take it from grand opening to today, where we are now putting products into grocery stores. That’s pretty amazing.”
What’s the biggest downside to owning a business? “It’s the time you put in. It’s all worth it, but it is a lot of time.”
Tell us about your customers. “We get two different crowds in here a lot of times. During the work week, our lunch crowd is a lot of business people. On the weekends, we get a lot of families coming in for bagels, bagel sandwiches, French toast. We do a lot of breakfast items.”
Do you have any future plans to expand? “We added the extra space in 2010. Schmacon has been taking up a lot of our time. But it’s always in the plans to have another store.”
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What advice would you give someone opening a store? “Do your homework. And make sure you are doing something you love because you are doing it a lot!”
What item did you add that ended up being a dud? “Hmm. We’ve just introduced a Brussels sprout Schmacon salad, and we are waiting to see. It’s delicious, but we don’t know how many people like Brussels sprouts.”
Daina Saleh is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.