Filli's Spreads The Deli Love With Third Location
The market, deli and bakery is bringing its traditional offerings to New Lebanon in April.
Filli’s Deli and Jersey Baking is a throwback to a time and flavor that quickly resonated with locals and transplants when it opened on Main Street in Valatie in 2019. Filli’s quickly connected with the community — its straightforward, timeless recipes and deli service take one back to the delis of Long Island and NYC’s many 'burbs.
Now, just a few years later, the family business, helmed by Damon Filli, is about to open its third location in New Lebanon. In 2021, after successfully navigating the worst of the pandemic, Filli’s was able to open a second location at the site of the former Claverack Market, which the Filli family had run from the 1950s to 2014. Now that space is a deli, market and central kitchen hub for the expanding business’s bakery and prepared foods. Next month, to great local delight, Filli’s will open its third market location in the old Tilden Plaza on State Route 20 in New Lebanon as an “express” deli and market at first and later as a fully operational grocery store.
Filli says rapid expansion has been a lot of hard work for everyone involved, but it’s all worth it.
“I can’t complain. The key to everything is consistency,” he said. “We are a very structured company, which comes from our roots.”
For Filli those roots spread in both directions of the family tree, His mother’s father, Max Slominski, ran the Jersey Bakery in Hudson from the 1950s to the 1990s, and his father’s father, John Filli, started the Claverack Market in 1957.
Both families originated from the New York metropolitan area. Grandfather Slominski worked in bakeries in Freehold, New Jersey before coming to Columbia County (hence the “Jersey-style” of the bakery). The Slominskis were Polish Catholics and Slominski cut his teeth working with Jewish delis in Brooklyn before moving upstate.
“Our focus is on traditional older items. We stick to those recipes, we do them and we do them well,” said Filli, “Along with the bakery, our meat business has really blossomed. We are offering items that have been mainstream but are harder and harder to find, especially up here.”
When Filli’s opened in Valatie, there was no intention to expand. Now the business is already twice the size of the old Claverack Market and equipped for even further expansion beyond New Lebanon… some day.
After the tumult of the pandemic, and growing as a reliable local food source, the opportunity to move back to Claverack presented itself and Filli admitted it was special to move back. Plus, having a larger centralized bakery and kitchen allowed them to create consistency through their baked offerings, which is vital as they open new locations.
“It felt good, like going home,” he said. “We saw all these people we knew that were happy to have us back in the community.”
Last year they purchased the old Tilden Plaza, which had been a flea market, office space, and The Hitching Post Restaurant. They had initially hoped to open an “express” version of the market in March, but logistical delays have pushed the grand opening to mid April. While Filli calls it express, it will still be a full-service deli and bakery and will just be lacking the full grocery store that is to come. For New Lebanon residents, the opening can’t come soon enough.
“There is a lot of excitement in the community, which is good,” he said. “But things take time!”
Over the past four years Filli has led his family business from the brink of ruin into its most profitable era ever, keeping a family tradition alive even as Columbia County’s demographics change fast. Of his ability to preserve his family legacy, Filli said, “It’s surreal. It’s nice. The biggest part for me is being able to extend the family heritage. The younger generation of our family is already involved and working in the business. And our employees who aren’t family are like family. Our connection to our employees is everything.”
Filli's Deli and Jersey Bakery
3019 Main St., Valatie, and 8 Park Street, Claverack
(518) 610-8210
Open 7 a.m.–4 p.m. Monday–Saturday; 8 a.m.–2 p.m. Sunday
