One of Montgomery’s oldest businesses appeared on the brink of closing for good.
Then, after a not-so-gentle nudge from her daughter, Kathy Powell bought Scott Street Deli, an institution in Alabama’s capital that goes back to around 1901.
Never mind that Powell had never set foot inside the old sandwich shop before.
Or that she had no experience in the food business.
“I didn’t even know it existed,” Powell, who bought Scott Street Deli six years ago, confesses. "My daughter (Montgomery real-estate lawyer Kristi Fuller) happened to know the person who owned it. He had been trying to sell it, and it was going to close if somebody didn’t buy it pretty quickly.
“When she first told me about it, I came in and got a sandwich, and when I left, I called her and I said, ‘Have you lost your mind?’” Powell goes on. “Then she kind of gathered up some reinforcements, and they talked me into buying it.”
Powell, who restored and sold antique furniture before she became the proprietor of a sandwich shop, had found another vintage treasure to fix up.
“That’s what I did,” she says. “Took an old building and refurbished it.”
And folks around Montgomery are so glad she did.
Mondays through Fridays, as the clock approaches noon, customers start to queue up to the deli’s counter and place their orders for sandwiches, wraps and salads. Within a matter of minutes, the lunch rush is at full tilt.
Some customers, like Laurasenia Coleman, a nurse at a downtown women’s clinic, love Scott Street Deli so much they eat lunch here almost every day.
“I’m telling you, it’s like family when you walk in,” Coleman says. “Everybody says, ‘Hey, Miss Laurasenia.’ It’s like going to Cheers.”
And much like the beloved Boston bar on TV’s “Cheers,” at Scott Street Deli, most everybody really does know your name.
“We have a lot of the same customers daily,” Powell says. "You get to know them, and they get to know us.
“I mean, probably half the customers that come in, we can call them by name,” she adds. “It’s so small in here that you just get to know each other.”
During a lunch rush, employees at Scott Street Deli in Montgomery, Ala., prepare deli sandwiches for customers.(Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)
From a stable to a sandwich shop
In the late 1860s, the property at 412 Scott St. included a stable that sheltered the horses that pulled the fire wagons at the fire station (now a law office) next door, according to Powell.
Then, around 1901, Scott Street Grocery opened on the site, Powell says, and in 1990, the grocery store became a sandwich shop.
When Powell bought it on July 3, 2014, though, the old building needed a lot of love.
“I closed it for 10 days, and I put heat and air in,” she says. "I put in tables and chairs. I put in two more (counter) stations. I had to replace a lot of the flooring that had rotted. I put more lighting in because it was real dark in here.
“I tried to make it as customer-friendly as I could and still keep the old look,” she adds. “It’s done really well. When I bought it, there were two employees here. Now I have five employees -- and me.”
The deli had previously been a take-out-only business, but Powell found some retro tables and chairs at Montgomery’s Eastbrook Flea Market & Antique Mall and added seating inside and out so guests could sit and stay awhile instead of just grabbing their orders to go.
Paintings by the late Alabama folk artist Mose Tolliver also hang along one wall of the shop.
“He lived on Sayre Street, and he used to come here,” Powell says “And his granddaughter, Debbie, she was coming here, and she brought a good many of his paintings, and I hung them up in here.”
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The Italian -- with Genoa salami, pepperoni, ham and Provolone cheese on French bread -- is one of the most popular sandwiches on the menu at Scott Street Deli in Montgomery, Ala.(Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)
Hooked on the Scott Street salad
After she bought the deli, Powell kept the sandwich menu pretty much the way it was, but she added a selection of wraps, enhanced the salads and began offering customers the choice of a small or a large sandwich.
Coleman, who started going to Scott Street Deli about 15 years ago, says she never was much of a salad fan until she had the chef salad at Scott Street Deli.
“I work with a lot of women, and they were always going to Scott’s and getting salads,” she says. "And I was like, ‘No, I don’t want no damn salad,’ so I would always get something else.
“So, one day, I said, ‘OK, I’m going to get a salad,’ and I’ve been hooked ever since. And when I say hooked, I have a Scott Street jones. I’ve got to go.”
The deli’s sandwich and wrap selections include smoked ham and cheese, bologna and cheese, smoked turkey, chicken salad, tuna salad, corned beef and Swiss, a Reuben and a BLT. All of the sandwiches are served on bread that is baked in-house daily.
The “house favorites” are the club sandwich, with ham, turkey, bacon and cheese; the Italian sandwich, with Genoa salami, pepperoni, ham and provolone cheese; and the Frencheletta, a slight variation on the classic New Orleans muffuletta, with mortadella, Genoa salami, ham, Swiss cheese and olive relish.
Also, as a thank-you, first-time customers and all first-responders get their choice of a free chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, or macadamia nut cookie.
And if you’re feeling nostalgic, you may grab an RC Cola and a Moon Pie, also known as “the working man’s lunch.”
“We sell a lot of those,” Powell says.
When current owner Kathy Powell bought Scott Street Deli in 2014, she gave the sandwich shop a thorough interior makeover but tried to maintain its old charm.(Photo courtesy of Scott Street Deli; used with permission)
‘Old-school and old-fashioned’
Montgomery attorney Ed Parish Jr., whose law office is just a couple of blocks away, has been eating lunch at Scott Street Deli since 1996, when he was working as a clerk for former Montgomery County Circuit Judge Gene Reese.
“The reason I recall that date, that’s when I started working downtown,” Parish says. “The people at the courthouse introduced me to it back in the day, so I’ve been going there consistently since then.”
Parish typically drops in the deli “at least” two times a week, he says.
“It’s just old-school and old-fashioned, and the employees always give you a smile,” he says. “They always call you by name, and they seem grateful that you are doing business with them.”
Powell, who is originally from Decatur, says she had no previous experience in the food business, but she does have a direct connection to one of Alabama’s most famous barbecue families.
Her sister and brother-in-law, Carolyn and Don McLemore, co-own Decatur’s legendary Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q.
“They came through last month and sat down and ate,” Powell says. “They loved it.”
Scott Street Deli in Montgomery, Ala., began as a grocery store around 1901 but transitioned into a deli in 1990, according to current owner Kathy Powell.(Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)
‘The best-kept secret in town’
Nestled on a narrow, tree-lined street about four blocks from the Alabama State Capitol building, Scott Street Deli is convenient enough that state employees can walk here for lunch but also just far enough off the beaten path that it’s easy to miss if you don’t know that it’s here.
“It’s not like in the main part of downtown,” Powell says. “We’re kind of on a side street.”
So, Powell is frequently welcoming new customers, who, just like her six years ago, have never been here before.
“A lot of people come in and say they’ve lived here all their lives and they’ve never heard of Scott Street Deli,” she says. “I tell everybody we are the best-kept secret in town.”
Scott Street Deli is at 412 Scott St. in Montgomery. The phone is 334-264-9415. Hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For a menu and more information, go here.
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