Owner Shawn Timmerman of Rochester with Fiancé Laura Neth of Le Roy and Devon Timmerman this week at Henry’s Deli in Le Roy located at 72 Main Street near Rt. 19
In the first two days of opening, Henry’s Deli served over 500 subs to hungry folks from all over WNY who heard about their opening this week at 72 Main Street in Le Roy. (at the corner of Rt. 5 and Rt.19)
Salty Bread is their thing. Samples of the life changing bread are offered at the door as you walk in.
Salty Bread gets a thumbs up from a customer with Hailey Coniber offering samples at the door
How it all started
Owner Shawn Timmerman, of Rochester, and his Fiancé Laura Neth of Le Roy, have been working their three other businesses at the year around Public Market in Rochester. Timmerman started with his first business The Happy Pickle, selling pickles to a bakery called Amazing Grains in Fairport.
“They have a specialty bread called Salty Bread, so I started selling loaves at the Public Market for them, we sold a hundred plus, it has this huge cult following. I noticed at the Public Market that you can’t get a sandwich there. Kind of silly,” says Timmerman.
In May of 2023, Timmerman thought it would be a good idea to offer sandwiches. He started a deli operation at the market with the help of a few friends. Pettinari’s Deli in Hilton, NY provided the sliced cold cuts.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if we made sandwiches on Salty Bread, so we just took a dive and tried it. Eventually we were making 100 subs per day at the Public Market in 4-5 hours. Once we went through the trial version, we knew it was going to be thing and it was viable. We wanted to do our own brick and mortar, something we could have open 5-7 days a week. We looked in Fairport, but they wanted $3,000 rent, I said no thanks. We always had a thing about Le Roy because we knew Woody’s closed down and we’re like Le Roy needs a deli.”
Laura Neth wraps up a sub with Missy Coniber(left) and Zaire Cave making subs on the right.
The couple had been searching the area for a longtime when a breakthrough happened. Laura was working doing nails at the Cutting Edge and mentioned to Missy Johnson, a local Real Estate agent, that they were looking for a place in Le Roy this past winter. By April a lease was signed, and Timmerman and Neth spent the past 6 weeks getting the location ready. They currently have 8-10 employees working at the deli which also serves as in import store for items you cannot find in the area.
“I don’t’ want to be just a sub shop,” says Timmerman.
“I want to be a traditional Italian deli. Thats why we have imported Italian tomatoes, biscuits, wafers and cookies, stuff that you can’t find around here at all. We get imported stuff from Olindo’s, desserts from a bakery, we have some of our friends’ products from the Public Market. We get oil cured Greek olives from Long Island that they get from overseas and Italian sausage from Pettinari’s Deli in Hilton, NY, along with salads, stuffed sweet peppers and fresh sliced cold cuts at a reasonable price.
Pickles from the Happy Pickle
“While our pickle business is huge, we’re in a lot of stores. That was our whole life before we added Zimmerman’s in May. We have a line all day there on Saturday.”
Zimmerman’s is a breakfast stand and hot dogs at the Public Market in Rochester.
Nate Penny serving up freshly sliced cold cuts with owner Shawn Timmerman
Signature sub- Italian Assorted
The hard-working couple work long hours running all of their businesses. While the Rochester Public Market is only on Saturday for them, Timmerman says it takes a week to prepare for that one day. When football season begins, Timmerman says he will be open early on Sunday mornings for customers to pick up subs on the way to the Bills game.
Henry’s Deli is open Monday-Friday 10am-6pm.
Link to Henry’s Deli Facebook page below:
After moving into 72 Main Street, Timmerman realized that Henry’s Deli was located right across the street from where his grandmother owned and operated a gas station (where McDonalds is located now).
“It’s a thing for my mom, knowing that her mom had a business here then two generations later I have a business across the street, I think it’s pretty cool.”
Timmerman has made contact with Le Roy Historian Lynn Belluscio to find out more about the gas station his grandmother owned.
I use to help Elsie Mott and her son keep her gas station open on weekends , she was a kind hearted lady and I and a friend Dan Novak helped her when she asked . She drank a little bit and would ask me to dance with her , ah the fond memories of her.