Bagels made with a New York friend’s recipe and vegan cupcakes are just two of the offerings from Lismore’s newest delicatessen. Freshly opened this week, Doughboy Deli in the Embassy Arcade, off Keen Street, is the new venture for Joe Steele and Jessica Smith.

Inspired by Joe’s love of New York eateries, the pair wanted to bring an international coffee culture to the heart of Lismore.

“We decided Lismore needs affordable, quick, easy light food,” Joe said. “Since Covid, there’s a big need for take away food and sometime you just don’t want to cook for yourself, so let us do it for you.

“Jess and I travelled Europe for a few months and fell in love with the pastries and the coffee culture there,” Joe said. “You are quickly in, out and walking down the street with a giant Danish in one hand and a coffee in the other.”

Jos also spent time in New York and he loved it the Italian and Jewish delis there which reflected his own Italian heritage.

“New York is a world onto its own,” he said. “You walk in and they recognise you from the day before and the next thing you know there’s a sandwich being flung at you over the counter because they have remembered you and already made it.”

While Jessica is passionate about making bagels and vegan cupcakes which sell out as fast as she can make them, Joe makes homemade pastrami – which has also been so popular, he needs to make more every night.

“It’s a pickled brisket with a secret rub on it and its smoked,” he said. “The meat balls we make are an old family recipe from my mum and the napolitana sauce is my Nonna’s.

“Our bagels will soon be vegan soon too we work out how to replace the honey.”

On the wall in the shop are menus of sandwiches for sale – all with quirky names.

“We’ve sold out of the Reuben twice,” Joe said. “It’s a quintessential. The New York deli style meatball sandwich is classic too and the Punky Rooster one of our flavour combos we’ve made up, with a herb yoghurt sauce.”

The pair also use a special coffee blend that they have made up especially for them.

“We are also selling the ingredients we use in our food from the olives and the feta cheese to chargrilled vegetables,” Joe said.

“We can make salads with any of the ingredients – no bread – and we will soon launch anti-pasto boxes that people can take home.

“The biggest thing we wanted to do was use local producers. It’s incredible ‘our cheese supplier gets Australian products or amazing Italian imported cheeses.

“We will start working directly with local farmers in time – our area has great a agricultural industry and we want to make sure our food is ethical.”

Jess and Joe used to work at Dragonfly Café together, when Joe’s mum owned the café. Now after working and travelling together they are ready to build a successful new business while working for themselves.

With Joe’s background in business and marketing, it seems set to grow.

“We’ve been so touched by the support we’ve had over the last few days,” Joe said.

“We do free CBD delivery and people have been ringing up with orders, so we invite people to call ahead, email or text us. We like email so we can keep track of what comes through.”

You can contact Doughboy Deli on 0401 064 211, via the website www.doughboydeli.com or email [email protected]