The Nevada Sagebrush

“Hello! What can I get ya?”

Rudy Madina, owner of Michael’s Deli, greets every customer with that line and a smile.

Named for the Catholic saint and the youngest Madina son, Michael’s Deli, located on Virginia Street just south of California Avenue, brings a little piece of the Big Apple to a small corner of Nevada. The restaurant offers New York-inspired soups, salads and sandwiches for a college-friendly budget.

The atmosphere at Michael’s is warm and welcoming. Walk up to the front counter and order a gourmet apple chicken salad with caramelized walnuts or a chicken breast panini. Grab a drink, sit at one of the plastic-covered tables and wait for your dish to come out. Everything comes out piping-hot and tasting fresh.

“Our sandwiches are big so you get full pretty fast,”said Madina’s 17 year-old son, David. “You can get two sandwiches for under $10, eat one and save the other one the next day.”

The restaurant’s walls are decked out with baseball memorabilia: a signed Ken Griffey Jr. poster shows love to the Reds while a framed Nolan Ryan photo illustrates his right-handed pitching method while he played for the Mets. A cooler filled with a variety beers and sodas sits against the wall with a Tweety bird cookie jar resting on top while red ceiling fans keep the small room cool.

Rudy Madina opened up the deli three years ago.

“My father always worked in some sort of deli environment and he always wanted to open his own,”David said. “A deli that served New York kind of stuff seemed like a good idea.”

The entire Madina family works in the deli, keeping everything family-orientated. They get a lot of regulars, mostly people from the surrounding businesses in downtown Reno and high schools during their lunch breaks.

“Our regulars are great,”David said. “They are super friendly and you get to know them pretty good.”

The Madinas invite everyone into their restaurant as if it was their own home. With their kindness and dedication to quality service and food, it is not a wonder why they are one of the more popular eateries in northern Reno.

“I love eating there,”said Tina Barr, a University of Nevada, Reno senior. “The food is just good.”

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