Saratoga's Broadway Deli is up for Sale
And you know owner Daniel Chessare has something to say about it.
When Daniel Chessare opened Saratoga’s Broadway Deli in 2018, he told former Saratoga Living Senior Writer Jeff Dingler that he thought there were really only three things missing from downtown Saratoga: a diner, a deli, and a taco place. (To be fair, Compton’s, Putnam Market, and Cantina all did exist at the time.) “But I didn’t feel like working nights anymore,” he said, “so I went with the deli.” Now, seven-and-a-half years later, he’s selling the deli to devote more time to his nighttime business: the dessert and cocktail bar Bibulous.
The announcement comes a few weeks after two other longtime Capital Region sandwich shops—Loudonville’s Genoa Importing and Schenectady’s Gershon’s Deli—closed their doors; after Saratoga lunch staple Scallions announced it was changing hands; and after Compton’s, another Saratoga breakfast/lunch spot, revealed that it was facing troubles of its own.
“It’s a combination of things,” Dan says of his decision. “If I were to keep my prices in line with inflation, I’d have to charge $20 a sandwich. And then I had this epiphany sitting in a restaurant one night. People will come in to the deli and complain that a sandwich that has half a pound of brisket on it—homemade, no preservatives—is $16. And then I’m sitting in the restaurant, and a grilled sandwich is $22, and no one bats an eye. There’s this idea that any deli or fast-casual place has to maintain the quality of a full-service restaurant, but then be affordable and fast. It’s just really frustrating to bust your ass all the time and then have people be like ‘Mmmm…it’s too expensive; it took too long.’”
At Bibulous, it’s a different story. “People have a completely different perception of a bar,” he says. “When we first opened here, we had $12 cocktails, and then we upped them to $15 after a year, and no one batted an eye. And everybody else in town is charging $18, and no one bats an eye. But there’s this concept of, if it’s lunch, you have to be under $20 and still be good and still be fast, no matter how many people are in line. I’d rather focus my attention into growing a business that has a better profit margin with a better clientele.”
It’s at this point in the conversation that, in a display of self-editing that’s rare for Dan (his wife, Bibulous co-owner Jen, typically serves as the editor of his infamous Instagram rants), he briefly steps off his metaphorical soapbox to make one thing clear. “I don’t want to sound unappreciative of our customers,” he says. “The community has been amazing. Our locals are fantastic. Our regulars come in multiple times a week. Those people are great, but comprise 25 percent of our clientele. Most of our business is one-time customers.”
And so, for those reasons and more, Dan’s selling his deli for $299,900. He’d love to see the business stay Saratoga’s Broadway Deli, and thinks it would be unwise to change an already profitable business to something new, but the buyer—when one materializes—can, of course, do with the space what he or she wants.
Once the business sells, Dan plans to devote his time and energy to Bibulous. “We could do more events, we could do more special menus, we could do more pop-ups,” he says. “We could expand our hours.”
I ask him if he thinks there’s a solution to the disconnect between how much people think breakfast and lunch should cost, and how much it actually costs for an establishment to serve breakfast and lunch.
“Putnam Market’s been around for, what, 30 years or something?,” he says. “They figured it out. I’m curious to see how long the Bear’s Cup fervor keeps up. They have the best croissant I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve been to France—Bear’s Cup had a better croissant. Was it $7 good?” He shrugged. “It might be. The cost of butter is insane. So we’ll see what happens. I’m curious to see how long people will pay $20 for a bacon, egg, and cheese and a coffee.”
Dan, of course, knows the cost of a Bear’s Cup bacon, egg, and cheese intimately, because he recently compiled a list of all the places in Saratoga to get one, and their cost, and posted it to the deli’s Instagram account. Speaking of Instagram, what will happen to Dan’s infamous “Deli Lama” social media persona when the deli sells? “I’ve actually listed the deli’s social media accounts as a separate add-on to the sale price,” he says. “And I set the price very high.”
So, if the buyer wants them, great—Dan’s significantly richer. And if not, he’ll keep his social media presence, but change the name of the accounts. He even has plans for a coffee table book called “What I Said, and What I Meant”—which will show one of his actual social media posts on one page, and the post before Jen edited it to be socially acceptable on the opposite page—but doesn’t want to launch the book with the Saratoga’s Broadway Deli branding if he’s not going to own the business.
In other words, the reign of the Deli Lama may be coming to an end, but Dan Chessare’s story is far from over.
—Natalie