Idaho Life: Italian deli done right

You get a sense of it even in the parking lot. And you can see it in the strip mall sign. But it's when you hear the voice that you really feel like a little of New York City has landed in Garden City, Idaho.

"Well, that's part of the show, I guess," says Jimmy Beltucci, owner of Uncle Giuseppe's Italian Deli, the seven-year-old brainchild of Jimmy and his son, Stephen.

But really, deli goes back generations for the Beltuccis.

Jimmy grew up in Queens, New York, and at the age of 18 he had a choice: Either go to work for the New York Fire Department or work for his uncle at the family store.

"His name was Giuseppe so that's why I named it after him," Jimmy says. "Thanks to him I retired at 50."

Then Stephen pulled him back into the family business at the age of 53.

"He put the place, basically, together," says Jimmy of Stephen.

You see, 11 years ago the Beltucci family followed Gina, Jimmy's daughter and Stephen's sister, to Boise when she enrolled at Boise State University.

"Well, we came and visited a few times first," says the 59-year-old Jimmy. "And then we said, 'This is the place to retire.'"

Only Stephen had an idea to bring a bit of the Big Apple to the City of Trees and give people a chance to branch out from franchise Italian food.

"You know that's just it," says Stephen. "We're just bringing out a concept from the East to the West."

Their customers agree.

"We're both full Italians so finding a place like this is kinda rare," explains one man enjoying a #16 with his friend.

That's what make Giuseppe's a southern Idaho sandwich shop like no other.

"I haven't seen any," says Jimmy. "And I've tried for the first four years that I lived here."