Fancy an I Cantuccini al Cioccolato or perhaps a Savoiardi with your chai latte? If so, then the news is all good you can fulfil your desires by paying a visit to Masterton's newest food business the Queen Street Deli, which opened yesterday. The deli is the first specialist delicatessenin the town for "yonks", according to its entrepreneurial owner Pat McKenna, who has reinvented himself yet again. Mr McKenna, a well-known musician, has had restaurant experience along with a raft of other business ventures and in the last few years is best known for his antique and second-hand trading businesses in both Masterton and Greytown. Queen Street Deli is situated in the shop now-retired master butcher Ron Roberts worked out of for better than 50 years, but doesn't expect his tenure there to last that long as his predecessors. "That would make me 110." However, he has great confidence the deli will flourish once the bedding-in period is over and Masterton people have had time to assess his products. "I want people to tell me what they are after, I am here to listen." On day one the deli offered up a select range of top-line products, some from exotic overseas locations like the Gorgonzola D.O.P cheese from Italy but many sourced from Wairarapa itself. "We have French bread from Greytown, gooseberry marmalade from Martinborough, cheese from Eketahuna and lots of other local products and in summer we will have even more." Mr McKenna said the flavour of Ron Robert's iconic butchery business has been retained. "I have left Ron's counter in place, and we have his old butcher's block."
