Old World Deli expands space, services

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Olde World Deli and Catering on the corner of 1st South and Minnesota is all settled into its new space and is open for business seven days a week.

With the finishing touches complete, owner Jeanette Carson now has nearly 1,000 additional square feet for a sit-down restaurant seating up to at least 50 customers.

"We could do more for banquets," Carson explained, "but we haven't actually set it up to know exactly how many we can seat. We can seat 50 in here right now, and we used to seat eight."

The additional seating isn't the only expansion, however, at the deli at 26 S. Minnesota. It also has newly expanded hours of operation.

"We're open now Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Then, we're open Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. We want to emphasize that because it's very important that people know that we're open in the evenings and weekends. People have a mindset that we're open from 11-2," said Connie Gierke, Carson's administrative assistant.

"While we are closed on Saturday and Sunday nights to the public, we left those nights for private functions, meetings, anniversaries, and we're also available week nights like at 7 o'clock. We're also available for meetings and so forth in the mornings before we open," Carson said.

With the deli expanding into a restaurant, the menu and a number of other things also have been expanded.

"We're basically the same as we were (with the menu); we've just added some more items. We've got a broader dessert selection. We added hot items, and as we grow, we're going to be adding more entrees, especially in the evenings," Carson explained.

"We do soups, salads, sandwiches. We always have the broasted chicken. On Sundays we do some breakfast items, and we will be expanding on that. We're working into that slowly."

The deli's broasted chicken is always available.

"You can eat it here, or you can call in and order it to take out," Carson said. "We always suggest that if someone wants to pick some up, that they call ahead to make sure that it's always really fresh. We don't like to prepare a lot of it ahead so it stands."

"The broasted chicken dinner is available at noon and evening every day," Gierke added.

"You get your choice of potato, which is either German potato salad, American potato salad or mashed potatoes and gravy. If we happen to have baked potatoes, you can have that (choice), too. And it comes with cole slaw, either Oriental or American, and a dinner roll, Carson said.

Carson and Gierke urge people to come in during the afternoon to try some of their expanded dessert offerings with a cup of coffee or a glass of iced tea.

During Lent, the deli is featuring a fish fry on Friday nights. Carson said there probably will be other nightly specials, but she's still working on that. She believes prime rib may replace the fish fry on Friday nights after the end of Lent, but nothing is "etched in stone" yet.

"At noon, we always have a hot sandwich. So, we many times have beef commercials or roast beef dinner, but we always have a hot sandwich at noon," Gierke explained.

Of course, there are an "endless" number of cold sandwiches, Gierke said, because you can customize your turkey, smoked turkey, ham and cheese sandwiches with a variety of condiments including tomatoes, sprouts, cucumbers and the like on the customer's choice of bread. Then, there are the "always popular" chicken salad and turkey almond sandwiches, egg salad much of the time and during Lent tuna salad on Fridays.

Then there are those soups that Carson makes almost always from scratch.

"Cream of chicken-wild rice is our biggest mover, then sauerkraut and then Russian soldier. They're pretty much neck-and-neck. Russian soldier is a cream-based soup, and it has almonds and bacon and lettuce in it. It's rich. There are a couple that I bring in frozen, but 95 percent of them I make myself with real dairy products."

The deli now offers seven brands of fountain, not canned, pop, as well as iced tea and lemonade, Carson said.

She also reminds her customers that the deli is still in the catering business.

"Our capabilities are almost unlimited; we've done up to 1,000 people. It's all kinds of catering from box lunches to pick-it-up; we'll deliver it; we'll stay and serve it. How ever the customer wants it done is what we will do."

With the expansion came an expansion in staff as well.

"We hired 15 new people so we now have a staff of 21 including me. I guess I'm staff, too. The staff here is terrific. The veterans saw us through the whole process, and they've been nothing but loyal and supportive and diligent. And our loyal customers waited for us. We really appreciate that," Carson said.

As an added attraction for art-conscious patrons, the deli now offers artworks by local artist Ruth Lindemann for sale.

So, if you're looking for take-out and want to place an order to go, just call 507-354-8400 or fax your order in on 507-359-3284.