Salvador Deli - Part 1: When A Dream Finds A Kitchen

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What happens when a beloved local brewery needs consistent food and a dreamer with a wine-soaked notebook steps up? We bring you a front-row seat to how Courtney, co-owner of Salvador Deli in Vero Beach, turned years of travel, service work, and wine education into a cozy, art-forward kitchen inside Walking Tree Brewery. The story starts with AmeriCorps in the South Bronx, detours through New York and Australia, and comes home to Florida with a plan: quick service, high quality, and flavors designed to pair with beer rather than compete with it.

We unpack the pivotal moments that made the deli real. Courtney shares the pitch that nearly scared her off, the permitting delays that stretched patience, and the sudden sprint of opening once the green light came. Inside the space, the name—Salvador Deli—sets the tone: playful, creative, and detail-driven. From house-made sauces to the cult-favorite beer cheese built on Walking Tree’s Baby Cakes, every element aims to make familiar pub staples feel fresh. Seasonal beers guide rotating specials like brats with Oktoberfest, while family-friendly touches keep the taproom welcoming for kids and curious eaters alike.

Behind the scenes, we talk systems, staffing, and the human side of hospitality. A tight-knit crew of eight keeps the line humming, including a part-time treasure diver whose schedule flexes with the tides. The biggest lesson from year one centers on people—coaching a team, reading guests, and building trust under pressure. If you care about restaurant entrepreneurship, beer and food pairings, or how a neighborhood spot earns loyalty through consistency and creativity, this conversation offers practical insight with plenty of heart. If you enjoyed the episode, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—we’d love to hear your favorite beer and bite pairing.

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Episode Transcript

Brian (00:00):
All right, well, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast.
I'm Brian.

Shawna (00:02):
And I'm Shauna.

Brian (00:03):
And today we are sitting with here with Courtney from the
Salvador Deli.
Courtney, we're so excited tohave you here.

Shawna (00:09):
Thank you.
I'm happy to be here.
My first podcast.
First podcast.
Woohoo!

Brian (00:13):
All right, so Courtney, so would you mind taking about
30 seconds and tell us a littlebit about yourself?

Courtney (00:17):
Sure.
Yeah.
So I'm Courtney Cotherman, oneof the owners of Salvador Deli.
I was born and raised in Vero.
So left, moved around a littlebit, New York City, Australia
for a little bit.
Oh my gosh.
But I always come back to Verobecause it's home.
My family's here.
So love it and very happy tohave a business here as well.
It feels like an honor.

Brian (00:34):
So you went to New York and you went to Australia, you
said?

Courtney (00:38):
So I spent, yeah, a little bit of time in Australia,
a year.
I can hear the accent.
Yeah, right.
I traveled back after eightyears.
And then yeah, some time in NewYork too, which kind of
inspired some of this as well,you know, like through the
travels.
But yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
But here we are back in Bureau.

Brian (00:52):
So what called you to traveling to those areas?

Courtney (00:55):
So New York, I did a AmeriCorps program called City
Year.
So I worked in a middle schoolin the South Bronx, which was an
experience.
Yeah.
Which I absolutely loved.
So I did it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brian (01:07):
Uh well, okay.
How did you get started in therestaurant business?

Courtney (01:10):
So after my traveling and, you know, kind of going
back and forth, ended up atKilted Mermaid.
Linda took me in like one ofher many strays.
And uh she was always sosupportive of travel too.
So I would kind of come and go.
And that lasted for about adecade.
So working together there, Istarted to study wine.
This became sort of a passion.
I was thinking about turning acareer into that.
So we started doing these winedinners together where we would

(01:32):
have people come in, we wouldpair wine and food, and we sold
out all of them, you know, andit was a big success.
So we teamed up together, andthen this opportunity came to
be, and here we are.
That's awesome.

Brian (01:43):
So, what did you do at Kilted?
I mean, where is that what youdo?
Is just specify justspecifically on wine?

Courtney (01:48):
No, no, I was server, bartender, the end, social
media, marketing, events.
So everything.
Yeah, your hands are yeah,which is really great training
for this.
Yeah, you know, absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.

Brian (02:00):
Yeah, because when you become an owner of a restaurant
or owner of any business and youare just doing just the owner
part, right?

Courtney (02:05):
You're in charge of everything, exactly.
Yes.

Brian (02:07):
How many people do you have that work here?

Courtney (02:09):
We have eight currently.
Okay.
Yeah.
So and some are like superpart-time.
Like we have one of our guys,Luke Fuller, is a treasure
diver.
And so he just, you know,actually was in the paper for
collecting quite a few, youknow, Spanish silver.
And then I saw it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Did you see it?
Yeah.
So he works here one day aweek, sort of while he does
that.
And yeah, and then we've got acouple, you know, full-time, and
those are my right-hand guys.

(02:29):
And yeah.
So tell us about the momentthat you decided you were gonna
start your own restaurant.
Yeah.
So walking tree, we've beengreat friends with for over 10
years, I would say.
Mike and Brooke, and theydefinitely took a leap of faith
on us, which has turned out tobe a great partnership.
But yeah, so this came aboutand it took a lot longer than we
expected it to to come tofruition just with permitting

(02:51):
and whatnot.
So had time to work on thoseskills we were talking about.
Yeah.
So probably learned some newones along the way.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But yeah, finally, you know,last year it all happened and
then it happened so fast.
You know, of course, you wait,wait, wait, and then, you know,
you blink, and then I blinkedagain, and it's been a year.

Brian (03:08):
So tell us a little bit about your partnership with
walking tree.
Like how did it come about?
Like, how did they approach youor did they even know you're
interested in something likethis?

Courtney (03:16):
Yeah, I think, you know, there were conversations
through the friendship about theneed of a restaurant here.
They had food trucks for yearsand were absolutely fabulous,
you know, nothing against foodtrucks, but with that, sometimes
they can be a littleinconsistent.
So they wanted permanent food.
And this kind of model wassomething I always wanted, like
a quick service, you know,something that was conducive to
the brewery where you couldreally be creative too.

(03:37):
So had those conversations.
I had a big scary meeting with,you know, everybody and sat
down and won them over, youknow, luckily.
And no, no, I'm kidding.
But yeah, but but yeah, sowe're here and that's very
happy.

Brian (03:48):
Okay, so you big okay, I know you're joking in some ways,
but what was the scariest partfor you about that meeting?

Courtney (03:54):
No, it's terrifying.
You know, you're presentingsomething that's your baby, you
know, and if it's rejected,there's obviously things you
have to deal with with that too.
And so yeah, no, I think it wasmore or less just the
presentation of this issomething that I'm really
passionate about, and I I hopeyou like it too.
And yeah, yeah, it seems tohave been well received.

Brian (04:11):
So Okay, so I mean, I know me and Shauna have talked
about this.
I'm definitely excited thatyou're here because if anyone
hasn't been here yet, they'rereally missing out.
It's nice to know there'sthere's a consistent type of
food here.
Like we know if we come hereand we want to get something to
eat, we're gonna get somethingof good quality.
That again, I'm not just sayingthat we've love the food and
we'll talk about that morelater.

Shawna (04:30):
I have a less, yes.
Thank you guys.
Yes.
So the name obviously is a playon Salvador Dolly, right?
Yeah, yeah.
But what made you decide toturn that into a concept?

Brian (04:41):
Okay, but wait a minute.
Okay, what's you explained tome, I don't know what this you
said it's a concept of what?
Because I don't even know that.

Shawna (04:47):
Okay, so Salvador Dolly is an artist.
So as soon as I saw and evenlike the fonts, uh-huh.
The artwork, yeah, yeah.
So as soon as I saw it, I waslike, oh, that is such an
interesting idea.
And I will say for people whohaven't been here yet, you know,
there's artwork on the wallsand it's a very like eclectic
and cool feeling space.
I love all of your plants.

(05:08):
That was one of the firstthings I noticed when I came in,
is I was like, who takes careof all these plants?
Cozy.
I love houseplants, just make aspace for these.

Brian (05:17):
But you probably should do something about the cobwebs.

Courtney (05:19):
I know that's a problem right now.
Don't you love the lightsthough?
They're they're activated by awand.
Yes, there's a light.
I had to have them.

Brian (05:26):
There's lights, there's cobwebs and spiders.
Listening, we are recordingthis at October, so it's
decorations, it's not realcobwebs and spiders.
Don't worry, yeah.
Yes, tell us about the name.

Courtney (05:41):
Yeah, so it's funny.
We either get a Brian or Shaunawhere it's like, what?
Salvadorian food, you know, oryeah, yeah.
Or people are like, oh my god,it's amazing.
We love it.
Yeah, yeah.
So it's we were at the DollyMuseum, Linda and myself, and
you know, probably having aglass of wine after whatever.
And we were kind of coming upwith a concept, and neither of
us remember.
I don't know if this is becauseof the wine, but who said it?

(06:03):
And I'm pretty sure it wasLinda.
But yeah, so from that day itjust stuck, and then I think
like five years later.
I mean, this happened waybefore the restaurant, but yeah.
So that's so funny.
And then you you get to leanin, which is fun too.
But so fun.

Shawna (06:16):
And then how what inspired your menu?
Because you have a veryinteresting and kind of
revolving menu, right?
And I love all the differentflavors and interesting things
that you've brought into that.
What what inspired that?

Brian (06:28):
Yeah, and actually, like I was reading on your site as we
were talking about this.
Your site was talking about youcalled it artfully elevated pub
food.

Courtney (06:36):
Uh-huh.
So we, you know, we're notnecessarily a pub.
So that was sort of firstconcept, obviously.
But yeah, so kind of the modelthat we've always loved was
taking these classics and thingsthat people like and then
punching them up and making themour own.
So you have like the delillama, which is a fan favorite,
you know, kind of beingconducive to the brewery.
So things that people love,tater tots for their kids, or

(06:57):
you know, and then making housemade sauces or aioles and really
getting to play with, you know,things that you would see in a
brewery, but maybe are a littleout of your comfort zone.
But yeah, yeah.

Shawna (07:06):
And do you think about like the flavors and things that
the brewery are playing with ornew things that they're making?
Do you think about that whenyou're making your menu too?
Absolutely.
Yeah.

Courtney (07:15):
Our beer cheese is made with baby cakes, of course.
Has to be.
They're uh award-winning beerout there.
So and then, you know, thinkingabout pairings all the time.
We're in October, so we'redoing brats right now with their
you know, Oktoberfest beers.
And so yeah, it's just fun toput the brat on the menu.
I was like, it's really good.
Yeah.

Shawna (07:33):
Yeah.
I was like, oh, well, we caneat after we do the podcast.
I was like, oh, we're going onher day off.

Courtney (07:38):
Well, no, I I actually thought, should I fire up the
oven for them?

Shawna (07:41):
But yeah, which I would have been happy to do.
But yeah, yeah, yeah.
Don't worry, we ate before wecame.
So you do not have to work onyour day off.
Yeah, I got you.
Yeah.

Brian (07:48):
Well, this is this has been great so far, Courtney.
Like, I'm really excited.
I mean, I noticed as Shaunausually likes to explain the
vibe inside where we where we'resitting, which you've already
kind of done done that a littlebit.
And I see there's some artworkon the walls too, which I think
I don't know if I saw theartwork last time.
So uh that's really caught myeye.
So I'm excited to learn moreabout that in the episodes to
come.
So as we get ready to wrap upthis episode, I've got one

(08:10):
question that I would like towrap up with.
You know, this is your firstyear, right, running the deli.
What has been your biggestlesson that you've learned
within this first year?

Courtney (08:19):
Yeah, I the first thing that comes to mind is
people.
No, I'm I'm slightly joking,but you know, managing a team,
and of course, we love ourcustomers, and so that's another
element of people.
But yeah, it's really just beenkind of a fun way to get to
know people too.
And yeah, no, I've enjoyed allof it.

Brian (08:35):
That's awesome.
Yeah, and there's that's twodifferent types of people you
have to learn.
Like your team is a lotdifferent than the customers.

Courtney (08:40):
Yeah, yeah.

Brian (08:41):
But they both are so important.
So tell us the worst storyabout no, I'm just doing Jason.

Courtney (08:49):
No, we love Jason very much.

Brian (08:50):
Stay tuned to episode two, Jason, or we're gonna be
talking about you.
I'm excited to get into parttwo.
We're gonna learn more aboutthe behind the scenes here with
that.

Shawna (08:58):
Catch you next time, neighbor.