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Thirteen must be a lucky number for Rhonda and Doug Taylor. Their New York Delicatessen, 13 years old this November, is not only a healthy local business; it's expanding.
They've based their success on a combination of good, old-fashioned customer service and value, and pinned their future dreams on state-of-the-art Internet access.
It's the kind of place where Monday afternoon means peeling 35 to 40 pounds of potatoes - by hand - for Tuesday's soup du jour. It's also the kind of place where computer-savvy patrons and Internet novices can bump shoulders while they navigate the Web in search of information, inspiration and entertainment.
Neither owner dreamed 13 years ago that they'd be restauranteurs. Doug worked at Flexo-Wire, and Rhonda was the secretary at St. Mary's Church. Their only experience serving food to hungry patrons was working the concession stand at their sons' wrestling tournaments.
But when Doug lost his job as Flexo-Wire closed its doors, a realtor friend remembered their concession stand stints and told them of a deli business for sale on the corner of West Bridge and Second streets.
"We had talked about it a little," Doug says of going into business. "Once [Flexo-Wire] closed, we had to do something." In the mid-1980s, as nuclear plant construction wound down, Oswego's economy was not too healthy and Flexo-Wire's 65 to 70 laid-off employees made a bad situation worse. The Taylors decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship.
It was rough going at first. "When we started, we weren't even making minimum expenses," Doug recalls. "We had to buy supplies as we needed them. We couldn't afford to stock ahead."