DSD Deli at 5205 N. Milwaukee introduces itself to Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association members

by BRIAN NADIG

The Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association at its July 28 meeting met  the owners of the new D.S.D Deli and a fitness training business.

Dan Cvejic and Branko Petrovic have opened D.S. D. Deli at 5205 N. Milwaukee Ave., featuring the same recipes which the deli had when it was open for close to 50 years in the 3800 block of West Lawrence Avenue. The store is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.

“On the weekends we roast whole pigs and lambs that you can buy by the pound,” Cvejic said.

The menu includes burek, a baked pastry fill with meat, cheese, potato or apple; prepared foods such as stuffed cabbage rolls, stuffed peppers, and meat and potato casserole; smoked meats; artisan sausages and homemade desserts. “We cure and smoke all of our meats,” Cvejic  said.

Plans call for the deli to also include a small packaged liquor section, and, possibly by the end of the year, a restaurant.

Cvejic said that it has been challenging to open a business, including hiring staff, during the pandemic, but  that the store’s efforts have been  focused on maintaining quality and that “eventually we are adding more products.”

For more information on the deli, call 773-326-5555 or visit www.dsddeli.com.

Association members also met former professional  boxer “Big” John Douglas who operates a home gym out of what he describes as the largest garage in Jefferson Park.

Douglas said that he can tailor training sessions to fit the individual needs of his clients.

He also encouraged residents to eat healthy, recommending salads with lots of vegetables and mixed nuts.

Douglas was an Olympic boxer in the light-heavyweight division for his home country of Guyana in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. For more information, visit www.bigjohndouglas.com.

Also at the meeting, association president Colleen Murphy urged members to contact Alderman James Gardiner (45th) and request that he downzone the 28,000–square-foot parcel at 5338-52 W. Argyle St. from its current RM-5 to its previous RS-3 classification given the uncertainty of its future.

Murphy said that former alderman John Arena had the property rezoned in 2016 for a 48-unit apartment complex that “the neighborhood was opposed to.” At a meeting hosted by Arena about 6 years ago, residents living closest to the site tended to voice opposition to the project while those further away tended to be more in support of the development.

RS-3 zoning would allow for single-family homes and two-flats on the parcel, Murphy said. “That’s what fits the character of that block and that neighborhood,” she said.

Murphy added that the community also has been concerned about the impact that dense development could have on Beaubien School. She said that there were 32 to 38 students in some classes when one of her children went there.

The site is governed by a “Type 1” zoning amendment, which restricts new construction there to two 24-unit apartment buildings.

It is not clear if Gardiner plans to rezone the parcel, which was once a storage yard for the former Cowhey cement-mixing company. “I am happy to listen to residents’ concerns regarding what they believe is in the best interest of our community,” he said after the meeting.

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