Photograph by George Sakkestad
Perry Phillips offers sandwiches, soups, baked goods and other homemade specialties at Perry's Deli Plus.
By Suzanne Cristallo
Hidden deep in the Vasona Station shopping center, there is a deli. On cold days, customers who have taken the trouble to find it line up for the warming taste of chili cheddar, split pea, lentil, chicken and fresh mushroom soups and clam chowder. The soups and the fresh baked goods made on the premises are the pride of Mary and Perry Phillips, owners for nearly six years of Perry's Deli Plus on Winchester Boulevard in Los Gatos.
"Mary does all the baking from scratch," says Perry Phillips, who boasts that his wife's ginger molasses cookies and her "chocolate cookies that taste like fudge" are customer favorites.
Besides the soups and baked goods, the Phillipses offer a variety of quarter-pound sandwiches, such as pastrami, turkey and salami and specialties like reuben, meatball, chicken Italiano and vegetarian, all in the $4-$5 range. Fresh salads include broccoli, stuffed tomatoes, tuna pasta and shrimp. The meatloaf and the gravy are homemade. Breakfast diners can enjoy eggs, bacon and toast, jumbo muffins, croissants, bagels and cinnamon rolls with a variety of drinks from the espresso bar.
In starting the deli, Perry Phillips, 49, fulfilled a lifelong desire. He had started in the food business at 16 and progressed to cooking up to 40 gallons of soup at a time for the Denver Broncos during their training season.
He got sidetracked for a while in the roofing business, but the detour provided him with the opportunity of his life. "The owner of the roofing business, Bob Jackson, needed to cut back, but rather than abruptly laying me off, he set me up in my deli business by providing a business loan," he recalls. "He truly and literally was an angel."
Meanwhile, a trip to Bolivia provided an opportunity of the heart. Perry met Mary, who was cashiering at a favorite American haunt, and romance blossomed.
Her baking and roasting skills combined well with Perry's soup-making talent, and the result is Perry's Deli Plus. They also cater.
Perry's Deli Plus, 14107-Q Winchester Blvd., Vasona Station, Los Gatos. Open weekdays 8 a.m.- 5:30 p.m., (breakfast before 10:30 a.m.), Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 374-7161.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 19, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.