Lisa Reisman Photos
Chef and manager Kenia Calderon at the grill.
Kenia Calderon slathered Italian bread with mayonnaise and layered on lettuce and tomatoes. She slung sliced ribeye steak, onions, and cheese onto a grill. She gently transferred the sizzling ingredients onto the sub.
Calderon then wrapped up one of New Haven’s best-kept secrets: B&M Deli’s grilled steak and cheese sub
“Five minutes,” Calderon sang out.
The rich aroma of grilled meat and onions wafted through the immaculate, no-frills kitchen on a recent weekday afternoon.
“I can’t go any slower,” she explained.
Take-out and delivery orders are helping local restaurants like B&M Deli to weather the Covid-19 pandemic. Visit B&M Deli at 644 Ferry St. or call in at 203-865-2647 to order the grilled, steak and cheese sub. The hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
B&M Deli, an institution on the corner of Ferry and Fox Streets since 1976.
B&M Deli, where Calderon works as the chef and manager, has been a neighborhood institution on the corner of Ferry and Fox Streets since the 1970s. Calderon herself has been fixing steak and cheese subs at the Fair Haven restaurant since 2001.
Calderon’s mother Gertrudis also works at the restaurant, making chicken cutlets, chicken soup, and fish and chips.
When New Haven was a city of factory workers, joints like B&M Deli occupied every corner. Now they’ve been edged out by Dunkin’ Donuts and other chains that don’t pack jumbo eggs and six strips of bacon into their breakfast sandwiches.
“Biggest sin in the world is dying on an empty stomach,” said B&M owner Bob Mercurio as he prepared to take an order.
The 78-year-old opened B&M Deli in 1976. Gerald Ford was president. Gas sold for 59 cents a gallon.
Mercurio grew up on Fair Street in Wooster Square. His father owned a package store on Ferry Street. Then the owners of the deli next door moved to Florida.
“I bought it for a lark,” said Mercurio, chuckling, as he handed Calderon an order for a bacon and cheese sandwich on a scrap of paper.
“Extra cheese,” he told her.
“My plan was to flip it and I’m still here.”
B&M Deli cashier Mirta Garcia, owner Bob Mercurio, and Calderon.
When Mercurio’s father died in 1977, his mother, Mary Mercurio, sold the package store and came next door to help her son. She worked at the deli until she was 90. B&M stands for Bobby and Mary.
A longtime customer, who asked to be identified as “Skully,” remembered Mary’s dominion.
“She basically ran the place,” he said. He has been eating at B&M Deli since fifth grade.
“We had big business in the ‘80s. We were doing like 200 loaves a day,” Mercurio said.
That means 400 sandwiches.
“We don’t get that kind of volume but a lot of people still come in everyday—construction workers, cops, politicians, sanitation workers, neighborhood people,” Mercurio said.
They stayed open during the pandemic, installing plexiglass barriers at the front counter, removing three of the six tables, and consigning themselves to mostly take-out orders.
“It was very slow last year, but recently we’ve been picking up.”
1.85 pounds of grilled steak and cheese goodness.
The door opened. It was the man who comes in every week to sharpen knives. Calderon cuts the meat fresh at 5 a.m. each morning.
“Want something to eat?” Mercurio asked him with easy generosity.
“A lot of people come in here as adults and they tell me they’ve been coming since they were kids,” said cashier Mirta Garcia.
Garcia rang up an order of a chicken cutlet sub for a woman who said she lives a few blocks away.
“This is what you call a hidden gem,” the woman said. “But once you find it, that’s it.”
Both the food and the familiar faces on the staff keep customers coming back.
“A lot of these people are coming to see Bobby but they’re also coming to be here in this place,” Garcia said. “When they taste the sandwiches, they remember another time. It’s like family. It’s like coming home.”
Calderon handed her another sub.
“People come back here all the time,” Calderon agreed. “I have a lot of people moving to Florida and when they’re here for a visit, they come in. I have a lot of people coming from Hartford, from New York.”
It’s like Pepe’s and Sally’s, Mercurio said. Customers living all over the country remember the deli and incorporate it into their visits.
Asked why his deli has endured over six decades, Mercurio shrugged.
“We put a lot of meat in every sandwich. We put three-quarters of a pound of steak in that sub and about half a pound on a hard roll. For chicken, we put four or five cutlets. We don’t skimp.”
Skully, the long-time customer, had another take.
“This place saved the neighborhood,” he said. “Bobby’s family has been on this corner since 1964, with his dad’s package store. They’re respected, because they care. Bobby would feed people who had no money. He doesn’t make a show of it.”
That’s why, with the exception of a two-alarm fire in 2017 that closed the place for two years, “they survived so long because they stayed above the fray,” he said. “They stayed a legitimate business in the neighborhood.”
The classic B&M grilled steak and cheese sub.
The steak and cheese sub offered another insight into the deli’s longevity. When I separated the two halves of the sandwich, I watched the cheese spread between them.
The bread comes directly from Apicella’s Bakery on Grand Avenue. It was soft enough for a good bite but hearty enough to keep the sandwich from falling apart.
The steak was tender. Its flavor had a certain smokiness, as though haunted by generations of onions passing across the grill. As I luxuriated in the sandwich, I found myself transported to a simpler time.
I had to agree with Skully’s statement from earlier that afternoon.
“In my opinion, this place is the heart and soul of New Haven,” he said.
Previous coverage of recommended take-out orders to help local businesses survive the pandemic:
• Today’s Special: Haci’s Napoletana Pie
• Today’s Special: Fred & Patty’s Brie On Baguette
• Today’s Special: Nieda’s Moist Falafel
• Today’s Special: Qulen’s Vegan “Wings”
• Today’s Special: Aaron’s Peruvian Rice Bowl
• Today’s Special: Singh Bros.’ Chana Kulcha
• Today’s Special: Grandma’s Chicken Soup
• Today’s Special: Woody’s Steak & Shrimp
• Today’s Special: Shilmat’s Yemisir Sambusa
• Today’s Special: Arjun’s Vegetarian Manchurian
• Today’s Special: Mohammed’s Bhel Poori
• Today’s Special: Francesco’s Tortelli
• Today’s Special: Seikichi’s Sushi
• Today’s Special: Ketkeo’s Khao Poon
• Today’s Special: Mike Fox’s French Toast
• Today’s Special: Zhang’s Squirrel Fish Dish
• Today’s Special: Jessica’s Gumbo
• Today’s Special: Kenny Kim’s Vegan Ramen
• Today’s Special: Ernesto’s Venezuelan Arepa
• Today’s Special: Corey’s “Prison Reformer” Frank
• Today’s Special: Bryan’s Butter Chicken Pie
• Today’s Special: Jared’s Super Supreme Baked Potato
• Today’s Special: Craig’s Breakfast Reuben
• Today’s Special: Sunny’s Mackerel Sashimi
• Today’s Special: Jamshed’s Lemon Chicken
• Today’s Special: Dave’s Navratan Curry
• Today’s Special: Nicole’s Oxtail
• Today’s Special: Brisket Kansa-Lina Fries
• Today’s Special: Sandra’s Bourbon-Glazed Salmon
• Today’s Special: Alba’s Beet Salad With Goat Cheese Panna Cotta
• Today’s Special: Alex’s Chicken Pad Thai
It is little family run places like this that are the backbone of the fabric of the city. Without them we have lost New Haven's heart and soul. I miss the days where there were lots of these types of establishments all over the city in every neighborhood. The type of places where everybody meets and mingles.
Not a soulless corporate run chain business.
I hope this business continues to be as successful in the future as it has been in the past.