Dad Took Daughter’s Idea, & Ran With It

When he was living at a halfway house after a stint in prison, Cody Roach called his 9‑year-old daughter and asked what he should do with the rest of his life.

Her suggestion: Buy my grandmother’s deli. Ten years later, Roach is still running Grand & Atwater Deli, which bursts with colorful snacks and inspirational quotes on display in the Fair Haven neighborhood where he grew up.

Roach’s deli, at 121 Grand Ave., celebrated a decade of business at the beginning of June. His daughter, Amelia, has spent her tween and teenage years at the store, helping out her dad behind the register. 

The store’s Fair Haven location is where Roach spent his childhood before moving to North Haven with his grandparents as a teenager. ​“It means a lot” to own a business in his home neighborhood, Roach said. While Roach now lives in Waterbury, friends and family who still live in Fair Haven frequent the store. 

“This is one of the only Black-owned businesses in the area,” he said. He’s gotten to know neighbors, who have become regular customers. He takes pride in knowing that the kids in the area, who ​“bring the love and support,” can ​“see a familiar face, someone they can relate to — they express how happy they are to talk to someone who looks like them behind the counter.”

Roach bought the deli from Amelia’s maternal grandmother, who had already decided to sell the store.

Amelia, who is now 19, recalled feeling devastated about the deli’s sale as a kid. She’d spent her childhood there — ​“that’s all I used to do” — back when it sold a mix of her grandmother’s Portuguese cuisine and the Italian foods introduced by the previous owners. 

The deli went up for sale when Amelia was 9. At the time, her father was transitioning out of a year and a half in prison for possession of a firearm and marijuana. Over the phone, Amelia suggested to her father that he buy the store.

“I said it with no intentions,” she said. ​“I had no idea what would come with it.”

Roach took his daughter’s idea seriously. He was a ​“very big people person,” as Amelia put it. He had an entrepreneurial spirit. He inherited it from his father, who owned a Fair Haven restaurant called Moody’s Fish and Chips. 

And Roach wanted to build a life that would honor his mother, Jacqueline Roach, who died when he was young. 

It was his mother’s death that first sent Roach ​“down the wrong path, struggling with finding who I was,” he said. Her memory would guide him through his next stage of life: purchasing the deli, commuting each morning from an hour away in Waterbury, learning to cook the dishes on the menu, and adding his own flair to the store.

Roach learned recipes from the longtime chef working at the deli, Maricela Zambrano. ​“She’s a major help in our business,” he said.

Over time, Roach added fish and wings, soups and salads to the menu. He started selling streams of colorful lottery tickets, a popular attraction for customers.

Roach began offering fax services and a UPS delivery station where neighbors could send packages without fear that they would get stolen. He partnered with UberEats and DoorDash, allowing customers to order items directly from their homes, sometimes from other towns. And, at his daughter’s suggestion, he included products like sunglasses, T‑shirts, and speakers. 

Roach transformed the interior of the deli, too. He added a table and chairs in a windowed corner of the store decorated with large plants, inviting people to linger and talk whether or not they purchased anything. And he filled every spare corner with motivational and religious quotes.

“Leave your drama outside,” says one sign.

“God is our strength,” says another.

Above the cash register, customers are greeted with this message: ​“THIS IS the year I will be STRONGER, BRAVER, KINDER, & UNSTOPPABLE. This year I will be FIERCE.”

Roach said he hopes these words will remind people, ​“No matter where we come from, money doesn’t really define us.” The signs are reminders to himself, too. They encourage him to power through harder days and to live by a phrase he often repeats: ​“Be good to people.”

Amelia, who’s now working in retail and hopes to go to college to study business, psychology, or nursing, said her favorite moments in the store are when ​“we’re all just talking, laughing, connecting with the customers. He kind of gets conversations going with random people — that’s one thing I love about being there. We can have a conversation about anything with anyone who comes in.”

That culture is part of what has kept the business alive for a decade — including through the hardest days of a pandemic that plummeted sales.

“We’re not the biggest, fanciest deli in New Haven,” said Roach. ​“A lot of our support comes from word of mouth.” 

Earlier in the month, Roach hosted a cookout with free hot dogs and hamburgers in celebration of the store’s ten years. Looking ahead, Roach said he hopes to sponsor programming for kids in the neighborhood. He spoke of supporting his young customers the way his parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, wife, and daughter have supported him — passing on the words he’d say to his younger self: ​“Never give up, and be good to people on the good days and the bad.”