by Frank Lee
operations@thenewsleaders.com
John and Maureen Forsythe have made a lot of sandwiches and sold a lot of soup as the co-owners of BoDiddley’s Pub & Deli, and now they are celebrating their 35th anniversary in St. Joseph.
“And when I first went into business, a huge part of the equation was that I wanted a place to present music,” said John, a graduate of St. John’s University in nearby Collegeville. “I had more of a passion for music than I had about food.”
The married couple who live in St. Cloud acknowledge they couldn’t have made it all these years in business without their hardworking staff at their locations in downtown St. Joseph and in St. Cloud.
“When we opened BoDiddley’s, it was a type of sandwich that really wasn’t offered much in the area,” John said. “In fact, when we opened in 1981, there were no Subways in the whole state of Minnesota. It wasn’t until 1991 that the first Subway opened in St. Cloud.”
BoDiddley’s Pub and Deli bills itself on its website as “serving signature sandwiches and soups in a pub-like atmosphere,” but the eatery in downtown St. Joseph on College Avenue N. is so much more than that to its legions of loyal fans.
“I saw Subway was growing rapidly, out on the East Coast especially, and in the big cities, and so I thought if it’s popular out there it would be popular here. Things just get here a little bit later than they do on the coast,” he said.
The Forsythes established their St. Joseph location in 1981, and the couple opened their St. Cloud location on 25th Avenue S. in 1991, so the St. Cloud location recently celebrated 25 years of being in business.
“I got in early on a type of food that really hadn’t been significantly discovered here in Central Minnesota,” John said. “And as far as continuing to operate and succeed, it’s been a matter of trying to just do things the way they should be done.”
Bo Diddley’s is celebrating its 35 years in business in St. Joseph by offering food specials at its St. Joseph and St. Cloud locations from Tuesday-Thursday, Nov. 15-17.
“All soups and sandwiches are 30 percent off for all those three days,” he said. “But there are a couple of exclusions in terms of that offer is not valid with phone-in orders, delivery or party subs, and there is also a limit of two per person, soup and sandwich.”
He credits Cold Spring Bakery, makers of BoDiddley’s bread since the pub and deli began, for part of the success of BoDiddley’s and for making a product that is “well respected in this area.”
“And we have a secret sauce that is unique that we put on all sub sandwiches – olive oil, vegetable oil with a bunch of spices in it that is just a recipe that we concocted,” he said.
John worked at St. John’s University in Collegeville just before opening BoDiddley’s and cites his connections in the academic community for helping making the business successful.
“Especially in St. Joseph, we got an early foothold in the college communities (of the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University) – both the faculty, the staff and the students, of course,” he said.
“Every year,” he said, “there’s another how many hundreds of St. John’s and St. Ben’s graduates who go out into the world, and some of them stick around Central Minnesota, but a lot of them go to the Twin Cities, and when they are passing through this part of the state, they swing in for a bite.”
The eatery was named BoDiddley’s because it was a nickname for John Forsythe, not because of the late American rhythm-and-blues singer, guitarist, songwriter and music producer “who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock ‘n’ roll,” according to Wikipedia.
“We have a unique atmosphere in the place,” he said. “It’s not a fast-food atmosphere like a lot of the competition is, and one thing that differentiate us from most of the other sandwich shops is we have beer and wine. Are you ever going to see that at Subway?”
He said he would be remiss in not mentioning BoDiddley’s homemade soups made by St. John’s Prep School’s Pat Dwyer for 25 years and Trina Faber, a manager and St. Joseph native who has been at BoDiddley’s for more than 15 years. Those soups and Faber’s management have been key to BoDiddley’s success.
“We have people call us all the time asking, ‘What soups do you have on today?’” he said. “They wouldn’t come in if we didn’t have the soups they wanted on.”
Despite celebrating their 35th anniversary in St. Joseph this month, John said they are putting the business up for sale when it became clear none of his adult children wanted to take over the pub and deli and because the married couple are getting older.
“The next buyer of BoDiddley’s necessarily will have to have the ‘defective restaurant gene,’” he said jokingly about the hard work that went into making the pub and deli a success.
Maureen Forsythe (left) and her husband, John, work behind the counter Nov. 6 at BoDiddley’s Pub and Deli in downtown St. Joseph on College Avenue N. They opened their downtown St. Joseph location in 1981, and their St. Cloud location on 25th Avenue S. in 1991.
BoDiddley’s Pub and Deli is celebrating 35 years of being in business in downtown St. Joseph with food specials from Nov. 15-17 at its location on College Avenue N. and its St. Cloud location on 25th Avenue S..
BoDiddley’s sandwiches have always been made with bread from Cold Spring Bakery, which the pub and deli’s co-owners credit in part for the eatery’s success, but gyros, pitas and soups are also on the menu.
BoDiddley’s is known for their soups and sandwiches, and its St. Joseph location once offered live music, which is still available at the St. Cloud location. A printed sign on the front door notifies long-time customers that BoDiddley’s is up for sale.
