One of the last mom-and-pop sandwich shops in Reading is closing

Aug. 11—One of the last family-owned and operated sandwich shops in Reading is bidding farewell.

Larry's 9th & Union V&S Sandwich Shop will close this month after 52 years of serving hoagies and steak sandwiches from the same northeast Reading location. Closing on the sale of the shop to a new owner who reportedly plans to turn it into a food mart is scheduled for next week.

The location's last day as a sandwich shop will be Aug. 24.

Besides Screpesi's, 500 Lancaster Ave., which first set up shop in Reading in 1949 and will next year celebrate its 75th anniversary, Larry's V&S is believed to be the longest continually operating of the old breed of sandwich shops in the city.

Owner Larry Spayd Jr. said he turned 66 this week and feels like it's time to retire. He's been involved in the business off and on since he was a teenager when his father, Larry Spayd Sr., bought the existing V&S shop at 1558 N. Ninth St. in 1971 from original owner Samuel Mollica Jr.

The traditional sandwich shop has been vanishing for years in Reading due to a variety of factors: shifting demographics, the age of owners and infusion of franchises.

"I can name you a list of sandwich shops that were here in the city, and they ain't here," Spayd said.

Prompted to name some, he rattled off more than a half-dozen names: Eleanor's, Santo's, Sardie's, Augie's, Tack's, Danny's, Bailey's and Chubby's.

Larry's V&S probably would have been on that list three years ago had it not been for food-delivery "tablets" such as DoorDash.

"When COVID hit I said, 'We need to do something,' Spayd said. "You couldn't have people come in and sit down. You were afraid to let them come in the door."

Post-pandemic, the tablets keep chiming. The delivery service takes a hefty chunk of each customer's bill, but they generate more than enough business to make them worthwhile.

"Them tablets, they still ring like hell," he chuckled. "People are lazy."

Larry reluctantly took over running the business nine years ago from his father. Larry Jr. had retired himself, due to a heart condition that was later corrected with a medical procedure.

Larry Sr. died in 2017. His oldest son, Larry Jr., and his partner (in life and the business) Stefanie Carney decided to go full-in, with Larry eventually buying out his co-heirs to become sole proprietor.

For more than a half-century the V&S shop at Ninth and Union has remained separate from the V&S Sandwich franchise that has restaurants in Sinking Spring, Shillington and Temple.

That's because the original owner didn't sell Spayd a franchise — he sold that individual business including the name.

Larry Sr. added "Larry's" to the name to distinguish his shop from the other V&S locations. The legal name of the limited liability company, however, is simply V&S Sandwich Shop.

What has set their shop apart from many others, Carney said, is their insistence on using quality ingredients and presentation — a clean, neat shop — values instilled by the patriarch.

Spayd is retaining the rights to the name in case Carney wants to open a new location some day. She says it would be outside of the city.

As for himself, Spayd said he's going to stay retired this time.

In the days since announcing the impending closing via social media, longtime customers, some of whom haven't visited the shop for years, have been streaming in to have one last sandwich.

It reminded Larry and Stefanie of when Ronie's Home of the Steak, a bar-restaurant specializing in steak sandwiches, closed a few years ago around the corner at Ninth and Exeter streets.

Business was sparse, to say the least, in the final years, but as soon as the aging owners announced Ronie's was closing, so many customers flocked to have a steak and a beer that Larry and Stefanie — friends of the owner as well as competitors — stepped in to help serve customers.

In a Facebook post, Larry's Ninth & Union V&S expressed gratitude for the support they've had from their customers over the decades.

The buyer, whose name he wouldn't disclose, plans to turn the shop into a food mart, and has obtained a state license for beer sales, Spayd said.

"I hope the new owners have a good run," he said.