HUNGRY IN RENO • The Urban Deli

An interview with Luis & April Rosales, owner

What made you decide to get into the business of food & drink?

Luis’ family has a history of owning deli’s. His mother owned a deli in San Francisco for twelve years, my brother currently owns a cafe & deli in San Francisco. When we were thinking about establishing more roots here in Reno, we were thinking ‘what does Reno need’ and what can we do well. We immediately thought – a deli! It’s simple enough that we thought we could really provide great food. We had a lot of help from Luis’ brother and mom in terms of what to order, what is good equipment.

When Luis was running his mom’s deli after college, he learned what he wanted to do and what he didn’t want to do.

Why Reno?

Both of us are originally from the Bay Area, April’s parents moved up here to retire and so we would come up here for holiday’s and just absolutely loved Reno. Then when we started having kids, we decided this is what we want for our kids. To get out of California but still be close enough that people could visit is just wonderful. So we moved here and decided we were going to stay and started to establish roots. We haven’t had one single regret.

Why are you excited for Reno Restaurant Week?

We are excited for people to come in and have a sandwich that they haven’t had before. We have a lot of people that say that the pairings we have, especially with the sauces, are very unique. The pairings are just right. Our garlic pesto house sauce goes amazing with the tuna. We spent countless evenings having friends over and making sandwiches trying combinations to get it right.

We are nine months new, getting this exposure is huge for us. We are only open during lunch right now, so we are excited to try some of the other participant locations for dinner!

What is one thing you’d like guests to know about you and/or your establishment?

We serve the highest quality products when it comes to the Boars Head meats, cheeses and condiments and we are also sticking local. We get our bread from Truckee Sourdough and House of Bread and produce from Bonanza. When you have all these great ingredients it’s hard to make a bad sandwich.

We also go above and beyond on our customer service. We came here with the Bay Area mentality of if you don’t do it right, someone else will and we believe that has helped and will continue to help us be successful here. We appreciate competition because it makes everyone step their game up. When you’re charging $10 for a sandwich, you better not just slap some meat and cheese on some bread. It needs to be made correctly, with care and if you screw up comp the sandwich and remake it.

Our goal is to ensure that everyone who visits knows that we care and that we will do everything we can to make sure they have a great experience.

How are you complying with safety guidelines for COVID-19?

We are complying with all guidelines including social distancing, sanitizing everything, wearing gloves and cutting down on the number of things people touch.