A few years ago, I remember watching TV and seeing Ads for a place called Sonic. I had never heard of them, so I wondered what they were and why they were advertising here in Minnesota. Now that they’ve arrived, I now know more about them and are familiar with their brand. Moving forward to a couple of months ago when I was driving near 76th Street and France Avenue, I noticed that the McDonald’s was gone and there was a new sign up that said Jason’s Deli. My first thought was, “What’s that?”, and thought it was a stand alone location for a new restaurant concept. Boy was I wrong!
Jason’s Deli first came to Minnesota around 2009 to a location in Eden Prairie. Hadn’t seen that one,so I wasn’t aware of them being here. Their 2nd location just opened recently in Edina, and they have plans for 8 more locations in the Twin Cities. Nationally, they have around 150 locations, so they are no small operation.
At a recent event that they held to show off their catering options, I got to speak to the Director of Catering Sales for the country, Lennon Patton, and the Marketing Director for their Minnesota locations, Danielle Wold. Quality is not something that they take lightly at Jason’s Deli, their prep people are taught that if they look at an ingredient and feel that they wouldn’t personally eat it, they throw the food away. Their ingredients are not outsourced, but are all company controlled. In fact, none of their locations are franchises, they are all corporate owned. Their meats and cheeses are sliced daily and they use family recipes. Additionally, their food has 0% artificial trans fat, 0% of their food has processed MSG, no artificial colors or dyes are used and there is no high fructose corn syrup in their food, with the exception of being in some of their carbonated drinks. For people needing or wanting a Gluten-Free menu, they have one available, and I was told that they change their gloves before making your sandwich so as to not create cross-contamination.
The food is made when you order it, so it’s not fast-food, but made fast for you, with a wait time of about 5-6 minutes for your meal. In addition to being able to eat-in, they also have catering options where you can order food by the tray or have box lunches made for your party or business needs. You may also notice at the Edina location that there are large photographs of various places or activities that go on in Edina. That’s another feature that Jason’s Deli enjoys doing, making their locations not feel like just a chain, but creating a connection to the local community. The photographs were done by Chip Jones of Chip Jones Photography.
I haven’t had everything on their menu, it would take awhile to do that, but what I have tried so far I’ve been very pleased with. So give them a try and welcome them to Minnesota. You might even get some free ice-cream when you visit them.
Learn a little bit more about them by checking out the video at the end of this post.