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What It's Like To Be...

A Deli Owner

What It's Like To Be...

Dan Heath

Curiosity, Jobs, Careers, Business, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Human Interest

4.8646 Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Boiling briskets for five hours, escorting obnoxious customers to the door, and preserving the ritual of saying "hello" with Steven Peljovich, who runs Michael's Deli in Boston. What makes a deli different from a sandwich shop? And, until recently, why did he resist taking orders online? Read The Boston Globe story that Steven mentioned about longtime customer Rita Manor. IF YOU LIKE THIS EPISODE: Check out what it's like to be a stadium beer vendor, a barman, or an ice cream truck driver. GO...

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If you walk into Michael's Deli in Boston, you'll see a sign above the cash register.

0:06.8

It says there's a new sandwich special.

0:09.9

And it's a picture of a fist in between two slices of bread, and it says knuckle sandwich.

0:15.2

And it says available to anyone who does not say hello before they start to order.

0:22.6

That's Stephen Peljevich.

0:24.6

He bought the deli in 2012 and runs it.

0:27.6

We get people to walk in all the time and they'll be like,

0:30.6

pastrami, rye, mustard to go.

0:32.6

And as they were saying that, I was saying, hello, how you doing?

0:36.6

Right. And then they look at me because I haven't moved.

0:39.3

And they're like, fastrami.

0:41.3

And I'm like, no, no, I get that.

0:43.3

You want to get food.

0:44.3

I was just trying to say hello because I'm a person.

0:47.3

For Stephen, this isn't just about manners or being polite.

0:52.3

It's about why he does this job in the first place I

0:55.4

thrive on human interaction the day that people don't want to come in and talk to

1:01.3

us and interact with us is a day where I'm like okay I'm done with this I can't do

1:05.4

this anymore and that human interaction Steven thrives on he's watching it

1:10.0

disappear across the hospitality industry.

1:12.6

You order online and you order from a kiosk or you order on a tablet and you pick up a bag that's on a shelf in a store without talking to a single person in that store.

1:24.6

That mode of ease for the consumer I, is going to come bite the hospitality

...

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