{"id":126230,"date":"2025-08-07T11:41:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/126230\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T11:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:41:16","slug":"new-york-city-deli-to-open-2nd-location-in-downtown-kankakee-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/126230\/","title":{"rendered":"New York City Deli to open 2nd location in downtown Kankakee \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little bit of New York City will be coming to downtown Kankakee.<\/p>\n

New York City Deli, that is.<\/p>\n

Owner Stephen Girard, of Chebanse, is targeting an autumn opening of a 2,400-square-foot deli in the 200 block of South Schuyler Avenue in the Standard Title building.<\/p>\n

The building is now owned by Kankakee developers and brothers Steve and has been Harder, who operate under the company name HB Equities, LLC.<\/p>\n

The Harder brothers purchased the 11,000-square-foot building on March 7, 2025, from Jim Kane, of Chicago Title.<\/p>\n

Standard Title occupies 5,000 square feet at the location. The location is also home to the Kankakee County Chamber of Commerce and an attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Plans were made public at Monday\u2019s Kankakee City Council meeting as the council approved a plan for patio seating outside the planned deli.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A 2,400-square-foot space on the 200 block of South Schuyler Avenue, in the Standard Title building, will soon host a second location of New York City Deli, owned by Stephen Girard, of Chebanse. (Provided by Steve Harder)<\/p>\n

Girard is the owner of the New York City Deli, 1190 N. Convent St., Bourbonnais, having purchased it in November.<\/p>\n

Girard, a 2010 graduate of Clifton Central High School, has been a heating and air conditioning contractor for the past five years with Glade Plumbing & Heating in Kankakee. Before working for Glade, he was with Precision Piping, Inc., also of Kankakee.<\/p>\n

However, he has been a loyal customer of a New York City deli, and upon selling a property he had rehabbed, he walked into the restaurant immediately north of the Gulf Oil gas station and asked if the deli was for sale.<\/p>\n

If so, he relayed to the owners that he was interested in purchasing it.<\/p>\n

After discussions with the then-owners, Mike and Kristi Panozzo, of Bourbonnais, he took possession, and in November 2024, he became owner of the 1,000-square-foot site.<\/p>\n

The New York City Deli has been at its Bourbonnais location since 2013, having been opened by businessman Shaddy Mohammad.<\/p>\n

A father of three \u2013 Kyler, 11, Scarlette, 7, and Sydney, 5 \u2013 Girard said sandwich making could be in the future for this trio.<\/p>\n

He is developing plans with Harder for an approximately 600-square-foot patio on the property\u2019s north side. He expects the location will seat up to 40 or so. He estimates employing some 14 part-time workers.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New York City Deli owner Stephen Girard, of Chebanse, stands with his three children, Kyler, 11, Scarlette, 7, and Sydney, 5, in the area where a new patio will sit adjacent to the deli’s future second location in the 200 block of South Schuyler Avenue in the Standard Title building. (Tiffany Blanchette)<\/p>\n

Girard is not a total stranger to the restaurant world. As a teenager, he worked the concession stand at the Chebanse baseball park, and he spent some time working at McDonald\u2019s and the Riverside Medical Center kitchen.<\/p>\n

Now, he has spent time behind the New York City Deli counter making sandwiches.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me to understand something, I need to know how it works,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Amazing community\u2019<\/p>\n

He is committing to a five-year lease with Harder. He envisions operating the Kankakee location seven days a week. He is contemplating some breakfast foods.<\/p>\n

He is more than encouraged at what is taking place in the city\u2019s downtown core and wants to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an amazing community. There are things happening here. We will be near the farmers\u2019 market. So many people believe in Kankakee and want to build it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be a part of this. I want to support Kankakee.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described his purchase of the Bourbonnais business as acquiring a \u201cwell-oiled machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

He now wants to duplicate that business, albeit a little larger.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New York City Deli in Bourbonnais will soon have a second location in downtown Kankakee. (Provided by New York City Deli)<\/p>\n

Panozzo had been privately contemplating selling the Bourbonnais deli. He never, however, put it up for sale.<\/p>\n

When Girard inquired, the plan was put in motion.<\/p>\n

Having a full-time job himself, Panozzo said operating the deli could be taxing, but he never regretted his decision to take over the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome. I don\u2019t miss the work. I miss the job. I miss the customers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It will now fall on Girard to carry on the business and to expand the brand.<\/p>\n

He even has plans dancing through his head of perhaps a third location. But first things first. He needs to get the Kankakee site up and running.<\/p>\n

A bread knife in hand, this heating and air conditioning technician is ready to make sandwiches for another region of Kankakee County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A little bit of New York City will be coming to downtown Kankakee. New York City Deli, that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,77534,77533,77532,77535,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,988,40683,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-126230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bourbonnais","10":"tag-kankakee","11":"tag-kankakee-county","12":"tag-kankakee-county-front-headlines","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-restaurants","20":"tag-sandwich","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114987302062906540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}