The Countryside Deli, a favorite town eatery at the corner of Yale & Kenyon Avenues was consumed by fire last Christmas – rumor says that it happened while meals were being prepared for a local shelter. Their delicious sandwiches were named after the streets of the town and famous campus sites. They were host to a bustling crowd from in town and all around. I will never forget squeezing between the close set tables of merry patrons, hoping not to knock down any of the unapologetic array of obscenely kitschy items lining all the walls for sale: tiny Santas and villages and old timey bicycles – the kind of objects and ornaments you used to find at the silo at Linvilla Orchards (another classic destination, destroyed by fire in my lifetime). Today, I drove past and saw that suddenly even the shell of the building is gone. But in my heart the parking lot will be forever clogged, the sandwiches exquisite, and the company divine.
carrie piccard 