Deane’s Deli opens in Geneva

GENEVA – At Deane's Market & Deli at 500 S. Third St. in Geneva, patrons can eat in, take out, plug in, work or hang out and chat.

Owners Chris and Vicki Deane of Geneva opened the new deli about 10 weeks ago in the spot formerly occupied by the Boxcar Restaurant, Vicki Deane said.

After 22 years in the corporate food service industry, Chris Deane left to start his own business, his wife said.

“We’re in our 50s,” Vicki Deane said. “He grew up working in an Italian butcher shop, and – as long as we’ve been married – he’s always toyed with the idea of having a general store.”

Deane’s Market & Deli is modeled more after a city hangout place, with a lounger, leather sofa, an area for kids to play games or read, a TV, a long community table, and USB ports at tables where people can plug in computers and phones, Vicki Deane said.

But what is unusual about this particular deli, Vicki Deane said, is they roast and smoke all their own meats and make their own pastrami.

“It’s a two-week process to make our own pastrami,” Vicki Deane said. “It’s scratch cooking here. The sweets we bake ourselves. The soups are all scratch.”

Chris Deane came up with the original recipes, and many of the soups are his old family recipes, she said. They buy flour that is from organic, stone-ground heritage grains through a farmer near Rockford, she said.

The deli also sells some housewares, she said.

Although Vicki Deane is keeping her day job as a real estate broker with Baird & Warner in St. Charles, she said she is handling the design, marketing and housewares end of the deli operation.

Deane's Market & Deli is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. More information is available by calling 630-402-0139 or visiting deanesmarket.com.