Then & Now: Perry's Deli, 134 Main St., Worcester

Mike Elfland, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Updated ·2 min read
What is now a parking lot on Main Street was once home to Percy's appliance store.
What is now a parking lot on Main Street was once home to Percy's appliance store.
The building at 134 Main St. is gone. So, too, is the sign for Robinson Place, which amounted to an alley between 144 Main St., still standing, and 134 Main St.
The building at 134 Main St. is gone. So, too, is the sign for Robinson Place, which amounted to an alley between 144 Main St., still standing, and 134 Main St.

Soon after World War II, Wilfred J. Perry opened a small restaurant on north Main Street, not far from Lincoln Square.

Perry's Luncheonette thrived. Eventually, a son, Wilfred A. Perry joined the business.

After 25 years at 49 Main St., Perry's Luncheonette moved a few blocks south, to 144 Main St., in a building that people know today as the home of Armsby Abbey. For the Perrys, the move meant increased capacity, with many of the added stools and tables coming from the recently closed Toupins Food Shop, blocks away on Main Street.

Some of the customers at the restaurant came from the many other businesses that once filled the north end of Main Street. Next door to the luncheonette, at 134 Main St., was Percy's appliance store. That business, founded in the 1920s by Percy Lavine and his brother William, supplied generations of Worcester residents with refrigerators and stoves. In 1981, Percy's moved to its current spot off Gold Star Boulevard.

Not long after Percy's moved out, Perry's moved in. The move next door gave the restaurant more space. The Marriott hotel across the way would be a source of many customers.

By this time, Irene Perry was running the restaurant. About six years earlier, her husband Wilfred passed away at the age of 49. At that time the family was thinking about getting out of the business. Irene kept the restaurant going. The five Perry children grew up working at the family business.

Irene's father ran Peter's Dairy Bar on Millbury Street for many years.

In December 1982, after a $125,00 renovation at the former appliance store, Perry's Restaurant and Delicatessen opened at 144 Main St. The expanded menu was headlined by Perry's Special, an eight-ounce sirloin that fetched $5.75.

But money troubles would follow. In less than a year the restaurant closed. Another restaurant, Karole's Kitchen, which moved into Perry's old spot, also had a short life. The neighborhood wasn't as vibrant.

At the time, a lawyer for Perry's cited a lack of parking and the traffic pattern of north Main Street as factors in the closing.

Four years later, Perry's was reborn as Perry's again, a luncheonette in the earlier building, 144 Main St., run by Maryellen Perry, a granddaughter of the founder. That business lasted five years.

Meantime, the building at 134 Main St., once home to Percy's, was falling into disrepair. A rooming house filled the upper floors. Other restaurants came and went.

Many people might remember the building as home of Joe the Hatter's shoeshine stand, where Joseph Shooshan held court. His shop was as much a social club as it was a place to get your shoes spiffed up.

In the years after Perry's closed, the building at 134 Main St. was razed. It remains a parking lot.

Last week Then & Now: 5 Norwich St., Worcester

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Then & Now: Perry's Deli, 134 Main St., Worcester