Take two brothers, add two wives. Stir carefully. Toss in a few friendly smiles and lots of good cooking. Bake slowly 10 years.
The result is V&S; Italian Deli and Market, a homey, family owned shop where one can get a sub, salad or house specialty.
The Falcone brothers, Vinny and Sal, and their wives, Fran and Lauren, have avoided the conflicts that put so many familyrun restaurants out of business.
In April, they will celebrate a decade of business at Paseos Plaza on North Federal Highway in Boca Raton.
Vinny Falcone, 42, and Sal Falcone, 34, were born and reared in New York. Their father, Joe, owned ravioli shops in Yonkers and Brooklyn in the late ’70s. His sons helped until it was sold in 1979.
After the shop closed, Joe Falcone went into the clothing business.
Sal went into banking, working as a commercial loan processor. Vinny opened a string of pizzerias.
But by the mid-’80s, Vinny felt his life was at a standstill.
“I needed a change,” he said. “Fran and I wanted to go to California, but it was too far from family.”
So Vinny called his brother and suggested they move to Florida.
Both couples arrived in Boca Raton and settled into food-related jobs waiting for a business opportunity.
It was not long coming.
The Falcones soon found a deli for sale, made an offer and V&S; Italian Deli was born.
Running a family business in close quarters can ruin relationships and cause bitter disputes. But the Falcones give each other plenty of space.
They have chores that don’t overlap. The division of labor is clearly defined.
“Customers ask how I can work so closely with my brother,” Sal said.
“He does his thing, I do mine. But basically we’re friends.”
Sal greets customers by name and can usually anticipate their needs. If they have a problem and he’s not busy, he lends a willing ear.
Vinny prefers the small kitchen. Each morning he whips up fresh batches of mozzarella, sausage and meatballs. Sal Falcone makes the salads and Fran Falcone checks the deli display.
Fran, Vinny’s wife of 20 years and mother of three, said working with her husband on a daily basis is fine.
“I can’t explain our relationship. It’s just good,” she said. “Once in a while we snap at each other, but I stay in front and he stays in back.”
Lauren, Sal’s wife, left the business in February 1994 to tend to her two young daughters.
Vinny and Sal take pride in their cooking. Although they never hung out in the kitchen with their mother, Olga, they learned how to cook on their own.
Sal wishes he had more time to experiment with such delicacies as roasted peppers, spinach lasagne and eggplant parmigiana.
But it’s their pork sausage that has brought a steady and loyal following.
More than 300 lunches are served daily. A counter in the store allows customers to relax. The atmosphere is friendly. Copies of newspapers lay about the tables.
“We’ve brought the neighborhood deli from New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Boston – wherever,” Sal said. “We like to make people feel at home.”
