EASTHAMPTON – The St. John family has dealt with a lot of changes over the last year. Tim St. John was diagnosed with cancer as his wife was being laid off from her job and they were welcoming a new baby into the world.
All that prompted them to devise a new business plan.
“We decided a deli would be the way to go,” Tim St. John said. “We’re hoping to feed everybody.”
And it will be a family affair. Tim and Angela St. John and Diane Yarra, Angela’s aunt, are behind Mill Town Deli, the not-yet-opened Cottage Street eatery that’s already generating a considerable amount of buzz.
The deli is expected to open at 26 Cottage St. next month. Meanwhile, Mill Town has been catering events in the Valley throughout the summer and tempting more than 1,000 social media followers with photos of its rosemary and onion bread, classic deli sandwiches, soups and other dishes.
All three partners will be involved in all aspects of operations, Tim St. John said.
Tim St. John says they are meant to feed palates ready for familiar tastes while offering options for those who prefer a little something more adventurous.
“If they have a little bit of culinary curiosity and interest, we want to reach that,” he said. “And if they want a ham-and-cheese sandwich, we have that too.”
The restaurant is at the current site of Rene’s Television Services which is being renovated as part of the effort to clean up the former Platinum Pony, which has been closed since a fire last year.
St. John is doing better after receiving six months of cancer treatment and the baby, Finnegan, is now 15 months old.
The St. Johns had been talking about starting a food business prior to Tim St. John’s diagnosis. And after Angela St. John lost her job, the couple looked for a kind of spiritual successor to a bakery business Angela St. John had started about a year before, Angie’s Homemade Goodies.
The couple’s plan was not devised on a whim.
Yara has restaurant management experience, while Tim St. John has over a decade of experience in the food service industry, from front-of-house management to line cooking. He previously worked at the Iron Horse in Northampton, which he said taught him about the need to be prepared.
Unlike other businesses that deal with a trickle of customers off and on, at the Northampton music venue, it’s all or nothing once the doors open and 200 people flood in, he said. “You had to be ready to go,” he said.
And Yarra has 20 years experience running her own home day care. The trio is funding the deli entirely through personal investment.
Yarra and the St. Johns chose a location close to their home — and their hearts. They live next door to each other on Maple Street and Mill Town Deli will open nearby on Cottage Street in the heart of downtown Easthampton.
While Tim St. John grew up in the Springfield area, Angela St. John and Yarra have lived in Easthampton their entire lives.
“They have a love and respect for where this town has been and where it’s headed,” Tim St. John said.
Angela St. John said she wants to give back to the community.
Tim St. John said the deli could be something that could help Finnegan have ownership in the community. As for the future, the St. Johns have a simple plan for their little neighborhood deli.
“We just want to get up and go to work and make people sandwiches,” he said.
Chris Lindahl can be reached at clindahl@gazettenet.com.