Naples Florida Weekly
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Family affair

Entrepreneur profile Larry’s Lunch Box Delicatessen



Kim Redding Johnston and her husband, Kevan Johnston, run the store on Neapolitan Way. COURTESY PHOTO

Kim Redding Johnston and her husband, Kevan Johnston, run the store on Neapolitan Way. COURTESY PHOTO

A FAMILY AFFAIR FROM SOUP TO NUTS — or soup to sandwiches sometimes stacked so high they look like four-story walk-ups of corned beef and pastrami — Larry’s Lunch Box Delicatessen in Naples didn’t just magically appear two days before Christmas 1987.

But that’s when the place opened on Airport Road, with co-owners Marci Redding and Larry Redding, sleeves rolled up and ready for action, hoping their bet paid off.

As entrepreneurs who put everything they had into a bold roll of the dice — the first in a Florida Weekly series looking at such mavericks — they’re classic, like their deli. They got an idea, they put their money down and they went for it. This is their story.

Larry was chief cook and bottle washer back in the kitchen. Marci managed all the details up front. There was only one problem: the population of Naples, at about 20,000 in the late 1980s, didn’t promise a big pool of patrons to start with, even with additional winter visitors.

Larry and Marci Redding, center, with daughter Kim Redding Johnston (right), own and operate Larry’s Lunch Box Delicatessen, now 32 years and going strong, with two Naples stores. Son Sean, left, tried the family business and moved on to the Royal Poinciana Golf Club. COURTESY PHOTO

Larry and Marci Redding, center, with daughter Kim Redding Johnston (right), own and operate Larry’s Lunch Box Delicatessen, now 32 years and going strong, with two Naples stores. Son Sean, left, tried the family business and moved on to the Royal Poinciana Golf Club. COURTESY PHOTO

The real beginning of Larry’s, instead, had come years earlier when Marci roared into Ann Arbor, Mich., from her home town, Cleveland, to become the first employee of a famous Jewish deli still there — Zeligman’s. It wasn’t her only gig. Soon she met Larry, working in another restaurant. Five years older than Marci, he’d just earned a degree from the University of Michigan.

Big college town, fast scene, colder than a polar bear’s be-hind for about five months a year. A no-brainer for the young couple. They went south, to Naples, where Larry had family. And never looked back, even though Zeligman’s had named a sandwich after Marci.

And now Larry is still in the kitchen. Marci is still up front. He’s 66, she’s 61, and they have no plans to change their lifestyles, they say — to the relief of countless patrons who rely on Larry’s for deli food as good as it gets anywhere, from New York to Naples, according to some social media food critics and regulars.

 

 

They brought at least one old Zeligman tradition with them: “Our sandwiches — they’re named after family and old friends,” Marci acknowledges, adding a plaintive note inevitable in the long passage of time: “Most of them are gone now.”

Gone but not forgotten. There’s Carol’s Classic Club; Freewheelin’ Frank’s French Dip; Louie’s Lesson Learned; Brenna’s BLT Bonanza; Supposedly Sam’s Steak, Cheese and Onion; Rita’s Rueben Ritual; Chopper Charley’s Whirlybird; Ron’s Roman Revelation; Tommy’s New Job; Paul’s Popular Pursuit; or Jan’s Jubilant Jamboree, to name just some.

You can get nearly everything they sell and some things they don’t sell at a Publix deli counter: tongue, chopped liver (homemade), capicola, hard salami, liverwurst, or lox, for example, to go with those soups Larry makes from scratch every day.

They have burgers, salads, a variety of chicken sandwiches and “dogs” (Jammin’ Jim’s Jumbo, Carlos’ Chili Dog, Sheldon’s Sour Surprise), with prices ranging from about $5 or $6 for a dog, to $10 or $12 for a sandwich.

And for serious deli aficionados the Reddings even throw in some attitude, New York or Chicago style — some call it “rude.” If you don’t know what you want in a crowded, fast-moving lunch line, best to get out of it until you do. Just like in the Big Apple or the Windy City.

Not only has this deli duo stayed married all these years (32 of them), working together in the store more than 70 hours a week, but now they have a daughter, Kim Redding Johnston, who manages their second and busier store across town, on Neapolitan way — with her husband, Kevan Johnston.

Kim is 32; she met Kevan at Lely High School before earning a business degree at the University of Central Florida and returning to marry and jump into her parents’ business, where Kevan was doing deliveries. That’s how a family affair works.

“They are the hardest working people I’ve ever known,” Kim says of her folks — and she’s no slouch when it comes to work, herself. It takes total commitment to make this business hum like a fiddle through good times and bad, Kim figures — and that leads to worry about just how hard her parents do work.

Funny how children start to sound like parents when they talk about their own, sometimes.

“My mom is literally there all the time — that’s like her heart and soul. They both are very hardworking people,” says Kim. “The restaurant industry is very hard and competitive, especially here, and to be honest, our second location wouldn’t be what it is without them, even though I run it and it’s busier.”

Now for the side-order of worry.

“Mom has a hard time leaving the deli — if she’s not at the restaurant or the beach, it’s hard for her to find out who she is. She is a workaholic. Larry is the same way, too. Now he’s gotten a little older, he’s taken a little step back. He doesn’t always work the line at lunch anymore — he comes over and babysits, sometimes.”

That isn’t work? But never mind that, now.

Kim’s older brother, Sean Redding, tried the family business for a few years, too, but decided to set out on his own, she says; now he holds an enviable position at the Royal Poinciana Golf Club.

Once kids who lived around the corner from their parents’ original store and bicycled there after school, hanging out and helping (but not for money) as young teenagers, now Sean and Kim have given Marci and Larry grandchildren.

So what’s that like, being married, raising a family and working cheek-tojowl all those years?

“Terrible! And that’s an understatement!” says Marci, before breaking into laughter. “He yells at me all the time.” Affection rings through her voice like a bell even at 7:30 a.m., the only time she has a moment to chat.

She and Larry usually start the day earlier, in the 6 o’clock hour, and she doesn’t leave until about 7 p.m. “I just have things to do,” she explains. Like work.

The original idea for Larry’s came about in part, Marci recalls, because in the late ’80s they had to drive 45 miles to Fort Myers for a decent deli sandwich.

On the day they opened, mapping out an entire life without knowing it, “I can’t remember what it was like — it was too long ago,” Marci admits.

But she allows as how business wasn’t booming for a couple of years. In fact, it was just crawling at the beginning.

Now both places are the cat’s meow, which brings up the final, obvious question, for both Marci and Kim: Where will you likely be in five years?

Marci, with no hesitation: “I’ll probably be here.”

Kim, with a lot of hesitation: “I don’t know. This is a really hard life.”

The life of a successful entrepreneur. ¦

2 responses to “Family affair”

  1. Lisa Stern says:

    This article actually brought tears to my eyes! Love these delis! Love this family!! Their hard work shows in the delicious food!

  2. Lillie garcia says:

    The Redding’s are my neighbors and they truly are very hard working people , my daughter works at the Collier county court house and she loves their food at Larrys lunch box . The soups are my favorite 😍, after hurricane Irma the Redding’s we’re out giving anyone that needed food free food , they could of easily let it go to waste but they were so kind and generous to help anyone in need 😇. Most of my wealthy clients love their new place on Neapolitan way 😃

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