NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The downtown lunchtime standby Welty’s Deli still makes its gargantuan sandwiches and hefty salads. Owners Tina Welty and Donald Welty still gab with the trickle of regulars coming in like old family friends around a kitchen table.
Right now though, what’s keeping the lights on at Welty’s are meals bound for people they may never see.
Every few days the Welty’s crew cooks up a big batch of pasta Bolognese, which is packed for individual meals by the hundreds and distributed to groups feeding local people in need.
Welty’s can give out the meals for free because other people are footing the bill – paying to feed others, and to keep Welty’s working.
“I never wanted to ask for help, never wanted to do a GoFundMe or anything, because I’m the one who usually does for other people,” said Tina Welty.
“That’s why I like this,” she said. “This way we’re working, it’s not just not just someone handing out money, they’re paying us to cook for other people who are really in need right now.”
It’s an idea linked to an ongoing city program feeding thousands of people around New Orleans, now customized at Welty’s and boosted with some celebrity intervention from Marucs Lemonis, host of CNBC’s reality business show “The Profit.”
Lemonis, the businessman-turned-reality TV star, dubbed the program Tina’s BadA$$ Meal Program.
It all runs through this mom-and-pop deli as it fights to survive the pandemic, and it’s taken shape in the holiday season of giving.
ESTABLISHED “AK”
Welty’s Deli got its start as New Orleans was first rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina. Donald Welty had cooked his way through New Orleans restaurants, from Tujague’s to Mr. B’s Bistro. Tina Welty’s family had been in the restaurant business for generations. They answered the call to reinvest in New Orleans in the early, shaky Katrina recovery period and started their own business in 2005, taking over what had been the Sweet Olive Café.
The deli’s biggest, baddest sandwich is dubbed New Orleans AK (for “after Katrina”), which packs half a deli-worth of sliced meats and cheeses onto a muffuletta loaf. At $15, it’s a sandwich that can feed you through a weekend.
Welty’s inspires loyalty in its customers. Those who sense a newcomer at the counter mulling an order are liable to start advocating for their favorite dishes, and then add anecdotes about the staff.
The trouble for Welty’s is that few of their regular customers are working downtown right now, with so many of the nearby offices in remote work mode. Coupled with badly depleted downtown hotels, it’s had a drastic impact on businesses here, and Welty’s has been pushed to the brink.
Welty’s is one of many restaurants cooking for the city’s community feeding program, which since the summer has been paying restaurants to prepare meals for people impacted by the pandemic. That program continues through Dec. 31, and New Orleans residents can assess their eligibility and sign up to receive these meals at ready.nola.gov/meals or by calling 311.
Without that program’s revenue, Tina Welty said, the restaurant would have closed months ago. Even still, the business has continued to rack up debt to stay afloat and fell behind on rent.
“I’ve curled in a ball and cried, but we have to keep fighting,” she said. “We love what we do, we love what we have here. We don’t want to lose it.”
Just before Thanksgiving, Tina Welty met (virtually) with Lemonis for an interview for “The Profit.” Lemonis worked up a program for Welty’s to expand its community meals with direct support from its customers and the public. To get it going, he contributed $20,000 to pay for 2,000 such meals and challenged her to scale the program up.
The deli added a link to its website, weltysdeli.com, where people can buy meals at $10 each, which are bundled into large orders and sent to the local charitable groups.
Welty’s is sending the meals to organizations like Bridge House and Grace House. She’s working now with Meals for Musicians, the program set up at Howlin’ Wolf music club to feed musicians, artists and hospitality workers struggling with the shutdowns.
If this program can continue to pay the bills until some semblance of downtown business returns remains to be seen. But after just a week, Welty is encouraged by the response. These orders for others might come through one at a time, or in double digit numbers.
“Some are from our regulars, some are from people I don’t know from Adam,” Welty said. “It’s been incredible.”
Cooking one dish simplifies supply and logistics. And that pasta Bolognese is a dish Welty can stand behind.
“My grandmother came over from Italy, I grew up in Gentilly in a family of beautiful, love-to-feed-people Italian women, this is the kind of thing they’d cook,” she said. “It’s something that’s yummy, good, like a big hug around you, but it still lets me make a little money and stay in business.”
