Long-running Sarasota deli restaurant, market permanently closes

The list of recent local restaurant closures now includes the longtime home for a Sarasota deli and market.

Nellie's Deli, Market and Catering has shut the doors at its 15 S. Beneva Road location, said proprietor Fredda Pohl. While the restaurant and market are now closed, Pohl said she plans to continue Nellie's catering operation.

Pohl and her husband Craig bought Nellie's about three decades ago when it was at the intersection of Webber Street and Beneva Road, later moving to the 15 S. Beneva Road location off of Fruitville Road. After Craig died in 2022, Pohl said it was difficult for her to handle the restaurant, market and catering all together, and when the lease ended early, she decided to focus on catering.

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“We have lots and lots of once-in-a-lifetime social and corporate clients that we do catering for, and it will certainly keep us busy with that," Pohl said.

Nellie's was known for sandwiches such as The Ponderosa (roast beef, American cheese, ranch dressing, lettuce, and tomato on a Kaiser roll) and the Turkey Goldberg (turkey pastrami, spicy mustard and dill pickle on pumpernickel), serving National Deli roast and corned beef and pastrami, Hebrew National hot dogs, and other meats from Boar's Head. The menu also featured build-your-own "overstuffed" or submarine sandwiches; homemade chicken, egg and tuna salad; classic salads; and soups such as broccoli and cheese.

It served breakfast as well, including bagels made daily on the premises, with a 2011 Herald-Tribune column noting their "ideal balance between tender interior, chewy exterior and a bit of snap in the skin" and highlighting the everything bagel, "each bite a symphony of toasted onion, sharp grains of kosher salt and bursting poppy seeds," and rye "that smells better than most rye breads taste, and tastes even better than that."

Nellie's joins other recent local restaurant closures including Nancy's Bar-B-Q, which also had multiple locations in the Sarasota area, most recently in the Rosemary District before it closed there earlier this year.

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota restaurant, market Nellie's Deli permanently closes