Trades Delicatessen showcases timeless style

On a quiet Oak Cliff morning, just as the first bagels hit the oven and the espresso machines hiss to life, Trades Delicatessen hums with a strange kind of magic — equal parts old-school New York deli, neighborhood gathering spot and, on some Sundays, full-on rave.

Jason Roberts and Amy Wallace Cowan are the minds behind Trades Delicatessen. They were already operating Oddfellows and Jaquval in Bishop Arts. All three are located on Seventh Street, in a literal lineup.

Cowan’s pandemic pivot was a market run outside of Oddfellows, and soon that idea became Trades.

“People loved it. We got to know a lot more neighbors, because they were coming in to get their toilet paper and soap, the basics, as well as some food and things like that,” Cowan says. “And somehow or another, it became like, ‘Oh, we could brew beer, and we could have this market, and we could combine it all.’ And we were interested in vertical integration, so baking our own bread, smoking our own meats, making our own salmon, products that we use on the menu at Oddfellows and at Revelers. But we didn’t want to just have a production facility. We wanted to have a storefront.”

When they started, it was going to be a place where they were making beer, baking bread and roasting coffee in one big space. Cowan realized that Oak Cliff may not have the density to support a market like that, as she had seen similar places come and go on Davis Street. So they pivoted to not keep it all in one space, but to chase that New York deli dream and make sandwiches the star of the show.

“A lot of delis feel like they’re 100 years old,” Cowan says. “We wanted clean bones and kind of a timeless style.”

Trades opened at 312 W Seventh St. in February 2024 and offers a menu of breakfast bagels, schmears, bagel sandwiches, and hot and cold deli sandwiches. A soup and salad menu round out the lunch offerings, and decadent chocolate cake and a s’mores cookie with a toasted marshmallow in the center highlight the dessert options.

Gastropub and brewery Jaquval, which opened in December 2023, shares a kitchen with Trades, and an open wall makes it easy to flow between spaces.

“I love it. It plays well with my attention span to have a lot of different things to hop around and pop into and work on,” Cowan says.

Sandwiches are piled high, with some fan favorites including the French dip ($18.99), the Italian ($15.99) and the turkey melt ($15.99). Trades proudly bakes their own breads and bagels, smokes their meats and fish, and roasts their coffee beans on-site.

Open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, Trades is a deli lover’s dream.

“The sandwiches are all-day fair; people get them for lunch and on their way home for dinner,” Cowan says. “Another thing people really like is you can get breakfast all day, so people in the service industry waking up at 2 p.m., they can enjoy breakfast later.”

The deli recently started offering meats by the pound, so guests can grab meats and breads to make their own sandwiches at home.

A unique experience that Trades has recently implemented? Raves.

To the right of the entrance, you might notice signs that read, “Rave at a deli? What the helly?” along with photos of guests holding baguettes high in the air as they jam to a DJ.

Videos of a Sunday morning deli rave were a huge hit on Instagram. Noely Paniagua, the executive assistant of Trades and a raver, pitched the idea after seeing the video of a rave in a European deli on Instagram.

While the owners of Trades were hesitant at first as they did not want to disrupt sales, they were convinced. The event was Trades’ most profitable Sunday and now they announce when the next rave is on their Instagram.

Having no prior restaurant experience to now having multiple ventures in Oak Cliff that bring the community together in unique ways, Cowan says she is grateful to add another successful endeavor to her list.

“Every day is a little scary, right?” Cowan says. “But it’s fun. I really love the people I work with. That makes a lot of it work.”

Trades Delicatessen, 312 W. Seventh St., 972.589.3525, tradesdeli.com.