Fans of the cream of dill pickle soup at Mugsy’s Deli were in luck last week as the restaurant’s lip-smacking homemade soups were served up on the house.
Mugsy’s owner Natasha Ward decided to share the love (and soup) in celebration of her 10th anniversary as owner of the uptown eatery.
Ten years ago, Ward took over the restaurant from Mary Lee Akert, nicknamed Mugsy, who was also the namesake for the deli.
Akert ran Mugsy’s for seven years, moving the business from the other end of Main Street to its current location at 114 Main Street and adding the 24-seat outdoor patio.
When Ward took ownership, her goal was to maintain the restaurant’s success.
“I was really hoping to keep it a staple of the community,” she says.
A decade later, Ward seems to have exceeded her goal. The restaurant bustles on weekday lunch hours, with regulars ordering their favourites off a menu that has stayed consistent throughout Ward’s tenure.
Ward says she wouldn’t dare take anything off it, since everyone has his or her own favourite dish.
While Mugsy’s salads, wraps, sandwiches and generously sized pickles all have their appeal, it’s Ward’s personal service, and knack for connecting with her customers, that keeps regulars coming back again and again.
“I love people,” says Ward, adding that she prefers to be out front in the restaurant whenever possible, as talking with customers has always been one of her favourite parts of the job.
In the future, Ward hopes to build on the restaurant’s growing success as a breakfast spot on weekdays and Saturdays. She says she is also working on creating more of a deli atmosphere in the morning and late afternoon, where customers can grab drinks from the coffee bar at the back of the restaurant and order through the kitchen window.
For the moment, though, she is looking back on ten years of Mugsy’s with gratitude for those who have come along for the ride.
“I am really grateful to the customers who have made it a success,” Ward says. “And I have been blessed to have had so many amazing employees over the years.”
