‘I can’t even deal with this news.’ Beloved Fresno deli closing after 38-year run

After nearly four decades, and with a reputation as one of the area’s go-to sandwich shops, Sunnyside Delicatessen has closed.

The family-run deli, on Kings Canyon Road and Clovis Avenue, made the announcement in a Facebook post on March 29. On March 30, a message on the deli’s phone confirmed the news.

“You’ve reached Sunnyside Delicatessen. We are no longer doing business, but we’d like to thank all of our customers for 38 great years of serving the Sunnyside community. Thank you so much.”

The shop was known for its fresh sandwiches and salads, and also for its service (customers were known by name and treated like family) and its support of the Sunnyside community.

While the coronavirus pandemic had posed challenges for the business and how it operated over the past year (it started doing a series of Friday night take-out dinners), the deli was not a casualty of COVID-19.

“We are proud of the way we adapted and the way our customers continued to support our small business. We would like to make it clear that while it was a tough year we are leaving on our own terms,” the owners wrote in their post.

“They say that all good things must come to an end and we have decided that that time has come for us.”

Reaction from customers (in the more than 200 comments on Facebook) was mostly congratulatory, though tempered with some mourning and a good deal of remembrance.

“I can’t even deal with this news. I know it’s not about me but your absence will leave a great hole in our neighborhood,” one person wrote. “Thank you for so so many lunches after soccer games and almost every Saturday.”

Another read, “I feel like a part of my childhood is leaving. When I was a little girl my Grandma Wilma would bring me here after I danced a few doors down at Cynthia Merrill. As I got older I would go on my own. ... I will definitely miss getting my turkey sandwich with a Martinelli’s apple juice.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 10:59 AM.