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Rinaldi’s Country Deli Stays Fresh as Generations Turn

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By Sara Poirier Correa
Sentinel Reporter

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Photo by John Ferris Robben

It’s 4:30 in the morning, and while most people are still tucked in their beds, Antoinette Martinez is wide awake and hard at work, opening Rinaldi’s Country Deli in Cos Cob.

“I’m an early bird,” said Martinez, co-owner of the business, which will celebrate 30 years in 2016. “I get in there and I’m happy.”

Situated in a residential neighborhood at 70 Orchard Street, Rinaldi’s is an institution to some, and a family business for Martinez and her sister and business partner, Michelle Rinaldi. Started by Rinaldi’s father-in-law, Pasquale Rinaldi, in 1986, the sisters took ownership of the deli in 2000 when it went up for sale.

“It’s wonderful working with family,” Martinez said.

Rinaldi added, “It’s had its challenges, but we’ve worked out all the little kinks and it’s been great. We enjoy what we’re doing and we have a great team working with us at this point.”

Rinaldi’s offerings include breakfast sandwiches (served all day), salads and deli sandwiches such as The Crusher Roast Beef—with lettuce, onions, pickles and roasted peppers—and The Navy Seal—Cajun chicken with ham, bacon, roasted peppers, Swiss cheese, honey mustard and BBQ sauce. Hot foods are also a staple at the deli, including its signature wings, chicken and meatball parmigiana.

Martinez oversees the catering aspect of the business, which includes sometimes looking up recipes for a customer who orders something not of the typical menu.

“We put our hearts into it,” said Rinaldi, who oversees the front of the store on a daily basis while Martinez heads up the kitchen, which she referred to as her “castle.”

Recent additions to Rinaldi’s include the salad-to-go case, offering quick pick-ups for customers in a hurry.

“Our service is always fast, but we’re not fast food,” Rinaldi said. “We try to provide some healthy meals and not just a deli sandwich or a heavy cooked meal.”

No matter what the dish, Martinez said she loves to cook for large groups, since it brings back memories of her upbringing.

“It reminds me of sitting at home around the table,” she said. “[Cooking] just brings good memories about people around the table, smiling and talking.

“You feel good when you have a good meal.”

Her favorite thing to make: Eggplant.

“We always had a lot of food on the table [growing up],” said Rinaldi, who, along with Martinez, their parents and siblings, immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1966. Their sister Anna now also works at the deli, too. “Our love of cooking comes from our mother.”

The sisters told the Greenwich Sentinel that it’s the customers that keep the wheels in motion at Rinaldi’s.

“The high school kids we used to see now have high school kids,” Martinez said, referring to the generations of customers that have eaten at the deli through the years they’ve worked there.

Rinaldi added, “That’s kind of a nice feeling to see [old customers and their new] families returning and wanting them to have the experience of returning to Rinaldi’s.

“It’s a family within a family.”

Martinez and Rinaldi stagger their time at the deli to ensure an owner is on site at all times, with the former opening daily and the latter closing up shop in the late afternoon.

“[Customers] love coming back to [Rinaldi’s] because as much as the town has changed, we’ve always stayed the same,” Rinaldi said. “You can still find us after all these years, the same people here.”

With no plans to close up shop any time soon, Martinez joked about staying put.

“I guess they’re going to have to drag us out,” she said.

Rinaldi’s is open Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. The store is closed on Sundays. For more, visit www.rinaldis-deli.com, or call 203-622-8315.

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