Stalzy's Deli is closing its restaurant, not the business

Stalzy's Deli on Madison's East Side will stop functioning as a restaurant Sunday but will continue to sell its bread, rolls, deli meats, cheese, lox, potato salad, coleslaw and other popular items direct to customers.

It also will continue to supply about 20 restaurants that use its buns, baguettes or sliced bread, including the Green Owl, Alchemy, the Harmony Bar, Rodeside Grill in Windsor, Salvatore's Tomato Pies, Hot Lunch, Grey Market, RED sushi, The Deliciouser, Heritage Tavern, The Harvey House, The Robin Room, The Weary Traveler, Seven Acre in Paoli, Obert Alvin Coffee House in Blue Mounds, the Madison Club and Blackhawk Country Club.

"I'm sure I'm missing a few in there somewhere, but I want to continue that," said Neil Stalboerger, who opened Stalzy's with a partner in 2011 at 2701 Atwood Ave., and now owns the business by himself.

It's difficult to explain, he said, but the move to close the restaurant aspect of the business is positive, because wholesale sales have been growing and he'll be able to use the seating area for bakery production instead.

"I'm just evolving the business," Stalboerger said. "I think a lot of people think that because you take something away, like the dining room, that it's a negative thing, that it wasn't working. The dining room is doing just fine."

He said when he started 13 years ago, the idea was to have a restaurant, do catering, and also sell bread, meat and deli items. "I just thought, we'll see what takes off."

Stalzy's will continue to do everything besides serve people in a restaurant setting, he said.

Stalboerger has faced many challenges with Stalzy's. First, the restaurant had a fire in April 2019 that fire officials said was caused by the spontaneous combustion of small kitchen towels. Then, shortly after a long remodeling process, it closed for a year due to the pandemic. That's when the business' focus turned to bread.

"It's kind of showed me how versatile the business could be," he said. "And this is just an evolution. I'm still growing, I'm still expanding."

Stalzy's will continue its retail grab-and-go component selling homemade German potato salad, sauerkraut, coleslaw, pickled beets, applesauce, macaroni salad, baked beans, clam chowder and mushroom barley soup.

Customers will no longer be able to pick up a Reuben or a Rachel sandwich, but Stalboerger said that might be possible in the future. After Sunday, making sandwiches will at least be on pause, he said.

During the pandemic, he said, he joked about starting a "Do It Yourself" program where Stalzy's would sell the bread, the meat, the sauerkraut, the cheese, "You know, everything to make a Reuben, and then you just go home and make it yourself."

That is now going to be reality. "We're just not preparing it for you. We're just cutting out the dining room aspect of it. All the stuff that we already make, we're going to continue to make," Stalboerger said.

The hours are going to be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Stalboerger, who before opening Stalzy's had been a sous chef at Lombardino's and Sardine, said he plans to do the occasional pop-up, like the ones he did at Working Draft Beer Company. He also might offer bread-making classes that people have been asking for. "I just need the space and the time to do it."

Stalzy's also sells its bread to Willy Street Co-op West and Willy Street Co-op North and is working on getting into the Near East Side store, Stalboerger said.

He said he was in talks with Metcalfe's Market and then the pandemic hit, and now he'll have time to pursue that again. "It seems our reputation and our brand is growing and I just need space to continue that."

Stalzy's has one truck and does its own deliveries. Stalboerger said he's working on getting another.

Stalboerger, 48, said he started cooking at 13, and has been in the business for 35 years. The change, he said, will allow him more family time.

"Everybody in the industry just knows how hard it is, the hours," he said. "It's hard work. My wife and two children, I'd like to see them a little more often. Everyone's talking about this work-life balance. I want to figure that out."

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