Customers sit in the deli section of Cecil's Deli on Cleveland in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood on June 4, 2019. Cecil's turns 70 on July 1. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Cecil's Deli on Cleveland Avenue. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

40-year customer Rachel Levitt buys bologna from Joe Levine at Cecil's Deli. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

David Leventhal points at a picture of his wife Sheila on a wall of historical photos. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Ethan Levin helps customers in the deli. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)



Customer's line up at Cecil's Deli. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Fresh from the oven raspberry hamantashen. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Homemade brownies for sale at the register at Cecil's. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

A rack of freshly baked bread. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Sardar Khorshed Alam preps food in the kitchen at Cecil's Deli on Cleveland Avenue in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood on June 4, 2019. Cecil's turns 70 on July 1. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)



Running a restaurant is no easy feat, and to thrive for seven decades is a huge victory. So when Cecil’s Delicatessen in St. Paul reaches a landmark 70th birthday on July 1, there will be ample reason to celebrate.

Despite its age, the Highland Park institution, famous for its from-scratch matzo and chicken soup, hot reuben sandwiches, potato latkes and more, shows no signs of slowing down. There are next-in-line family members poised to take over. And look for Cecil’s to be spotlighted on an upcoming Food Network show.

But “we’re a dying breed,” said owner David Leventhal. “The first five years I started working here there were 13 Jewish delicatessens in St. Paul in the middle-to-late ’60s. None of those are still here.”

A FAMILY AFFAIR

Today, David and Sheila Leventhal run the deli and restaurant as the second-generation owners after purchasing the deli from Sheila’s parents. Between them and their kids and grandkids, who also work there daily, the family operation now spans four generations.

It all started when the late Cecil and Faye Glickman opened Cecil’s Delicatessen on July 1, 1949. Cecil already knew a thing or two about the delicatessen business. His family had been part of the Jewish migration to the Twin Cities in the late 1940s and early ’50s, and they lived in the Dale-Selby area where his aunt decided to open a deli. When he got out of the U.S. Navy, he went to work for her.

When Cecil’s opened, it was praised for its from-scratch dishes with quality, carefully selected ingredients sourced out of Chicago. The Jewish deli became a gathering place where some of the customers would grab sandwich crates to sit on, eat their Reuben sandwiches and chat with the Glickmans and other customers.

In 1980, Cecil and Faye’s daughter Sheila and her husband, David, purchased the deli when Sheila’s parents decided to retire. For David and Sheila, the deli was already part of their daily lives. “(By the time we bought it) I had worked here for 18 years,” David said. “I started out as a baker and a deli clerk and then I never left.”

SECRET OF SUCCESS

The secret to Cecil’s success? Finding that sweet spot between not changing things too much while updating and expanding just enough.

“Consistency is key. We make sure things taste the same all the time,” said Becca Kvasnik, David and Sheila’s daughter. The family recipes are executed the same as they have always done: “It’s a handful of this, a handful of that. No one really measures,” she said.

They’ve kept the long-standing recipes of best-sellers such as the matzo ball and borscht soups and reubens. Their famous potato salad recipe has been the same for 70 years.

“We give the people what they want,” David said. “A lot of stuff you can’t get everywhere else, and this is how they’re used to it.”

Cecil’s has grown from 15 items on the menu to 150 selections. The menu goes beyond deli items, with diner fare and more. Cecil’s also has a catering operation.

In the beginning, Cecil’s was much smaller — just the front part of the building where the deli currently sits. When the deli opened, the spot on the corner of Cleveland and Scheffer avenues seated about a dozen. The space expanded in 1964 with a dining room in the back, bringing Cecil’s seating capacity to 100. While the family has continued to update the space over the years, the decor has a vintage feel, topped off with old-timey photos on the walls of Cecil’s early days.

IT TAKES AN ARMY

The family knows their success wouldn’t have come without the help of family, employees and customers.

On any given day at the restaurant, you can spot David or Sheila as well as Cecil’s next generation. David, now 80, is usually behind the scenes, managing the books, while Sheila, 76, is out front, seating customers and taking food orders.

David and Sheila’s four kids also work here. You can spy Becca Kvasnik cooking and baking and Bradley Leventhal working as a manager, while their other siblings, Amy Leventhal and Aaron Leventhal, are on the floor serving. Three of Aaron’s kids — Madeline, Max and Sophie — and Becca’s daughter Evana also work at the restaurant as cashiers or servers.

Sophie is going to school to get a bachelor’s degree in business administration and wants to one day help run the deli.

“The most fun thing about this is that I get to work with my family and have so many customers who we know on a first-name basis,” David said.

To the Leventhals, employees and customers are like family, too, and they’re helping to carry on the legacy.

David and his daughter reflect on their regulars including customers who order a reuben every time they come in. Customers also regularly ask for the reuben “special sauce” recipe — which the family is tight-lipped about — while trying to guess what ingredients are in it. Then there was the guy who came in after 30 years and was not happy his favorite sandwich, Ring Around the Kaiser, a fried hot dog on a kaiser roll, was no longer on the menu. But staff obliged and made it for him.

In addition to family members who work here, employees help carry on the legacy.

“I think we’re really lucky. We have three families with three generations of the same family working here,” David said. “We have fourth generations of customers. We have a lot of loyal customers and that’s what keeps us going.”

Cecil’s continues to attract new customers, too. University of Minnesota students Sabrina Kowal and Maxine Britt recently had lunch there after a recommendation from their peers.

Britt had a grilled salami sandwich and gave the place a thumbs up. “You can tell they make their own bread,” she said.

Kowal was happy to find a place away from home that offers traditional comfort foods she grew up with.

“My family is from Chicago. I’m used to places where you can get good blintzes and pastrami,” she said. “My grandma made blintzes. There is definitely a nostalgia thing with being here. We would definitely come back.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Cecil’s continues to make its mark. When Allianz Field in St. Paul debuted this year, it included a Cecil’s counter serving up hot pastrami sandwiches.

And later this summer, the Food Network will feature Cecil’s. The network flew Sheila, Becca and Evana to California to tape on the show, which Becca said will air this fall. Other than that, “I can’t tell you anything, only that we’re going to be on it,” she said.

For David Leventhal, the venture his in-laws started 70 years ago has all been worth it.

“Sure, like any business it’s hard work. But we try to have fun,” he said. “If it was just all hard work and no fun, we wouldn’t be doing it.”

Cecil’s Delicatessen: 651 Cleveland Ave. S., St Paul; 651-698-6276; cecilsdeli.com