Bites Nearby: Carrollwood Deli

Carrollwood Deli, located in a shopping plaza at 11606 N. Dale Mabry Highway, has been serving deli favorites to Carrollwood locals since 1997.

Featuring sandwiches, salads and homemade soups, Carrollwood Deli also has a healthy catering business.   

Patch foodie Gina Melton talked to Sally and Peter Ballas, the dynamic duo behind the Carrollwood Deli, about how they started their restaurant business and about the 200 pounds of brisket they roast in-house each week for their pastrami sandwiches.

 Patch: Tell me how you started Carrollwood Deli.

Sally: Peter and I were living in Pennsylvania and found ourselves unemployed and unable to find work. Florida had always been home to Peter because his whole family lived here, so we opted to move down to try and find work. Peter had always been in the food business, so the deli was just a natural progression from that.

Patch: What’s the biggest challenge of running your own restaurant?

Peter: The chains are slowly pushing out the little guy. We can’t compete with their advertising budgets or their mass appeal.

Patch: You must be doing something right, managing to stay afloat since 1997. What is the key to your success?

Sally: We have a strong local following. When we first opened, there were families with children who would come to eat at the deli. Now, those kids come in with their own kids. We are a family here, and our menu hasn’t changed in 13 years. It also doesn’t hurt that we have the best pastrami in town, and that we make all our soups, breads and rolls in-house.

Patch: What are the customer favorites on the menu?

Sally: The Powerhouse is a big seller (turkey breast, melted farmhouse cheddar and bacon on a Kaiser roll).

Patch: Who does the cooking in your house, and what is it that you like to cook at home?

Peter: I do the cooking and Sally does the clean up.  You’ll always find sweet tea and fruit in the fridge. I like to make noodle dishes and pork loins. And I love to play with spices. At the restaurant we have to keep it middle of the road because some diners don’t like spicy food, so when I get home, I can let loose a little.

Patch: Are there any celebrity chefs that you appreciate?

Peter:  Gordon Ramsay is pretty entertaining. Even though he can be a bit hard to take, the root of his message is that you have to have standards—and I appreciate that. We really strive to have a very clean restaurant and provide our customers with a good product. That’s why all our meats are roasted by us, and everything we prepare is homemade.

Sally: I’ve had customers compliment us on how clean our restrooms are. Peter is really a stickler for a clean restaurant.