Square Deli Everett, MA

 The Square Deli Everett, MA

“Healthy, good, everything” and “right up my alley,” is how Dave Portnoy from Barstool, describes the Everett Square Deli on his viral series called “One Bite Pizza Reviews.” Owned by Chris Morreira, the Square Deli is conveniently located in Everett Square on Broadway. The establishment that opened a little over 13 years ago is still successfully up and running and improving their food everyday. The restaurant that was well known for their high quality subs and sandwiches, is now also known for their naturally leavened pizza. 

Chris Morreira is an Everett kid who grew on to open his own place at the age of 26. With lots of support from his community and family, he was able to make this happen. Opening in Everett was very helpful for him knowing he had people to back him up throughout the process.  He says the Deli was previously owned by another sub shop that wasn’t doing so well at the time. He was working in the food industry at another corporate restaurant and as the economy sank, he decided to open his own place. It was easy for him to make the decision to buy the previous sub shop, as it was a “sense of comfortability, knowing I (Morreira) had a good following.” The Deli also gives back to their community. They started doing more during the pandemic where they were getting large lunches and donating the surplus and since then, have made it a focus and continued to give back to the community or people in need. Morreira recently started donating pasta dinners every Thursday to the Everett High School football and cheerleading teams in preparation for their Friday night games. Morreira says, “Ironically, when I played highschool football, the old sub shop that was here used to donate dinners for us.”  In a way, he's repaying the favor and keeping tradition. 

He went into it with the goal of having the everyday take out place for 5 years and then continuing to grow by opening a full service restaurant. He likes the idea of moving locations, continuing the daily take out in the front, and using a “secret door” to divide the full service restaurant in the back, inspired by the idea of a modern day speakeasy. Morreira says this hasn’t happened yet, but there is still potential for it in the future. 

Living 5 minutes away from the Deli, you could only imagine how often Im there. Everytime I walk in, I am greeted with a warm welcome as well as everyone else who goes in pretty often. The smell of fresh pizza, sandwiches and a combination of so many delicious ingredients just hits you in the face. Between written order tickets, small knit tables, and the daily newspapers on display, anyone cant help but feel the comfortability of community and home. When eating in, they include chips and napkins for you to make you feel as comfortable as possible.

This small business seems to make it their goal to create community and friendship through their food. After talking with Morreira, he describied to me how he goes out of his way to have high quality customer service by treating customers with respect, name recognition, getting things right, understanding who they are, knowing their preferences, and  always trying to exceed their expectations, which is definitely felt. They value high quality food and service, even if you don't expect that from a sandwich shop. Not only are they people friendly but also dog friendly meaning, he never fails to go out of his way to provide a bowl of water and a plate of bacon for furry friends.

Not only is the food fairly affordable, but they have the daily specials written on a white board to help cut down on the cost even more for customers. Personally, I gravitate to cheese pizza everytime I go there not only because I am a picky eater, but for the sole fact of how can I stray away from something so good? Their pizza stands out to me because of its dough. Little did I know before, that the pizza dough is homemade 100% leavened sourdough with no commercial yeast. This is something I don’t think I have had or seen before, but it is definitely something worth giving a try. The pizza also comes out with final touches such as basil, oregano, and grated cheese. What I also like about ordering food from here is that even if I don't want to order a whole pizza or a big meal, they always have pizza slices on deck that are the size of ¼ of a pizza with 2 slices for an $8 deal. So it is not only a good place to go if you're looking for lunch or dinner, but also good if you’re just looking for something quick to take with you on the go throughout your busy day. 

With their pizza, the Square Deli was also crowned the winner of the “2023 Roni Rumble.” Essentially, it's a pizza tournament in Massachusetts that includes 64 pizzerias to start and within the first few rounds, places get voted on by the public based on what they’re favorite is. When it comes down to the final 4, it is then judged by a group of guys who started the whole competition, where they come in and try each places’ pizza. The trophy from this is on display on the front counter for everyone to see.

Along with everyday takeout and delivery orders, Square Deli also does catering and other programs that Morreira talked about. For catering, they used to only do private parties or functions, but about 8 years ago when everett got the casino license, the Deli started doing catering orders for the Wynn company. This was good business and was the gateway to more corporate catering opportunities. They do trays of sandwiches, lasagnas, pastas, salads, etc. 

Another weekly program they do is a program called “Prepped Gainz” which he describes as “a healthy meal delivery service.” They take orders throughout the week for healthy prepped meals to be cooked and packaged for the following week. The Deli prepares them every Saturday night and keeps them frozen until Sunday morning they are sent out and delivered to the customers. These meals include instructions on how to properly heat them up and prepare them for when customers are ready to eat them. At the time he started this, there wasn’t any healthy meal delivery service in the Greater Boston Area, so he decided to be one of the first. 

Along with that program, Square Deli also played a huge part in helping the community during Covid-19. During the pandemic, the state was looking to help the senior demographic and/or people in need. The Deli was making 100’s of meals that were prepared and delivered that got serviced throughout the community. It was not only helpful for those in need, but it was also an opportunity to create some business and stay busy and stay open while recovering from the aftermath of the pandemic. Since then, Morreira says “it’s opened my eyes to similar type jobs and preparing large meals vs. the regular day to day take out.”

The Square Deli also is on instagram where lots of “aesthetic” food content is created and shared. Behind the scene pictures and videos with trending music in the background is a perfect way to hit another target audience that relies more on social media. So not only do they have “the regulars” coming in, but now they have young adults/ teens seeing this content and drawing their attention in. The instagram is also used to introduce newer menu items, or give updates on anything new going on in the restaurant. This is a good way for advertisement, when trying to expand to more customers.

In my opinion, yes one could easily order from their nearby Dominos or Pizza hut. But in my opinion, the Square Deli gives more of a personal, home-y feeling that you wouldn’t get from the others. 

Dave Portnoy Review

Square Deli Instagram

421 Broadway, Everett, MA 02149