Kneller's Delicatessen & Appetizing has stretched its hours into the evening, turning a Speedway Boulevard breakfast-and-lunch stop into an all-day New York-style deli and diner. The midtown Tucson spot now bakes its own hoagie rolls for a new lineup of cold and hot sandwiches, ranging from a $17 chopped grinder piled with mortadella and calabrese salami to a $20 smoked brisket sandwich called Sheila's Brisket, layered with date gravy and house mustard on rye.
Owner Jeremy Kneller-Hernandez opened the deli at 2545 E. Speedway Blvd. #115 in May 2025, and the dinner expansion marks a new phase for the operation, according to Tucson Foodie. He told the outlet that the move fulfills his vision of a New York-style deli and diner running all day in Tucson, and that the goal is for the restaurant to feel just as comfortable at dinner as it does over a morning bagel. The deli bakes all its bread and bagels in-house, brines everything for three weeks, and slices pastrami and brisket fresh to order from the steam table, per the same report.
From Farmers Market Cart to Full Dinner Menu
Kneller-Hernandez's path to a brick-and-mortar deli started small. Before the Speedway storefront opened, the business ran as a mobile pop-up cart in late 2024, testing knishes and latkes at Tucson farmers markets including St. Philip's Plaza, according to an Instagram post
documenting the early effort. That grassroots start helped validate demand before the deli committed to a full storefront.
His recipes draw on a personal history that bridges two coasts. Kneller-Hernandez was raised in Tucson by a Jewish mother from Queens and a Hispanic father from East Los Angeles, and he has credited childhood summers visiting grandparents in New York — including trips to Oyster Bay and Shea Stadium — with shaping his approach to the menu, per the Jewish Journal. The deli's knish selection draws on an aunt's recipe, according to the Jewish Journal.
What's New on the Dinner Menu
The dinner menu anchors its cold and hot sandwich sections with a house-made potato hoagie roll. Cold options include a chicken salad sandwich with brie, green apple, and lemon aioli for $16, and a tuna salad on house rye for $15. On the hot side, diners can order a chopped cheese sandwich with brisket ground beef and pickled green chili for $17, an Italian beef with giardiniera and pepperoncini for $18, or a $24 smoked prime rib dip finished with horseradish aioli, caramelized onion, and jus.
Breakfast items remain in the mix throughout the day. A breakfast burro with potatoes, brisket, scrambled egg, cheddar, and chipotle aioli runs $14, with a pastrami substitution available for $2 more. The diner's breakfast — two eggs any style with potatoes, house rye toast, jam, and butter — starts at $9, with add-ons like bacon, mortadella, Taylor ham, or brisket. House favorites, including the smoked prime rib dip, become available starting at 11 a.m., and bagels are served until 2 p.m., while the full menu runs all day.
An Appetizing Board and a Decade-Long Deli Gap
The appetizing board, available both day and night for $18, pairs house pickles, potato egg salad, giardiniera, pickled beets, coleslaw, and rotating house jam with a choice of house-cured lox, whitefish salad, chopped liver, tuna salad, chicken salad, or salami. Classic knishes — potato, caramelized onion, and cheddar in house-made pastry — run $4.50 until 2 p.m., with a rotating $6 knish of the day. The menu also includes matzo ball soup for $10, corned beef on rye with a 10-day brine for $20, and pastrami on rye built on a month-long brine and in-house smoking for $22. Deli sides, soups, and salads are available all day, alongside wine and beer, and the evening atmosphere is described as a funky elevated deli.
The expansion fills a void that's existed in Tucson since 2019, when 5th Street Deli and Kitchen — formerly Feig's, the city's longtime sole kosher deli and market — closed for good, according to the Arizona Jewish Post. After that closure, local residents reportedly turned to co-ops and periodic delivery shipments from Los Angeles to get their deli fix. It's worth noting that while Kneller's operates in a kosher-style tradition with pastrami, knishes, and lox on the menu, it also serves cheese and meat together, setting its model apart from strictly kosher-certified establishments.
A Midtown Corridor in Flux
Kneller's is located on Speedway Boulevard. The corridor is also seeing a wave of new residential density nearby, including a proposed 19-story, $250 million University of Arizona student residence hall tower near Speedway Boulevard and Campbell Avenue, as Hoodline reported in its piece on the Speedway dorm tower plans.
In May 2026, Kneller's was featured in the premiere episode of the video series Slow Course, according to the show's YouTube premiere. That attention follows an earlier charitable push: during National Deli Month in 2025, Kneller's pledged 10% of its daily special sales and a $100 gift card to Youth On Their Own, a Tucson nonprofit supporting homeless and unaccompanied high school students.
Head baker Anna Summer oversees the deli's scratch baking program, which turns out all the bread and bagels served across the day's menu, Tucson Foodie's report notes. Diners looking to try the new dinner lineup can reach the deli at 520-955-8881, with the full menu — from morning bagels to late smoked brisket — served throughout the day at the Speedway Boulevard location.
