New York-style deli to open on Highland Street is brainchild of 4 card-playing friends
WORCESTER — While their goal is to run a successful business, the five friends behind a new deli opening next month on Highland Street also want to give back to the community.
And they believe the city deserves its own New York-style Jewish deli.
Helfand's Deli will open in early September in a place that folks won't even recognize as the Sahara Restaurant, which closed its doors in December.
"It's brand-new," said Michael Sobel, a chef who will head the restaurant.
The restauranteurs will appear before the city License Commission Thursday seeking the common victualler license they need to open.
Sobel, a former executive chef at Assumption University and the executive catering chef at WPI, has always been drawn to the food industry; he peeled potatoes in his grandmother's kitchen as a child.
For him, food is more than nourishment. It's about bringing people together in the way his Jewish family would gather on Sundays. It inspires memories.
His grandfather, Alfred "Bubbles" Cohen, ran Cohen's Bakery on Water Street for years, and Sobel and his father ran Legacy Bar & Grill in Worcester.
The partners
After twice losing jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sobel said, the timing was right to take charge of his career. When Carl Goldstein, an accountant, real estate broker David Cohen, Andy Davis, president of Davis Advertising and Ward McLaughlin, a local entrepreneur, tapped him as the chef for the deli venture, he said "yes" pretty quickly.
The partners, who play cards together and came up with the idea for a deli during one of their games, bought the building at 143 Highland St. in December. They have been working on it since, changing the style and adding new appliances and display cases.
They named it Helfand's, which in Yiddish means elephant. The elephant is a symbol of luck and prosperity, they wrote on the deli's Facebook page.
"Elephants represent long life, wisdom, and vitality as well as great strength and the ability to remove obstacles. The four friends knew that to succeed in this venture they would need luck, wisdom and a lot of vitality," they wrote.
Sobel has been crafting the menu that he hopes will bring success: homemade matzo ball or chicken noodle soup, half-sour pickles and sandwiches on a choice of breads.
There are salads and sides including potato latke, knish and kugel along with fries, pasta or potato salad and coleslaw.
Local sources
While the food won't be kosher — keeping two kitchens and two display cases wasn't possible — it will be authentic, homemade from Sobel's family recipes and from local sources like the European Bakery, which will provide some desserts, Sobel said.
The deli will be something like what folks remember at Weintraub's Delicatessen, now closed, but somewhat more upscale. There will be space to eat-in, a private room for meetings and meals to go.
Meats and cheeses can be bought by weight and sliced as customers desire.
Sobel said that including himself, the deli will employ about eight. He's excited about the team and can't wait to start working with them, he said.
Helfand's Deli will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester's New York-style Deli is brainchild of card-playing friends
