Leaving Mississippi, Steve looks back at 20 years of Steve's Deli

Steve Long of Steve's Deli in Downtown Jackson has sold both of his locations, and he and his wife Julie will be moving to Pennsylvania this summer.

Never fear, however. Both locations will continue on for downtown lunch crowd.

His Lamar Street location has already been taken over and is ready to be opened in the next few weeks under new ownership and the Congress Street location will be taken over in May by new ownership.

"My wife is from Pennsylvania, the kids are about grown and I am looking forward to a change," Long said last week while sitting at a booth in his Congress Street location that he has been a part of in one form or another since 2001.

Steve's has gained an almost cult following over the years as his sandwiches and cookies have been a staple for the downtown business crowd.

And he doesn't lack in confidence about his food, saying that he is the Beatles of soups.

While new ownership is not ready to be announced yet, Long, now 59, said he has been promised that the person taking over "will honor us in the space."

"We have been here 22-23 years and I think they understand that people want to get what they want to get," Long said. "But I think they have their own experience and their own flare to add."

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Long started in June of 2001 when he was hired by the late James Patterson at the Congress Street location, when it was called Saucers. Patterson hired Long out from under Jeff Good, where he had been the head baker at Broad Street.

"I was all of a sudden working office hours, no nights, no weekends and he matched my salary at Broad Street," Long said. "He was really a blessed soul."

Patterson sold Long the business in 2004.

The Salad Days

The biggest boom in business was the following year after Hurricane Katrina forced many from South Mississippi toward Jackson.

"All of a sudden, Jackson was New York City. There were people everywhere," Long said. "FEMA was occupying the entirety of the Lamar Life Building almost overnight."

He also remembers the exodus of business from the Downtown Jackson area as many ditched their digs and headed to the suburbs.

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"Everybody left in 2008," he said. "Cellular South (C Spire) left, Butler Snow left, HORNE left, Regions left. I guess downtown started recovering from that a little bit, then COVID happened, so I don't know. I have never seen it get back to where it was just before 2008."

Having said all of that, the 2022 Jackson Water Crisis was not something that hastened Long and his wife to make the decision to move to Pennsylvania.

"We have always had water crises in Jackson. Last year was nothing new. Is it a day that ends in a Y?" Long said. "We never took it seriously, because there were so many of them and we never knew there was (a boil water notice) until they were already lifted. I guess when it became international news, we took it a little more seriously. Bottled water, canned drinks, we made it work. I don't want to sound flippant, but that was a constant and the communication was always uneven."

Regular customers

Long says there area a lot of regulars that he will miss, a lot of people that came in and ordered the same thing almost every day for the last 20 years.

"There are a lot of chicken salads walking around downtown everyday," he joked. "We have Wise Carter (law firm) and Watkins Eager (law firm) that send a lot of people down here. They have been very supporting from the beginning."

Through it all, Long says the menu hasn't changed much.

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"You could probably pull up a menu from 2002 and there would still be a lot of the same things on there," he said. "I have been so busy every day, I never really spent a lot of time changing things. Although, we always area having a lot of specials that we have had fun with. So, I guess that's a change from time to time."

The next step for Steve is to not be in charge anymore. He says he will continue on in the food business, but he will likely not be managing an operation any more.

"Just a job. We will have jobs," he deadpanned. "But I think the person coming in behind me, I think its going to be a really good transition with a lot of creativity."

He expects the name will change with the new ownership, but joked that if they keep the mural on the wall, it has the name as part of it and that will mark the history of the past 20 years.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Steve's Deli sells both popular downtown Jackson restaurants