Its a tremendous pleasure for me to announce that the queen of retail, diva of deli and princess of pastrami (aka Jessie Roher) will be returning to Caplanskydom. Jessica is my good luck charm and close friend. She volunteered to help me open my deli-in-a-dive-bar 18 months ago and only left about a year ago to pad her resume with some higher education – a Master’s degree from LSE no less.
Since returning in September Jess finally succumbed to my begging and pleading. Yes, my friends, the lovely and talented Ms. Roher will reprise her role starting the day after tomorrow (NYE!). This time, she’ll do her own singing and dancing as well as my bookkeeping and just generally help me keep my shit together. I couldn’t be happier to welcome her back. We sat together today and reminisced about opening day at the Monarch (plates donated by her mom Beth and a plastic cup for a cash register donated by our friends at the Monarch). She said we were “playing deli” for months and she’s right. Now? We’re really a deli. And a pretty good one too. We’ll only get better with her influence and input.
Your’s too. I love it when people send me messages about their experience at the deli. Of course, the positive ones feel good but the not so positive ones are even more helpful. I can’t be there 24 hours a day so its nice when customers and friends let me know how we did when I’m not around. Ivy Knight, a Drake Hotel cook, freelance writer and all-around great lady was kind enough to Tweet about how awesome my team is while we were getting slammed yesterday. She’s right. The one and only Vishanti Moosai came in on her day off (for the second day in a row) to help save the day.
In the words of Now’s Steven Davey, I am indeed a very lucky man.
