Mom and pop cook up old-school favorites at family-run sandwich shop in South Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Peter Miglino and his partner, Victoria Rio, don't believe in there being too many cooks in the kitchen. They asked Peter's parents, Nick and Maria Miglino, to work with them at the sandwich shop they opened in 2020 called Dolores' Deli.

"They're hot food. We're cold food," says Peter Miglino, co-owner of Dolores' Deli.

He says they all come up with ideas and meet in the middle to "make magic happen."

The deli was named after Nick's mother, Dolores, because Peter says a lot of the cooking his parents do stems from his grandmother.

Now, Peter and Victoria are forging a new food path for the family.

Peter says they do everything from traditional Italian hoagies to hot foods.

"We have done a lot of funky sandwiches," says Victoria Rio, the other co-owner of Dolores' Deli.

One of their most popular creations is called "The Pooh Bear."

The name of the hoagie comes from the honey aspect since it has both honey turkey and honey ham. It's topped off with a fried pickle.

"The fried pickle does something special to the sandwich," she says.

"We do it proper here," says Peter Miglino.

A deli is a second act for Nick and Maria Miglino. They ran Felicia's in South Philadelphia until it closed in 2007.

Nick says they opened Felicia's in 1987, serving "modern Italian food."

They say they're enjoying their roles at the deli, where Nick says he's caught his "second wind."

"We knew he could do his thing, and we could do our thing," says Maria Miglino, who now cooks at the deli with her husband.

Nick says their thing is cooking "the old school way," going back to how things were done when they were young. He says they take pride in the quality of meat and the sandwich toppings.

There's a roast pork sandwich that Maria says they make "the way our parents made it."

Peter says he likes that his parents make the pizza steaks "the right way," with grilled tomatoes instead of sauce.

Nick says they use fresh tomatoes and everything is "made in-house."

They roast the peppers themselves and Maria makes the different mayonnaises they use on their sandwiches.

"It's not about quickness," says their son, Peter. "It's keeping the product at a consistent high-quality standard here."

"Peter and Victoria work well together," says Maria Miglino.

She says she's glad Peter got involved in doing what her and her husband, Nick, did.

"And that's the secret of this business - it needs to evolve," says Nick. "It's not work, it's a passion."

"We're having fun here," she says.