02/10/2014
Great article in the Journal last week
At the Crossroads Deli, plenty of good food and fun — and Red Sox
Thu, 01/23/2014 - 10:27am
Falls Village
By
Patrick L. Sullivan
[email protected]
Michael Hodgkins kept up a steady stream of wisecracks during the morning rush at the Crossroads Deli Tuesday, Jan. 21. Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan
FALLS VILLAGE — Michael Hodgkins is a Red Sox fan.
This is not a hard thing to deduce. Standing by the cash register at the Crossroads Deli, wearing his Red Sox jacket, he rang up a customer, who made some remark about the weather (cold, with snow in the forecast).
“Only 25 days to pitchers and catchers!” said Hodgkins, jerking his thumb at his Red Sox calendar on the wall.
There are framed photos of shortstop Dustin Pedroia and designated hitter/first baseman David “Big Papi” Ortiz on the wall by the coffee setup. Also a photo of former Boston manager Terry Francona holding a Crossroads Deli T-shirt, and the lone departure from the overall motif, a photo of local hero Steve Blass, celebrating after winning the 1971 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Blass helped with the Francona photo when the Pirates played Boston a few years ago. “I mailed him the T-shirt, a camera and a felt-tip marker,” said Hodgkins.
Hodgkins is looking forward to March, when he is going to Fort Myers, Fla., for spring training.
“I’m bringing my Pedroia and Papi pictures to get signed.”
There is also a Josh Beckett shirt, with a circle and bar across the name and number in red spray paint.
The story behind this: Beckett was pitching on the road for the Red Sox, and not having a good game. Afterward, he blamed his difficulties on the wind.
The problem with this explanation was the game was played in a domed stadium.
Hodgkins was so incensed he decorated the shirt.
The Crossroads Deli functions as a meeting place for residents of the town, for high school students, and for members of construction and utility crews.
It can be a little intimidating. Everybody in the place seems to be laughing at an inside joke.
Hodgkins said that on one very busy and crowded morning somebody cracked a joke. In the middle of the general hilarity, a woman opened the door, took one look and, “Oh, my.”
“Don’t worry, it’ll be all right,” Hodgkins said to the lady.
In a one-hour period on a fairly slow morning Tuesday, Jan. 21, the topics of conversation included: ma*****na, legalized or medicinal, and the feasibility of moving to Colorado or Washington state.
“Imagine waiting in line for an hour to buy pot,” said Hodgkins.
Someone asked if the lottery ticket machine was fixed. “Oh yeah, they fixed it so you can get some really good tickets,” said Hodgkins.
He punched a ticket out of the machine and handed it to a customer. “This sucker wins all the time.”
This goes on all morning. “Can I have your autograph, in case you get famous?” he asked someone buying a breakfast sandwich whipped up by Jessica Snow, who cooks and functions as straight man.
A young man waiting for a sandwich mentioned he was going to be late for work.
“Do you want a note?” asked Hodgkins. “I’ll write one for you.”
The deli will celebrate its fourth anniversary in May. Hodgkins said that winter business is slow, especially when it snows.
“Nobody comes out, except the plow guys.”
Hodgkins pays to have the lot plowed, but the plow guys will help out, pushing snow away from the entrances after the state Department of Transportation snow plow has been by.
Hodgkins reciprocates with coffee on the house.
The deli offers a wide range of breakfast and lunch sandwiches. On a good day in the summer, they serve up four dozen sandwiches before 9 a.m., many to contractors and construction workers.
A typical in-season lunch period, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., is non-stop. “Put it this way: I get six dozen fresh kaiser rolls delivered each morning, and they’re gone.”
And that doesn’t count the sandwiches on multigrain bread.
The most popular breakfast sandwich is the Jonesy: two eggs, turkey, roasted red pepper, provolone and chipotle mayonnaise on a roll for $3.75.
The best-selling lunch offerings are the Hodgey (turkey, Swiss cheese, banana pepper, red onion on grilled multigrain bread with chipotle mayo, $6.95) and the Shawn (roast beef, sauteed onion, roasted red pepper, provolone and chipotle mayo, $6.95).
The store offers bonus cards for repeat customers — buy five cups of coffee and get the sixth free, or 10 breakfast or lunch sandwiches and get the 11th free.
This was a very successful promotion, Hodgkins said. When a crew was putting up the cell tower at the site of the new emergency services center on Route 7, the same man — Mark — always made the coffee and lunch run, and benefitted from the cards.
Mark’s cover was blown when the entire crew came in and discovered why he was willing to make the trips.
More to the point, the promotion helped build loyalty.
“It’s all about the labor force,” said Hodgkins. “I got a couple of carpenters working in Salisbury right now. They still come over here for lunch two, three times a week.”
Hodgkins said he always has the cheapest gas in the Northwest Corner. And the pumps are adjusted so that they don’t slow down too early on a pre-paid gasoline purchase, leaving the customer standing in the cold, watching the digits on the pump display move at a glacial pace.
“You know how many people just say forget it and leave?”
One time, Hodgkins said, a woman came in and bought $40 worth of gas. A full 15 minutes later, she was still pumping.
He went outside to see what was wrong.
Nothing was wrong. The woman was pumping it slowly. On purpose.
“I said to her, you know you can do that faster, and she said, ‘Oh no, I get more gas this way.’”
“We were in hysterics.”
A plow guy paid for his coffee and sandwich. Hodgkins hollered as he went out, “What’s the snow prediction?”
“Who the hell knows,” was the reply.
“Can I write that on the board?” said Hodgkins.
The Crossroads Deli is located at the intersection of routes 7 and 63 in Falls Village.
