It’s Tuesday, and Andrea Moran, vice-president of DeFalco’s Deli in Scottsdale, has received another offer to sell the business. It’s no surprise; people approach her all the time to sell, expand, or franchise the deli, and every time the answer is “no.”
DeFalco’s is a Scottsdale institution in business for 53 years. The place is popular enough to have grabbed Guy Fieri’s attention on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, and the food is delicious enough to have landed in a book on the best cheesesteaks outside of Philly. Most restaurateurs in this position capitalize on their success and expand or sell out, but DeFalco’s has stayed small on purpose.
“So far there’s been no reason to take anyone up on their offer,” said Moran. “We’d have to feel like it was the right time or the right location for us to continue to deliver our mission. Our name is on the door, so we don’t want to lose control over what we offer.”
Moran succinctly sums up DeFalco’s mission as, “We care.” “That sounds sappy,” she admits. “But we try and make our employees feel like family. We want them to feel valued so they make our customers feel valued.” Unpacking the mission a bit more, Moran explains that the heart of DeFalco’s is their hospitality, quality, consistency, and creativity. As an independent, family-owned business, DeFalco’s can deliver this in ways that the chain restaurants moving into Scottsdale can’t.
Moran’s grandparents, one from Rome and the other from Abruzzo, brought their family recipes with them across the Atlantic, first to Toronto, then Michigan, and ultimately to Scottsdale. In 1972, Moran’s parents, Jerry and Judy, along with her grandparents, John and Dora, opened DeFalco’s.
While the family members have different levels of involvement in the deli today, Moran explains that you can’t be in the family and not be a part of it. “When I was little, I stood on stacking boxes to bag groceries, so did my daughters Madeline and Alyssa,” said Moran. “Some of us have other jobs, but you can bet that during the Christmas rush we’re all there. In our business you start young and stay until you die!”
Over the years and across different locations in the city, DeFalco’s has stayed true to its mission and recipes. They make their pizza dough from scratch daily; sauces use prized San Marzano tomatoes; meat is ground in-house; and many dishes follow 100-year-old family recipes.
The first sandwich DeFalco’s created, its Italian Combo—a mouth-watering tower of ham, salami, pepperoni, mortadella and provolone—is still the most popular thing on the menu. It’s one of Moran’s personal favorites, though she admits that for her it’s the vodka chicken pizza off the “secret” menu that is her top pick. Moran’s favorite dish is an example of how DeFalco’s integrates new ideas into a menu rooted in tradition.
“I’ve been to a lot of places in Europe, and many of our specials come from things that I’ve tasted in Italy,” said Moran. “For example, I recently had some incredible artichokes in the Jewish quarter in Rome, so we try and figure out how to work that into what we do here.” Recipe development is a collaborative process that starts with an idea and a core group and eventually the whole staff tasting and providing input.
For home chefs who love creating their own Italian dishes, DeFalco’s has an entire retail operation dedicated to the finest Italy has to offer. Here you’ll find guanciale, pancetta, a wide variety of other deli meats, 00 flour, Pasta De Cecco, Locatelli Pecorino Romano, and hundreds of wines from around the world. Customers can also bring home DeFalco’s made-from-scratch dough, sauces, and sweets.
For Moran, all it takes is the smell of meatballs simmering to send her down memory lane to when she was a teenager working at the deli. “We were near Arcadia High School, and all my teachers and friends’ families would come into the deli,” said Moran. “Today they bring their own kids in. We’re still a business that attracts generations of families.”
For Moran, she hopes that the next generation will take over and continue the DeFalco legacy in Scottsdale. In the meantime, DeFalco’s plans to keep growing on what’s made them successful and see where the road leads. Whatever comes next, one thing won’t change: it’ll still say DeFalco’s on the door, and it’ll still be theirs.
written by: dena rochè
photographed by: luke irvin
𖡡 2334 north scottsdale road scottsdale, az 85257
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