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April 23, 1999/7 Iyar 5759, Vol. 51, No. 30
Running deli is key ingredient in family togetherness recipe
MICHELLE ACKERMAN
Staff Writer
It was 11 p.m., and the Borenstein family was tired.
Mom, Lovey, held the Hebrew National salami; Dad, Lou, held the pastrami; their daughter, Wendy, held the turkey; son Mark held the tomatoes; and son Neal held the lettuce. Together, the five of them circled 12 giant bagels, each carefully placing their layer on top of the previous one, to construct 12 perfect giant-bagel sandwiches.
"Round and round we went, until I don't know how late!" remembers the now Wendy Tucker, laughing. "It was one of our first catering jobs, the first year we were open, and we had to feed 140-150 people ... and (at that time) that was very big to us."
That was 1979, when Chompie's, a kosher-style delicatessen, restaurant, bakery, bagel factory and caterer, first opened its doors at the corner of 32nd Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.
About 22 years ago, Tucker came out from Queens, N.Y., to visit Arizona on a friend's suggestion.
"She said the Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, area really is in need of all kinds of things, and the Jewish population is growing, and there is only one bagel place in Phoenix," Tucker recalls.
She liked Arizona so much that she bought a house that same trip. Then she went back to New York and convinced her entire family (both sets of grandparents, her parents, and her two younger brothers, who were still in college and high school at the time) to move with her.
"I just felt like (Arizona) was the land of opportunity," she says.
The decision to open Chompie's was easy, Tucker says. It was based in part on the logistics of the business, as well as the lack of bagel shops operating in the area. A bonus was that Mark and Neal Borenstein both were currently holding down jobs at bagel shops in New York, baking bagels; they had experience.
The inaugural Chompie's store was small, with 10-12 tables, and served a limited variety of homemade bagels, cream cheeses and deli salads (such as tuna, egg, and potato). The Borensteins also flew in fresh whitefish and lox.
As the restaurant gained popularity, it gradually expanded into other stores in the shopping center as they went out of business. By 1993, it was clear that a much larger space was needed, and the restaurant moved to its current location at 32nd Street and Greenway Road.
Since then, the family has opened two other locations: 9301 E. Shea Blvd. in Scottsdale, and most recently, 1160 E. University Drive in Tempe.
Along the way, the menu has been expanded to include hundreds of items, including matzo-ball soup, matzo brie, knishes, "skyscraper" deli sandwiches, hamburgers, fish, omelettes and more. Chompie's also offers 35 bagel varieties today, 10 types of bialys and bialy sticks, and 19 choices of cream cheese.
Each location boasts a full bakery, and custom catering service is available. There is also a wholesale end of Chompie's, where bagels and breads are shipped to other restaurants, hotels and supermarkets, and bakery items are shipped to delicatessens.
Each of the family-owned Chompie's is decorated with a large, hand-painted mural of New York images on the wall in the dining area. Each mural includes logos of Broadway shows, such as "Les Miserables" and "A Chorus Line"; images of landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty; and other images familiar to the Borenstein children, such as one of their grandfather driving a New York taxi. From the mural and pictures on the walls, to the "Holland Tunnel," and "Long Islander" sandwiches and "The Coney Island" hot dog, Chompie's delivers a taste of the Big Apple.
Tucker says there is a possibility that in the future, the family will build a commissary in North Phoenix to better help them keep up with demand and growth.
A fourth restaurant called Chompie's at the Airpark, located in the Scottsdale Airpark, is independently owned.
"We do sell them bagels and breads," says Tucker. "But it has nothing to do with the founding Borenstein family."
The three family-owned locations employ approximately 300 workers, but the Borensteins still run the daily operations. Each family member has carved out a particular niche: Lovey handles the catering and party planning; Lou is in charge of the wholesale end of the business; Mark and Neal are responsible for the general operations of the day-to-day business for all of the departments, with the exception of the office, which Neal's wife, Shirli, handles; and Wendy puts together the new locations, including the interior decorations, and handles promotions, advertising and customer service.
And though they each have their own roles in the company, no Borenstein is afraid of stepping in to help someone else.
"We all just pitch in wherever we need to," says Tucker. "And when the holidays come, you just put on your jeans and go to work, because everybody's got to pitch in to the wee hours of the morning."
Throughout it all, there is one goal that the family keeps in mind - to remember that they are all a family, and to take the time to be a family.
"We're a really close family," says Tucker. "We care a great deal for each other, even though we've worked in business together for over 20 years, and I think that's pretty darn good."
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