New Year’s coming, and we’ll be coming with it, except that we won’t start back up at The New Deli ’till Monday, January 5th. So sorry if we miss you over the holiday, but this always seems like a great time of year to pull back, catch up, and refresh. Pulling back on the work, catching up with friends and family, and refreshing as we put the typical deli routine on hold. Tom was pretty excited that the days are back to getting longer and brighter again… it was quite the descent into darkness just before that Winter Solstice! My favorite verse this season has been, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light”, from Isaiah 9:2. Hurrah!
It was nice that the city of Pinole wanted to feature our business in the December issue (here), even though we realized we didn’t have many recent pictures of our latest staff. Most team members work on alternate days, but ONE guy is most always still there, holding down the deli fort, as he has for the past forty years. (Can you guess? That’s Tom). Jen still does behind-the-scenes stuff, trying to not get buried by the plantings and harvests of the season on the home front (drying persimmons and apples, seeding pomegranates, picking kiwis and avocados…).
Much of what we do is “business as usual”, but we did have a recent addition to the “New Deli Family” this past year: little Matisse. Our youngest son and his wife just had their first, who was told he needed to get his picture in the books. He tried to tell everyone he really wasn’t ready for a Turkey Muenster Melt just yet (he’s on a restricted, mono-food diet right now, which keeps mom Maria busy). But our youngest grandson did oblige anyway!
We look forward to a new year, and hope our customers continue to enjoy what we have to offer. As the city of Pinole expands, with more and more eating options, we are grateful for those that continue to frequent the deli and keep us afloat. Hope to see you all in 2026!
