Lewright Deli has been a staple of the Eagle Grove dining community for the last 30 years. People have come from near and far to enjoy their delicious menu with sandwiches prepared from meat processed by Ethan Bubeck and his crew right in the back room. But after three decades, Bubeck has made the difficult decision to close the deli side in order to meet the growing demand of the public for meat processing.
“This was a very hard decision for me because the deli has been here all my life,” said Bubeck.
He went on to say that the deli as we know it will cease to exist, but the processing side of his business is growing like he could have never imagined.
“The industry is changing so quickly and so fast it’s unbelievable,” said Bubeck. “We are bursting at the seams, processing more livestock than ever before.”
After countless hours of weighing the pros and cons, Bubeck ultimately decided he needed to evolve the company to meet the needs of the industry, and that means the capability to process more pork and beef for families to put on their dinner tables.
Bubeck stated that with such a long wait list to have beef and pork processed, some farmers are even scheduling processing dates for animals that haven’t been born yet.
“We are booked for the next year solid for processing beef,” stated Bubeck, which was yet more proof of why he knew he needed to expand the processing side of the business.
It was originally built in 1936 by his grandfather, H.L. Lewright Sr. In 1981, Paul Bubeck (H.L. Jr.’s son-in-law and Ethan’s dad), joined the company. He began developing the retail and wholesale aspect. Now, with Ethan at the helm, he is also ready to take a leap of faith in moving the company forward by expanding the process area. While he admits it hard to see the deli era come to an end, he is excited about what it means not only for the future of Lewright Meats, but for the future of Eagle Grove.
“We love our community…and on the exciting side of this change, there are a lot of exciting new things coming…like the addition of new employees to help us meet this need,” said Bubeck.
It also means more cold storage as well as new products for sale where the seating area once was for the deli. There’s some other good news too. Bubeck said that they are looking at ways to be able to make their most popular deli sandwich meats available prepackaged. This way, you can still enjoy that great deli taste you’ve come to love, but in the comfort of your own home. Additionally, they will have some of their most popular salads available to-go as well.
“People will be seeing some great things coming out of here,” Bubeck said enthusiastically.
The deli is now officially closed. Bubeck anticipates work on that portion of the building to begin the first part of August.
