New downtown deli dumps its marquee

When it opens in about two weeks, the owner of The Corner Deli on Bay Street said she hopes the business will be most notable for great sandwiches and other delicacies, and not just for what its little corner of downtown now decidedly lacks — a little blue awning known as the marquee.

“I thought it was tacky,” said Annette Stewart, who also serves on the Port Orchard Planning Commission. “I wanted something different.”

Not sure exactly what she wanted instead, however, Stewart said she met with the building’s owner, Doug Zimmerman, and Jim Seibold, who maintains it, to figure out what to do.

“It needed some repairs anyway,” she said, explaining that the trio decided to replace the old, solid wood marquee with a combination of wood and metal, which she said will both be more attractive and weather-resistant.

Stewart said customers and passersby needn’t worry about getting wet now that the marquee is gone, because the new overhang will provide just as much — if not more — shelter from the rain, which Stewart said was one of the reasons people have given in the past for liking the marquee.

Her overhang, she said, just won’t be blue.

Although the marquee can’t be removed from any of the storefronts housed in the large building across Frederick Street from her deli, Stewart said no such restrictions applied to her building.

In fact, she said the marquee will eventually be removed from the rest of Zimmerman’s building, but Siebold was moving fast on her section so it could be ready for her grand opening later this month.

Siebold, who was putting the finishing touches on the overhang Friday with his crew, said he consulted the city’s building inspector several times and was never given a reason why he could not tear down the bright blue beams.

And though the wood was yanked down, Stewart said it did not go to waste.

“I noticed a couple living up on Sidney that was building a fence for their yard, so I asked them if they wanted it,” she said. “So now it’s being used as a little fence for their dogs. We recycled.”

Along with removing the marquee, Siebold said they ripped out the store’s old flooring to reveal the natural wood below and moved the ice cream freezer in the front corner. But the coffee equipment will stay.

Stewart, who also runs a coffee stand further down Bay Street, said she already had so many coffee fixings that she will still offer customers java, but her focus will be on the deli.

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