Every Thursday during lunch, senior Nate Chang and his friends walk just off campus to Rich’s Deli where they continue a tradition of eating cheesesteaks and a two-dollar pickle from Rich’s.
“It’s a gathering place for us,” Chang said. “There’s a couple of tables outside, and we just sit outside, eat and have a lot of fun.”
For Chang and the many GA students who visit Rich’s (as it is affectionately called), the sense of community is what keeps them coming back. This staple of the GA community has been around for 45 years and centers around Rich Rosneau, founder and owner of the deli.
Rosneau’s connection to the food business started with his father, who owned Paul’s Delicatessen in the heart of North Philly from 1964 to 1973.
“I worked for my dad from the time I was 11 to 19,” Rosneau said. “As I got older and I worked more, I learned the food business.”
After graduating from La Salle College in 1975, Rosneau worked in a local supermarket before getting a job as a medical product salesman. However, after a couple of years, he decided to go on a different path.
“I told my dad, ‘I don’t want to work for anybody the rest of my life,’” said Rosenau. “I wanted to be my own boss, and the only thing I could raise capital for money was the food business because I worked so much for my father and I was trained in it.”
By luck, Rosenau found a place, then called Bea’s Deli, in 1978 when its past owner was ready to sell. He was 24 years old when he bought the building, and the rest is history.
Today, the deli sits in its original location and serves as a go-to spot for Fort Washington locals.
“This location’s phenomenal because if you look at it, from a hot air balloon or satellite, you have a hospital, you have a train station and you have an industrial park just nearby,” said Rosenau. “So that means not only hundreds of businesses, but thousands, if not tens of thousands, of employees.”
The deli’s location right next to GA has also made for long-lasting connections with current and past students who regularly visit.
Mr. Murray, Upper School History teacher and a member of GA’s class of 1987, has been visiting Rich’s since his childhood.
“I grew up in the area, and I knew it even before it was Rich’s and when it was a place called Bea’s,” said Mr. Murray. “My family would go to Bea’s when I was in kindergarten, and then Rich Rosenau bought it and turned it into Rich’s. And it became sort of a Sunday tradition that my father would go and he’d get his hoagie and sometimes I’d get one.”
Just like GA students today can walk to Rich’s during the school day, Mr. Murray also remembers the excitement of visiting Rich’s after school.
“After school, you could go over there [Rich’s],” said Mr. Murray. “Whenever I played a sport, that’s what you looked forward to after sports: to go over and get a soda and candy. So those are some of my early memories.”
The presence of Rich’s Deli in the GA community for such a long time has fostered lifelong relationships and the adoption of the deli as a part of the community.
“It’s the type of place where a lot of the people working at Rich’s knew the students by name, and you knew a little bit about them,” said Mr. Murray. “So it felt like they were, in a way, part of the community.”
For Rosneau, this means getting to know generations of GA families as well as regulars from the local Fort Washington area.
“I get to know the parents of students who came to the deli, and I get to know their kids,” said Rosenau. “Now, since there’s such longevity, I get to know the kids’ kids. And that is so cool to know three generations of hundreds of families.”
Rosenau’s connection to the GA community also extends beyond his deli, as one of his sons, Phillip, graduated from GA’s class of 2002.
“My little boy Phillip was a lifer because I was so impressed by the GA alums that came back to visit and how they were such well-rounded individuals,” said Rosenau. “I saw that they turned out so well, and I wanted my kid to turn out like that.”
This meaningful connection between Rich’s and GA is not only what makes Rich’s special to regulars who visit—its wide array of hoagies and deli sandwiches along with its drink and snack selection is also what keeps them coming back.
“Rich is a great guy,” said Chang. “He knows his food, and he selects all the food himself.”
This attention to detail largely comes from Rosenau’s experience working in the food business with his father, but it also comes from the pride he takes in the food he serves.
“I only sell stuff that I enjoy and have passed the taste test,” said Rosenau. “There is no such thing as one company having a monopoly on the best of every product, but I try to get the best of the best.”
So, every Thursday, when Chang gets his weekly cheesesteak and drink from Rich’s and waves at Rosenau on the way out, he continues in the shoes of 45 years of GA students who have walked through those very doors.