About Us
Sausage Deli’s Historical Timeline
1957
The original 720 square foot burnt adobe Sausage Deli was first built as the Silver Dollar Drive-In Milk Depot. The Milk Depot failed leaving the building vacant until the late 1960’s.
Late 1960's
Wall’s Livestock Supply opens.
1970
Polish couple starts Sausage Deli. After 6 months, Sausage Deli is sold to Frank and Muriel Dreher from New York. The Dreher’s specialize in homemade sausages and fresh meats and carried a wide-variety of ethnic German grocery items, as well as German phonograph records and magazines.
1974
Mr. Dreher sells the business to Don Caylor, an ex-cop from Michigan.
1978
Steve Kleinsmith purchases Sausage Deli on April 28th.
1980’s
The deli is discovered by University of Arizona fraternities and sororities! Kleinsmith declares, “Remember, Greeks are our friends!” A porch and picnic table was added and the sandwich area was expanded.
1993
Parking lot gets paved!
2002
Kleinsmith closes the deli in the summer. Chris Fanelli becomes the General Manager and reopens the deli in September.
2003
The Fanelli Family purchases Sausage Deli.
2013
On February 13th, Sausage Deli serves its last sandwich in the old, burnt adobe building and reopens in its new space February 18th.
Where’s the Sausage you ask?
After Kleinsmith purchased Sausage Deli, he continued to provide customers with sausage and homemade meats supplied by other vendors. Sausage sales declined making it difficult to keep fresh product in the store. This lead Kleinsmith to create the menu we have today.
Sausage & Peppers was added as a Wednesday Special a few years ago.