After 60 years, Village Cheese House expands
Since 1959, the Village Cheese House deli has been feeding hefty sandwiches — often triple-deckers, and always with a wide selection of cheeses — to Peninsula residents and students from nearby Stanford University and Palo Alto High School.
Sixty years later, this Town & Country Village landmark has branched out for the first time.
The second location is in San Jose’s growing downtown — and more shops could be coming soon, according to owners Bernard and Joni Pailma.
“It’s exciting. We’re being approached by so very many people,” Bernard Pailma said about the deli they purchased four years ago. “We’re in the process of franchising.”
It’s a natural move for a sandwich shop with a Bay Area-wide following that includes plenty of Stanford and Paly alumni. Even Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck often stops in for a sandwich (tuna salad on dark rye) when he’s in town.
The menu board boasts 14 signature sandwiches (turkey Cobb with avocado and bacon is the most popular, Bernard says); 13 panini (pesto chicken is the top seller); and grilled cheese made with five cheeses (Monterey Jack, havarti, cheddar, American, pepper jack).
The Pailmas have also greatly expanded the salad bowl and vegetarian sandwich offerings to appeal to the deli’s new generation of customers, with choices like hummus and avocado or grilled teriyaki tofu and arugula.
Some things haven’t changed over the decades. You can still have the deli’s tangy “house spread” slathered on your sandwich, and Bernard Pailma says their roast beef is still made from the original recipe. And you can order your sandwich as a triple-decker if you like.
Soups, breakfast sandwiches, desserts and coffee drinks from the espresso bar round out the offerings.
The San Jose shop is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the ground floor of the Community Towers, 111 W. St. John St. at Market Street. The Palo Alto location is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Town & Country, 855 El Camino Real.
DETAILS, ONLINE ORDERS >> 408809-5585; www.villagecheesehousedeli.com.