# Rein’s Deli Started Because Two New Jersey Transplants Missed a Decent Corned Beef Sandwich
Bob and Betty Rein moved to Connecticut from Elizabeth, New Jersey for work, and once they got settled, they ran into a problem they hadn’t anticipated: nowhere in the area served a corned beef sandwich that met their standards. Rather than keep looking, Bob, his wife, and his brother Bernie decided to build the deli themselves. They opened Rein’s in 1972, just off Route 84 in Vernon, and gave it a motto that still appears on the menu today — “The Taste of Quality is Long Remembered.”
The original location sat across the street from where Rein’s operates now, in a plaza called El Camino. It stayed there for eighteen years until a fire tore through the building in 1990. Rather than rebuild on a long timeline, the Reins moved across the street and reopened within eight to ten days, a turnaround that’s become part of how longtime regulars tell the story of the place. The deli has been at its current Hartford Turnpike address ever since, marking close to fifty years there as of the late 2020s.
Ownership changed in a way that reflects how the Reins ran the place from the start. Russell Debella began working at Rein’s at seventeen, doing cleaning shifts for the owners. One of them told him that if he kept working like that, he’d own the place one day — and Debella eventually did, taking over the business while holding onto the same approach the Reins had built it on: feed people well, treat them like family, and don’t skimp on portions. The Reuben is the clearest example. The regular size comes with a quarter pound of meat; the “fresser” version comes with nearly half a pound, piled onto rye with sauerkraut, Swiss, and a housemade dressing that adds up to most of a pound of sandwich.
The menu runs through the standard repertoire of a New York-style Jewish deli — pastrami and corned beef hand-sliced and served hot, hand-cut lox on bagels with cream cheese, matzo ball soup, potato pancakes, knishes, and stuffed cabbage, with cheese blintzes, rugelach, babka, and a New York cheesecake for dessert. Tables get complimentary half-sour pickles before anything else arrives, a small touch that regulars expect and first-timers usually don’t see coming. The deli counter sells much of the same inventory by the pound for anyone who wants to assemble a meal at home, alongside house-made pickles bottled for takeaway.
Rein’s sits roughly halfway between New York and Boston on I-84, a location that’s brought in a steady stream of travelers alongside its base of local regulars over the decades — out-of-state ski groups and hockey families making a regular stop among them. The deli marked its fiftieth anniversary with a renovation and ribbon-cutting attended by state legislators and the Vernon mayor, an event that doubled as a fundraiser for the town’s first responders, one of many local causes the restaurant has supported over the years. The matzo ball recipe, regulars are quick to point out, has never been shared.
📍 435 Hartford Turnpike, Vernon, CT
🕐 Daily 8 am–8 pm
🔗 reinsdeli.com