How High Street Deli went from historic market to SLO staple — thanks to canceled surfing trip

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The company’s name starts with “high” and it sells pieces called “doobie” and “420”, however, the iconic High Street Market

In fact, there are even logical reasons for the above: the grocery store owes its name to its location on High Street. The building’s façade number was 420, but it has since become 350 in the city. The current owner, Randy “Doobie” Coates, earned his mother’s nickname because he was her “good son,” “Romper Room Doo-Bee,” he said.

Still, the inferences of marijuana culture were evident to Coates, then a student at Cal Poly, in 1999 when he crossed the street from his apartment to buy a sandwich.

The 26-year-old ordered his lunch and decided on the spot that he wanted to buy the longstanding business from Brian and Abbey Lucas. So, he did.

“I intended to move on to surfing with some friends,” Coates recalls with a laugh. “Instead, I bought a deli. “

Meanwhile, the Lucases continued to expand their culinary credibility at Sebastian’s General Store in San Simeon, then Café in Cambria, and now Cambria’s Ancient Archeology Shop.

In the nearly quarter century since Coates bought the deli, he’s turned those “high” coincidences into “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” marketing magic for the shop’s funky merch and now famous sandwich cuisine.

“Our marketing is getting more fun,” Coates said.

High Street Market and Deli says that for nearly a century, the building has been a much-loved convenience store for many, starting as a one-stop shop promoting products such as milk, butter, chewing tobacco and fishing tackle.

“Even when the High Street was nothing more than a dirt road, other people would stop for a litre of milk, cigarettes and a delicious sandwich on the way to or from the station,” the online page said of how the shop “served to cater to the needs of customers. ” to the working Americans and families of the time.

Noted area historian James Papp prepared a 2021 report about the property’s provenance, noting that the market and deli is “one of San Luis Obispo’s few surviving pre-World War II corner groceries.”

The area’s first grocery store was built on the site in 1866, according to Papp’s report, and the existing building and an adjacent space were built in 1926.

As the assets and business were sold over the years, they operated under other names.

In 2021, the city’s Cultural Heritage Committee added it to the main list of San Luis Obispo’s 127th historic homes, due to the store’s longevity and its connection to the city’s black history.

Significantly, the store — named the Tiny Mart then — was “the first Black-owned grocery, first Black-owned business with Black-owned premises and last surviving Black-owned business from the era of the Great Migration,” Papp said in his report.

The Great Migration occurred when millions of Black people from the South moved to cities and regions in the North and West for much of the 20th century.

“The asset is related to Frank and Alberta Bell, the first Black grocery store owners in the city,” he continued, “and their survival is a representation of a Black business from the era of the Great Migration. “

Papp’s report indicates that the Bells owned the market from 1966 to 1979.

Coates’ parents Randy Coates and Norene Cantella moved to San Luis Obispo in 1995 from Los Angeles to open Uptown Espresso and Bakery on Higuera Street. They ran it for 20 years, even after it became BlackHorse Espresso & Bakery.

Her son, from Los Angeles, remained in Southern California until 1998, when he transferred from the network school to Cal Poly, she said.

About a year later, he bought the cold meat.

Over the years, it has helped make him a mainstay of the San Luis Obispo culinary scene.

In a 2021 tally, Yelp critics ranked High Street as one of the eight most productive sandwich department stores on the Central Coast, and it consistently ranks on or near the most sensible list.

The emphasis at the San Luis Obispo deli — and Coates’ new Baywood Park location — is quality and consistency with friendly service and an upbeat, slightly counter-culture vibe.

“We make all of our sauces in-house,” he said. What we cut is new for the day. Our breads are new.

The stores’ sourdough comes from Brian’s Artisan Bread Co. in Atascadero and other comes from Pan de Oro and Back Porch Bakery.

Coates even worked for weeks with those bakers to achieve High Street’s best Dutch crusty bread, which is the cornerstone of the deli’s Dutch Punch sando.

It’s the deli’s ultimate offering, stuffed (of course) with smoked turkey, bacon, red onion, tomato, romaine lettuce, homemade chipotle mayonnaise, and “everything else you need. “

The San Luis Obispo deli’s menu includes about 20 sandwiches, plus two other pastrami sandwiches, a West Coast Hoag (i. e. ), an Italian Sub, a Nashville Club and the “Highzenburger,” which is filled with homemade hamburger-style meatloaf.

Some menu toppings include roasted artichokes, chives, whipped cream cheese, and jalapeño havarti.

The day’s specials would possibly include Kalhua pork, Garlic Starship, Californistrami and other more original sandos.

“Between the two delis, we go through about 1,000 pounds of Boar’s Head turkey a week,” Coates estimated.

Customers can create their own sandwiches and even choose to “make them STUNNING, with the selection of additional ingredients from the sando machine to your sandwich. ” Grocery stores also offer lettuce wraps for those avoiding gluten.

For those who say their clientele are primarily Cal Poly students, Coates tends to disagree.

“Our primary customer base is not just college students,” Coates said. “Look at a map. We’re not anywhere near the campus. Once you’re parked at Cal Poly, you don’t really want to leave.”

He does run Tuesday “college” specials, he said — but to help lure in all locals, Coates slashes prices every day at 4:20 p.m., and even offered a 10% “rain or shine” discount on a recent stormy day.

“We get a lot of tourists and do a lot of catering to businesses in town,” he said. “It’s a pretty diverse group of customers.”

The market aspect of grocery stores offers Doobie-style products as well as a limited selection of groceries.

Those who were first drawn to the restaurant, perhaps for its appeal and kitschy vibe, soon find some clever food underneath, and nothing has stopped the chain from trying its food since, not even the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coates said the store “closed for a few weeks,” but since there was no indoor seating, the closure order did not directly affect the deli.

“So we used that time to renovate the kitchen and then continued doing what we were doing,” he said.

Launching online ordering didn’t go quite as smoothly.

The day they reopened with that service in place, he said, “we were so busy that we crashed the entire system. ”

Coates and wife Kayla live in Los Osos with their children, ages 7 and 9. Conveniently, they’ve opened another High Street deli in a historical structure at 1326 Second St. in Baywood Park. They took a couple of years to remodel it, then opened in 2021.

“Both locations have great historical importance,” Coates said, noting that “the Baywood place was moved from its spot on the pier in the 1940s, when the pier was torn down.”

The Baywood deli has some items not offered in San Luis Obispo, such as Hearst Ranch burgers, a Cubano sandwich, beef dip, house-cut fries and Strauss soft-serve ice cream that “makes great floats with our craft sodas on tap,” he said.

Meanwhile, in San Luis Obispo, Coates will renovate the original building, which has been transformed several times over the decades.

“We want to make it better, but exactly the same, keeping its historical significance,” he said. “The siding, probably from the 1940s, is shot. It’s so bad, we can’t even paint it anymore. It just flakes away.”

He said he’s lately looking to adapt the paintings to construction based on original photographs.

He also plans to replicate the historic sign.

“We’re going to repaint it to leave it in its condition,” he said.

The High Street Deli, at High and Carmel streets, and the Baywood deli at 1326 Second St. are open from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Baywood location is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but the San Luis Obispo location is open every day.

Both have dog-and-kid-friendly patios, and the Baywood deli has a large dedicated play area for children.

Phone numbers are 805-541-4738 for San Luis Obispo and 805-439-2977 for Baywood. But they don’t accept phone orders, encouraging consumers to place orders online at highstdeli. com, even up to 3 days in advance.

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