Druxy's - Famous Deli Sandwiches Since 1976

The Deli

Everywhere you go you find restaurants and convenience stores that call themselves delis.  However, most of these are very far from what we have come to love in traditional delis.

By definition deli or delicatessen means “delicacies” or “fine foods”.  The word originated from the Latin delicatus, meaning “giving pleasure, delightful, pleasing”.  For centuries people found great pleasure eating the foods from the delicatessens of Europe and now North America.

In Canada and the United States most delis served sandwiches made to order behind the counter.  They also prepared salads and some ethnic hot foods.  Delicatessens came from a variety of cultural traditions.   Most numerous were Jewish delicatessens, both kosher and “kosher style”.  As a result of this, those that specialized in Italian or German cuisine were called “European Delicatessens.”

When immigrants from Europe settled in Canada and the United States they set up small stores selling pickled and smoked pork and beef.  When Eastern European Jews began immigrating to New York by the thousands in the late 19th century, they carved out their own niche with Pastrami, Corned Beef, Smoked Meat and Salami.  Jewish delis began to predominate.  By the 1930s, New York City alone had at least 1,500 kosher and kosher style delis.

Originally, delis cured their own corned beef and pastrami, made their own pickles and used bread from a neighboring bakery.  Now, few make their own ingredients.   The original deli was a convenience store, a neighborhood grocer, a place to go for sandwich meats and kosher foods.  It was a neighbourhood gathering place.  Each deli had its own personality, a deli shtick (shtick is Yiddish meaning comic theme or gimmick).  Old Jewish delis were famous for their rude waiters, the yelling back and forth behind the counter, the motion and noise of the staff preparing and delivering meals.  Delis had a life and a personality that made them fun.

The best delis had a master cutter, not a slicing machine.  When a brisket of beef was steamed for a long time, as with a good piece of pastrami once it has been cured and smoked, it would tear apart if not cut by hand.  Unfortunately many sandwich shops use a round cut of beef rather than brisket as it is easier to slice and much less expensive.

Today, delis have to face concerns that might have been overlooked in the past.  Cured meats and pickles are delicious, but they are full of salt and fat that makes  them unhealthy.  And preparing foods that meet traditional standards are expensive, a corned beef sandwich can fetch hefty prices of as much as $17.

The pairing of slowly steamed corned beef or pastrami brisket, hot crusty double-baked rye bread infused with caraway seeds and topped with mustard is considered by a true purist to be the perfect sandwich.

DRUXY’S takes pride in its Jewish Deli routes.  We hold to the tradional way of preparing our sandwiches from briskets and slicing steaming meats to order for each sandwich.  We  see fun interaction with customers as key to building a lasting relationship.  And we take pride in the quality of our food and how we prepare it for our customers.    But we are also searching for new, fresh, quality products to compliment our traditional menu to meet the needs of toaday’s customers.

* Information in this bog has come from Wikipedia and the website of David Sax, a real deli fanatic.  David authors a website, www.savethedeli.com and has written a book, Save the Deli, on the decline of the Jewish delicatessen.

Health Check

Our menu is designed to be of high quality, fresh and healthy.  Our focus on healthy food is important to my brothers and I because we care about what we eat and would only serve food that we would eat ourselves.

To support our healthy menu we contacted the Heart and Stroke Foundation to see if we could participate in their Health Check Program.  We now have 8 sandwiches and 5 soups that have been certified by the Heart and Stroke Foundation.  These sandwiches have a minimum of 10 grams of protein and 2 portions of vegetables and less than 950 mg of salt and 10 grams of fat.

If you truly care about what you eat then DRUXY’S offers many options that will offer you a balanced and healthy meal.  Check out our Health Check sandwiches on our website and for catering consider our Health Check Sandwich Tray.

Enjoy and be healthy!

Fresh Deli Revolution!

For 33 years DRUXY’S Famous Deli Sandwiches has proudly upheld the deli tradition of serving the freshest, highest quality food available.  Slicing hot deli meats to each customer’s order has been the central focus, add to this preparation directly before each customer’s eyes so they can direct and watch exactly how we prepare his or her meal.

The recent economic turmoil has challenged us all.  We realized that we had to push the envelop to ensure that we were doing the very best for our customers and stay current while upholding our deli tradition.

Three months ago we contracted with Spinning Wheel Design, to evaluate our restaurants and determine a new look and direction for the future.  Spinning Wheel is at the forefront of food and retail design but more importantly understands the value of tradition.  I am proud to announce that Spinning Wheel has been able to combine the best of both worlds in our new restaurant design.  The focus of the design is a clean, fresh look that focuses on our food while making the customer experience more comfortable.  We are excited that our first 2 renovations will be done later this month at 1200 Eglinton Avenue East and at Buttonville Airport.

To tie in with this new design we felt it was necessary to retool our marketing and have contracted with The adLib Group to be our new agency.  They too have reviewed our past and will be focusing our marketing around the catch phrase “Fresh Deli Revolution”.  This combines our effort to be true to our deli tradition while taking this tradition into a new more modern era.

While the past has been good to DRUXY’S and our loyal customers, the future is brighter than ever with many projects ahead.

Our new and improved website is up and running!

DRUXY’S has been an online innovator for over 10 years.  To keep ahead of the market, we have reinvented our website to make it better than ever.  The new site features many enhancements including:

• Improved user interface for simplified navigation
• Information centric Home Page that is constantly updated
• Blog and Twitter integration for seamless community interaction
• Improved food visuals throughout, replicating a restaurant feeling
• More helpful and informative Franchise section, for those looking to become a franchisee
• A greatly improved store finder with a better integration of maps

And this is just the start.  We have begun work on several additional projects that we hope to launch shortly:

• Improved nutritional wizard to help you build your sandwich or salad as nutritious as you wish
• Mobile Applications to help you find the nearest store and even place an order in advance

The Internet is an exciting frontier that offers an important ability to communicate with our customers.   We are committed to remaining at the forefront in developing our website and associated applications.

If you have any suggestions on how we can improve your online experience we are always interested in hearing from you.

Thanks

Culture shock in a place where you can be yourself

This is a wonderful article from the Toronto Star about one of our former employees and her experiences immigrating to Canada. I am so glad that we could have been a part of her Canadian life. You can watch the embedded video from the star, or read the full article below.
Mar 21, 2009 04:30 AM

LESLEY CIARULA TAYLOR
IMMIGRATION REPORTER

To Elmira Amirpour, it was culture shock. In Canada, she could be Iranian.

“In Europe, they want you to be like them,” she said over coffee in her sunny, stylish Markham living room. “You have to change. So you do it without noticing. Here, you can stay who you are.”

Not too long after the 34-year-old dental hygienist arrived with her husband and son, she encountered a Chinese teller at her bank.

“I couldn’t really understand her, but I was so happy to see her. Anybody can work here.”

At age 14, Amirpour left Tehran for Denmark, sent to join her brother. Their parents would eventually move there, too. She grew up in Copenhagen, got her degree, worked, had lots of friends, married, owned a house, and had Kasra, who’s now 7.

“In Denmark, I never wanted to say I was a Dane, and the Danish never expected me to be one. Patients would ask you five times to say something. Or, no matter what you said, tell you you didn’t pronounce it right. They would be surprised you didn’t live in a tent or had a dining room table. You were always reminded you didn’t look like them.”

It wasn’t until she left that she realized how much energy it took to get through that kind of tension every day in Denmark.

“Kasra will tell you he is Danish. But if we had stayed there, he would not have been treated as a Dane.”

Still, the adjustment has been hard since the family arrived in Canada in October 2007.

She’s not as resilient as she was at 14. She misses her friends and Copenhagen, a sophisticated, fashionable city. She misses Danish movies and music, but knows she can get them on the Internet.

She hates not working.

“I know I am still struggling to find my place here,” Amirpour said. “It seems like I am locked behind a door. I know there is a big pretty garden on the other side, but I still have not found the right key to open it.”

She’s learning Canadian ways, slowly. She worked for a while at Druxy’s, where a customer upbraided her for not knowing that the jam in a peanut butter and jam sandwich should be strawberry. She had to have poppies explained to her on Remembrance Day, but wore one proudly last November. She knows now what a double-double, a Reuben sandwich and a BLT are.

Amirpour and her husband, Shad Hossein Estedadi, decided on Canada after a visit to her sister, who lived in Newmarket.

Estedadi was a social worker in Denmark, with a radio program to help foreigners learn to “get along with Danes.” Now he works at a consulting firm.

“We came here because we want to stay here. We’re not part of the community yet. But we will be.”

Druxy’s Famous Deli Sandwiches Approved As A Member In The Canadian Franchise Association

(Saturday, September 20, 2008) – The CFA represents over 400 franchise companies and professionals who support a common goal of ethical franchising in Canada. Membership in the CFA is not mandatory but it gives potential franchisees an added level of assurance because CFA members follow a Code of Ethics that holds them to a higher standard than is required by law

“We are very pleased that Druxy’s has joined the growing list of franchise systems from across Canada who are dedicated to franchise excellence. By joining the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA), Druxy’s is demonstrating a strong commitment to the principles of the CFA code of ethics including mandatory disclosure rules and exceptional franchisor/franchisee relations,” said Lorraine McLachlan, President of the CFA .

According to the CFA: “The CFA stands for ethical franchising in Canada, we have a review process which all new members must follow before being approved for membership within the CFA. The review process consists of reviewing a franchisor’s legal documents, credit checks, a survey with existing franchisees on the support they are receiving from their franchisor and a list of all proposed new members is sent to our existing members for any comments or feedback they might have on the franchisor.”

“We are thrilled that DRUXY’S has been approved as a member of the CFA, as we are now part of a growing network of franchise systems across Canada who are dedicated to franchise excellence,” stated Peter Druxerman, VP Marketing. “Becoming a Canadian Franchise Association member shows our continued commitment to ethical franchising. Potential franchise investors now have further confidence in knowing that DRUXY’S is a franchise system that they can trust — one that meets CFA approval and voluntarily agrees to adhere to the CFA Code of Ethics, which puts the emphasis on honesty, integrity, and fair practices.”

Peter further added that this membership validates their franchise system as well as highlights the extensive support they provide to their franchisees.

About DRUXY’S

Is Canada’s premier chain of 50 quick service delicatessen-style restaurants operating in Ontario and Alberta. DRUXY’S opened its first restaurant in the fall of 1976 in the food court in the Royal Bank Plaza, situated in the heart of Toronto’s financial district. Over the next 32 years DRUXY’S has grown steadily across Metro Toronto and into Ottawa, Peterborough, Hamilton, London and Calgary. Their focus on healthy eating makes, DRUXY’S one of the most relevant foodservice investment opportunities available.

For Franchise Information visit www.druxys.com or contact: Peter Druxerman at peter@druxys.com

Druxy’s Famous Deli Sandwiches Announces Aggressive Expansion Plans Across Canada

(Friday, September 12, 2008) – DRUXY’S® opened its first restaurant in the fall of 1976 in the food court in the Royal Bank Plaza, situated in the heart of Toronto’s financial district. Over the next 32 years DRUXY’S® has grown steadily across Metro Toronto and into Ottawa, Peterborough, Hamilton, London and Calgary. And now boasts over 52 restaurants and kiosks.

“DRUXY’S® strength has been our commitment to offering customers only the highest quality, fresh and healthy food with the utmost in personal service. As the trend towards healthier food choices continues to grow, so does the DRUXY’S® brand, with eight of our sandwiches recognized by the Heart and Stroke Foundation as meeting their Health Check® criteria, making DRUXY’S® the first fast food deli to join the program”, stated Peter Druxerman, VP of Marketing.

DRUXY’S® is now expanding to your area!

DRUXY’S® is concentrating on attracting quality franchise partners who want to invest in a leading fast food brand with a solid track record of growth, a proven operating system and strong corporate support structure. The initial investment to open a DRUXY’S® Delicatessen, $225,000, make it one of the most competitive opportunities in the industry. And DRUXY’S® focus on healthy eating makes it one of the most relevant foodservice investment opportunities available.

“With DRUXY’S® proven economic model, franchise partners find our brand an attractive investment,” stated Druxerman.

In addition to creating a business ownership opportunity for local entrepreneurs throughout the country, each new DRUXY’S® deli will contribute to the economy by creating new jobs and providing area residents with a healthy fast food alternative.

Franchisees benefit from extensive product training, site selection and customer service, not just in the pre-launch phase, but throughout the whole relationship. “We are actively committed to the success of each franchisee in the System, our training program includes operations and administration and a host of marketing and promotional tools that work”, said Druxerman.

To assist in their aggressive expansion plans, DRUXY’S ® has partnered with Kim Divell, President of Premier Franchise Consultants.

“Ms. Divell’s previous experience as Director of Marketing & Communications and Assistant Publisher of Franchise Canada, for the Canadian Franchise Association will be a tremendous benefit, as she brings to DRUXY’S® a depth in expertise and franchise system knowledge that will ensure our franchise system’s solid and ethical growth over the next few years.”

“In addition, Ms. Divell is an entrepreneur at heart. She successfully developed her own service franchise concept, ran her own restaurant and is held in high regard within the franchise industry. The partnership with Divell continues DRUXY’S® dedication to achieving the best franchise system development and new levels of growth,” proclaimed Druxerman.

For Franchise Information visit www.druxys.com or contact: Peter Druxerman at peter@druxys.com

Health Check… Helping You Eat Well

Druxy’s is proud to be a part of the Health Check program. We believe that food should not only taste great, but it should also be nutritious and part of a healthy lifestyle. If you want to learn more about the Health Check program check out the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s website, it is full of great information, like this article.

Grocery shopping for healthy foods can sometimes be complicated and time-consuming. Health Check, the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s not-for-profit food information program, can help you choose foods in grocery stores and restaurants that can be part of a healthy diet.

Health Check’s nutrient standards are based on Canada’s Food Guide
Every food product and menu item in the Health Check program must earn the right to display the Health Check symbol by meeting specific nutrient standards based on Canada’s Food Guide.

Our team of registered dietitians and a volunteer Technical Advisory Committee of independent nutrition experts from across Canada develop our nutrient standards, which reflect the latest science that supports healthy eating recommendations for Canadians. Food companies and restaurants play no part in setting these standards.

The Foundation’s team of registered dietitians evaluate each participating company’s product or restaurant food item on the basis of total fat, saturated fat, trans fats, fibre, sodium, calcium, sugar, vitamins and minerals, depending on its category. When food products meet these standards, they are allowed to join the program. To make sure products continue to comply with the nutrient standards, our dietitians randomly inspect products and menu items on a regular basis.

Read more about Health Check’s nutrient standards for fat, fibre, sodium and sugar.

The Health Check symbol can be found on more than 1,700 foods, including vegetables and fruit, grain products, milk products and alternatives, as well as meat and alternatives.

In addition, the Health Check symbol can be found on a growing number of restaurant menus. Look for the Health Check symbol in these food establishments: Swiss Chalet, Boston Pizza, Druxy’s, White Spot, The Bay and Zellers.

Health Check is a voluntary program
The Health Check not-for-profit food information program is open to food companies and restaurants that voluntarily submit products or menu items to be evaluated by the Foundation’s registered dietitians. Once accepted into the program, participating companies and restaurants pay a modest annual fee to help cover the costs of operating the program and developing tools to educate Canadians on healthy eating. Health Check is not a fundraising program for the Foundation.

There are healthy products in the grocery store that do not carry the Health Check symbol. With the average grocery store selling more than 20,000 products, busy shoppers have told us that healthy choices can sometimes be difficult to identify. That’s why we encourage Canadians to compare products.

The best way to do that is to learn how to read the Nutrition Facts table.

Read more about Health Check’s:

• Participating products
• Participating restaurants
• Technical Advisory Committee
• Nutrient standards for fat, fibre, sodium and sugar
• Licensing fees
• Read Canada’s Food Guide
• Shopping tips for healthy food
• Heart&Stroke Shopping List

NEW Health Check media campaign

The Foundation is working hard to reverse the growing epidemic of obesity in our children. Healthy eating and increased physical activity are the best solutions to this health crisis. One important way the Foundation is helping Canadians to eat well is through Health Check.

The Foundation is getting the word out. View our new TV, print and web campaigns for Health Check.

Druxy’s gets paddling

(September 19, 1995) With 47 locations across Southern Ontario and a reputation for supporting hundreds of charities ranging from small church bazaars to large telethons, Druxy’s is a good example of an organization that takes community commitment seriously. “If it’s happening in Ontario, we are there in some fashion — either giving cash, product or prize support.” said Vice President of Finance, Harold Druxerman. “We take pride in our ability to help so many charities, and in finding the best ‘fit’, matching the charities interests with our own abilities. However our largest fundraising effort involves support for Camp Awakening, a special camp located in Northern Ontario that challenges children with physical disabilities to experience the great outdoors.”

For the past several years, Druxy’s has spearheaded province-wide funding and awareness building campaigns to support this worthwhile cause. This year’s theme, ‘Paddle Your Own Canoe’ featured the camp’s symbol, a crutch crossed with a paddle, serving as a subtle reminder that disabilities are not always apparent. Throughout the month of May, the eatery encouraged customers to help them challenge children to paddle their own canoes. Promotional inserts were distributed, canoe-shaped coin boxes were placed at cash registers for loose change and contributions, and a number of local events were staged on a store by store basis. May 24th Paddle Your Own Canoe Day saw $1 from every Druxy’s deli sandwich and $3.00 from the sale of every T-shirt, sweatshirt and cap going in support of the camp.

Said Druxerman, “Although the effort raises about $25,000 annually, from the camp’s perspective it is the public relations and awareness building effort that far surpasses any monetary contribution we are able to make. They are thrilled with the exposure – the opportunity to reach the kids that are their target audience, a key element from their point of view. And we are absolutely thrilled to help finance a camping experience for 20 children each summer.”