Market Mecca...Cont.

Best Deli in the
Tri-Counties

   Tim Neenan moved to the Valley about 16 years ago, and has been cooking at El Rancho for nine years. “In order to be a professional cook, you have to be driven, it is a big job; you’re constantly around fire, knives and cold, but I love it,” says Tim, who started cooking in high school and began catering about 15 years ago. He calls himself is a “self-taught cook,” and says he goes home every night and cooks dinner, “even though I cook here eight hours a day.” Tim and his wife Lorraine have two sons: Patrick, a cook at Mattei’s Tavern and Joseph, a student at SYVUHS, who is also a piano player and a box-boy at El Rancho.
   “The Tri-Counties Food Club, a club of all professional salespeople have voted us the best deli in the Tri-Counties for two years straight,” boasts Tim running down a list of items and services, including a variety of handmade salads, bakery items, “legendary pies,” a variety of entrees, sides and dinners in the hot case, dips and salsas, Boarshead meats and cheeses, house-cured pastrami, as well as, “a pretty extensive housewares department. My goal was to bring in professional quality tools like wooden spoons and whisks, food mills, and pasta machines. If customers are shopping here, they like to cook and I want them to have access to stuff that we use and actually works,” says Neenan.
   “There are not a lot of shortcuts going on in that kitchen. We do everything the old-fashioned way and you can taste it. It is amazing the amount of production that comes out of this place. We do about 18-20 percent of the store’s business. The men and women here make up a great team, and I can’t say enough about how dedicated and hard working they are. It is like a ballet back there – one person opens the walk-in door, the other person closes it for them. It is a really happy kitchen,” says Tim.