Bruno’s Market & Deli maintains old-fashioned values, treating customers and staff like family.

Fermin Sanchez sits on “The Bench,” a wooden seat just outside one of the entrances to Bruno’s Market & Deli in Carmel. Every few minutes someone – a customer, supplier or employee – stops to chat with this longtime owner. He welcomes each person by name with a warm smile and friendly greeting.

The Bench, says Sanchez, has been the site for many a friendship formed and business deal made in what he calls the heart of the village.

The market itself has been in business for 65 years under different names, first Pilot’s and later Morton’s. Vince Bruno, who originally ran another market in town called Kip’s, purchased Morton’s and renamed it. Sanchez worked for Bruno for a couple of years as a head cashier. “He was a good groceryman,” Sanchez recalls. When Bruno put the market up for sale in 1982, Sanchez’s family purchased it, retaining the name.

The store is an indispensable fixture in town, supplying locals and tourists alike. Its prepared foods made in-house are especially popular on weekdays. Mexican offerings are a huge draw, with a burrito bar on Mondays, enchiladas and flautas on Tuesdays, barbacoa on Thursdays and shrimp a la diabla on Fridays. On Thursdays and Fridays, there’s prime rib and on Friday afternoons, brick-oven pizzas.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on quality merchandise and customer service,” says Sanchez, who runs the store with wife, Kerry, and son Ryan. “We still have the belief of running a good old-fashioned grocery store.”

Just like in the old days, the store keeps house accounts for customers and makes local deliveries. Sanchez is especially proud of the fact that in these days of online ordering, customers can call Bruno’s and speak to a live person – no recordings.

In a town known for eschewing casual dining in favor of highbrow, white-tablecloth dining, Sanchez has been a trailblazer. “Years ago it was against the law to buy a ready-made sandwich,” he says, recalling how tourists bought each ingredient separately – meat, bread, condiments – for picnics. “I got the first full-service deli permit in 1982 to sell a grab-and-go sandwich.”

Sanchez says his son Ryan is prepared to carry on the tradition with new ideas.

“We’re still picking up steam. It’s a secret, but there’s still more we’re going to do,” Sanchez says with a smile – then he adds a caveat: “I want to keep it with the old-town feel.”