Santone started working with Rocky Cambarieri and his son Tom at the Millwood institution known as Rocky’s Deli in 1970, at the tender age of 10.
“I started working here as a snot-nosed kid,” Santone said. “I was a neighborhood kid and they needed someone to sweep the floors, fill the soda and beer case and work behind the counter.”
Now 41 years later, Santone is the sole owner of Rocky’s Deli.
Santone and Tom Cambarieri bought the business from Rocky in 1980, when Santone was a still 20-year-old engineering student at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry. Santone later bought out Tom’s share and became the owner of the Millwood delicatessen. Rocky’s is now a 24-hour deli with 45 employees, offering breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as drinks, snacks, ice cream and beer.
“I started the 24-hour part about 22 years ago in 1989,” Santone said. “I tried it out a little bit and then went 24 hours a day, non-stop since 1991. We’ve been open through floods, hurricanes, blackouts, brownouts, even 9/11.”
The original Rocky’s Deli opened in 1961 at 74 Millwood Road, next to the Millwood Fire House. Cambarieri, a former mayor in Ossining, moved his deli to this location in 1966 when the current building on Saw Mill River Road was built the same year.
“Counting from 1961, this is our 50th year….50 years of continuous service to the Millwood community,” Santone said. “I plan on doing something for our 50th but I haven’t thought of it yet.”
After 50 years, Rocky’s Millwood Delicatessen has become a New Castle landmark.
“I think it’s become we’ve been open forever,” Santone said. “We don’t close the door. I don’t even remember how to lock the front door anymore. We’re open Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, whatever. We never close.
