The lunch rush at the Whale of the Deli on Monday arrived in waves as patrons floated in to gaze at three blackboards announcing custom sandwiches, pizza and Mexican food. Cheers from the Winter Olympics played on the television in the maroon-tinged room while the deli’s matriarch presided from behind the counter.
Marisol Salgado, who has co-owned the deli with her ex-husband, David Morales, since 2002, calls locals by their first name and treats tourists with similar congeniality. When she isn’t engaging with a patron, she’ll flip the pages of one of the two books she has within reach. In English there’s “A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America” by Ronald Takaki and, in Spanish, “Los años con Laura Díaz” by Carlos Fuentes.
Two years ago, business was slowing and Ms. Salgado assumed more responsibilities for running the day-to-day operation. She boosted prices for the first time in years and started to focus on sourcing from local distributors. After decades of serving Double Rainbow ice cream, for instance, she traded the San Francisco company for the Petaluma-based Three Twins. The biggest table is now reserved for Point Reyes Vineyards wines. The moves paid off: the Whale is thriving and Ms. Salgado is on to her next upgrade—a menu revamp.
“I’m going to take advantage of the place where we live and we’re going to reinvent the whole menu,” she said. “We’re going to have a different focus and have more organic and natural foods.”
Sometime this spring, customers can expect the addition of tri-tip and pulled pork sandwiches, and Ms. Salgado is trying to convince her friend from Oaxaca to create an evolving specials’ menu.
The Whale of the Deli has undergone numerous evolutions since Ms. Salgado and Mr. Morales took over 15 years ago. In 2002, the building housed the deli, an art gallery and a video rental store called Captain Video. They bought out the video store and gallery to begin expanding, and broke down walls to create a community hub that welcomes West Marin School students every afternoon around 3:20 p.m. They began hosting sporting event watch parties at night.
Whereas the previous menu featured sandwiches, pizza and Bento boxes, they incorporated a full Mexican menu using their small kitchen, which can only hold a self-contained grill.
Today, the Whale of the Deli is the only stop in West Marin where you can buy DVDs, cigarettes and the area’s tastiest burrito.
Ms. Salgado employs six people (she said she’s looking for help, in particular from high schoolers). She likes to employ young people because she worked as a teenager at the Station House Café and believes experience behind the counter can have a positive influence.
Her daughter, Itzel, used to work at the deli and is now in her senior year at Sacramento State University. She’s studying communications with an emphasis in government because, Ms. Salgado said, she sees a need in the education system.
“She worked at the counter and saw seventh graders who couldn’t count their change,” she said. “When you work at a place like this, you can see a lot of things if you pay attention and care.”
Ms. Salgado attributes much of her business management education to her former employer Sheryl Cahill.
“She’s my number-one idol in terms of business,” Ms. Salgado said. “She polished me to be a good leader when it comes down to handling people around you. She taught me how to provide direction without over doing it or being mean—being a strong person with conviction without crossing that line. She is a really strong leader and just the finest woman I know who can walk through a floor and run everything smooth without screaming. Once I learned that, I could learn the other steps.”
Despite her own successes, Ms. Salgado admits she’s endured the occasional offense from customers who are surprised that a person of her gender, age and nationality is informed about the world.
“They’ll talk to me about current events and—it’s the funniest thing—people will tell me, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know how smart you are,’” she said. “It has to be something with gender or color. People my age are more reserved because our parents taught us to be quiet and humble. Whenever you find somebody like me who is outspoken, it’s really interesting when people find out I do care about the economy and know something about the library.”
Ms. Salgado was born in Toluca, Mexico and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 12. They lived on B Ranch and she learned English in eight months, a feat she credits to her classmates and teachers at West Marin School, who she said united to create 1,000 vocabulary flashcards.
As a youngster she was drawn to reading and loved historical books in particular. (“Somebody told me a secret: when you read it’s like watching television. We didn’t have cable, so just imagine. I took just the most amazing trips through books,” she said.) She worked at the Station House for a decade, then as a receptionist for the West Marin Medical Center and later as a family liaison for Tomales Elementary School.
Ms. Salgado is now grooming her 14-year-old son, Dexter, for the family business, and is otherwise reveling in small pleasures, such as conversations with a New Yorker who visits the deli once a year or a couple from San Francisco who make monthly trips for the pizza.
“Food is in the gentlest profession,” she said. “We’re not only feeding stomachs, but also the soul. Food is an act of love and I want my clients to feel appreciated and welcome.”
The Whale of a Deli’s daily winter hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., except Sundays and Tuesdays, when the deli closes at 6 p.m.