Quizno's is gone and Vineyard Deli has taken its place.

Ceres Chamber of Commerce members and the community had a chance to check out the latest sandwich shop - and partake of samples - in the same building as the Vineyard convenience store at Whitmore Avenue and Morgan Road during a Thursday evening mixer.

The new eatery and Vineyard store is owned by the Ceres-based E.R. Vine & Sons. The store and gas station was opened in 2013 and rebranded from a 76 to a Flyers station.

The sandwich shop was closed for a month to reimage the store with its own color scheme, design and marketing logo.

Jeff LeBeouf, president of E.R. Vine & Sons, explained that his company made the decision a long time ago to get out of its franchise with Quizno's, a chain that is dwindling.

"We have high quality lunch meats - much healthier food - for lower cost because we aren't paying royalties," said LeBeouf.

Vineyard Deli offers sandwiches, salads, soups and beverages. LeBeouf said his deli is the only one in Ceres that will sell lunchmeat by the pound to customers.
For now the shop is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily but will expand to 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. as of April 1.

Another change to come for the operation will be the addition of a recharging station for electric automobiles. LeBeouf said a company named NRG came to E.R. Vine and offered to pay for a charging station, subsidized by the government. The station will be introduced in about 90 days.

E.R. Vine moved away from 76 to Flyers nearly two years ago to survive in a competitive area gasoline market flooded by lower-cost Arco fuel. LeBeouf said he went with Flyers because gas is less expensive, he liked the image and they have a competitive credit card program for retailers. Company representative Risse Keys noted that the store does not charge a transaction fee to use debit cards. AM/PM stations charge 35 cents to use their post of sale card swipe.

E.R. Vine also remodeled the store's interior in 2013 with the help of a Texas consultant which made recommendations to make it more attractive to more customers from the stream of 30,000 vehicles per day that travel by the station.

In addition to the Ceres station, E.R. Vine has a store on Kiernan in Salida.

E.R. Vine & Sons recently celebrated its 81th anniversary of being in business.