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Pam Klotz and Darci White are a fixture in downtown Marble Falls as their sandwich and salad bar popular has sustained and grown through the years. Chase Richard appeared with them here in a photo op in 2017. Contributed photos -
Homemade bread, fresh ingredients and hot soup ensure food for the soul year round at Darci’s Deli. -
Darci’s Deli signature, fresh salad bar has inspired customers to eat their veggies and more. Contributed photo -
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Darci’s Deli is the tale of two sisters who have achieved what most restaurants only dream of; seventeen years in the same location, awards for the best sandwiches in town since 2007, and a loyal following of customers, many of whom have become friends.
Darci White and Pam Klotz are indeed an anomaly.
Pam says that there has never been a cross word spoken between them in the years they have worked closely together, even during 2020, which brought about the closing of many small restaurants nationwide.
Both believe that the key to their longevity is consistency in both the quality of the food and the service.
The definition of consistent could be summed up as the achievement of a level of performance that does not vary with the passing of time.
Consistency has helped Darci and Pam build trust in the community and has contributed to their reputation for serving the area’s best homemade soups and sandwiches from scratch on bread that Pam bakes daily.
Retirement brings a lot of families to Texas, especially if most of your life has included long winters of snow and ice.
Darci shared that her family decided to leave the frozen north in Minnesota, got lost looking for the Texas Hill Country, ended up in a little town called Horseshoe Bay, and moved in 1993.
Darci smiled as she said, “We owned a large farm, so we packed up all the horses, dogs, cats, and the tractor and left. We looked like the Clampetts coming to Texas.”
Even though Darci’s parents had to bribe her with the promise of help in opening a restaurant to get her to leave her home in Minnesota, she has never regretted the move because she fell in love with Marble Falls.
Her first deli was very small, and following the birth of her son, she decided to close the restaurant.
After a few months, Darci was back in the workforce as a manager at Cap Rock in Horseshoe Bay until she was asked to re-open her deli.
Darci’s desire to be home when her son was some of the reasoning behind going back into business. Because of deep family ties, her sister Pam came to help for a week and is still working in the Deli seventeen years later.
They began with a baker who made fresh bread every day for their sandwiches, but Pam decided she had to learn that part of the business upon his leaving. “I didn’t know anything about baking, but I am good at figuring things out.”
Today, Pam has indeed figured out how to bake and is responsible for the signature bread, beautifully crusted that you taste with your eyes even before you bite into your scrumptious sandwich. She also bakes those delicious cookies that accompany every plate.
In addition to working at the Deli, Pam owns a business that buys and sells horses and gives riding lessons.
When the work is done in the restaurant, her work begins with her horses. She and her sister share what they call “a determination not to fail.”
This solid work ethic and inability to give up on anything kept them in business in the lean years, and the tough times that closed their dining room in 2020 forcing them to create other ways to feed their customers.
Pam says, “I drove, and I delivered. When you are family, you work harder.”
Since they could not utilize the open salad bar or their trademark soup bar, everything had to be individually portioned.
The innovative measures that the sisters were forced to implement have helped them streamline a business that is tough even in good years and keep the doors open.
When you walk into Darci’s Deli, 909 Third St., it is reminiscent of grandma’s kitchen with fresh bread smells and the aroma of the soup bar simmering old favorites like chicken and dumplings, tomato basil, chili in the winter months, or Minnesota wild rice soup.
Soups change periodically, and so do the daily lunch specials, but the quality is always the same.
Everything is made with fresh ingredients from scratch, using natural meats and fresh produce. Some items have become legendary, like Darci’s famous chicken salad made with all-white meat chicken, celery, almonds, and her secret low-fat mayo.
Darci and her sister Pam are fighters who refuse to accept that you cannot consistently serve the highest quality food while maintaining extraordinary customer service in an environment that keeps people coming back year after year.
At Darci’s Deli, you become more than a customer. You become part of the family.
Editor›s Note: Find this feature and more stories in the 2022 WOW (Women of the Workforce) magazine, designed and produced by Highland Lakes Publishing.
“When you are family, you work harder.”
– Pam Klotz of Darci’s Deli