Conrad Pohlmann, of Northport, owner of Bay Deli in Halesite, dies at 60
Conrad Pohlmann of Northport died on Jan. 3 at age 60. Credit: Pohlmann family
Northport’s Conrad Pohlmann could be proud of many things. His family. Friendships going back to childhood. Owning a successful business. And preparing the perfect egg sandwich.
“He made the best egg sandwich around,” said his wife of 26 years, Wendy Pohlmann, referring to what the family business, the Bay Deli in Halesite, calls on its website eggs “cracked FRESH to order, NOT from a paper carton or cooked in a microwave … !”
“Every egg was made individually for each individual customer,” Wendy Pohlmann said. “That was the pride of the Bay Deli.”
No, it was only one of the points of pride, said many of the high school and college students who worked there throughout at the deli during the 27 years Conrad Pohlmann owned it. At his wake, said his father, Conrad F. Pohlmann: “People came up to me, parents of former and present workers and workers themselves, saying how much my son influenced them and helped get them get through various parts of their lives and steer them in the right direction. A mother there had had five kids who worked for my son, and she said he’d made such a difference in their lives.”
Conrad Pohlmann died Jan. 3, age 60, following a recurrence of a cancer for which he had been in remission for nine years. He spent his final days at home, and passed at VNS Hospice House in East Northport just hours after arriving there with his family.
“He was who he was and he wasn't afraid to put it out there,” said one friend since second grade, Jon Richman, of Manhattan. In the group of five childhood pals to which they both still belonged: “He very often said what we were all thinking. Most of us may have filtered it or not said it, but he would say it. And sometimes there were consequences. But he was authentic and he was genuine. And he made you comfortable. It was always a safe space to talk to Conrad.”
Conrad John Pohlmann was born Feb. 21, 1964, in the Bronx, the eldest of three children of now-retired civil engineer Conrad Frederick Pohlmann and the late Caroline Dittiger Pohlmann, a teacher's aide for Northport elementary schools. After graduating from Northport High School, Conrad Pohlmann briefly attended SUNY Brockport before obtaining a business degree from SUNY Old Westbury.
After working in restaurants that his family said included the now-gone Beachtree Cafe in Smithtown and the also-gone Canastel’s in Manhattan, where future film star Sandra Bullock was a co-worker, Conrad Pohlmann bought the existing Bay Deli, a business dating to at least 1964. Retaining the name, he took over on July 3, 1997.
“He worked seven days a week at that deli and missed a lot of stuff, but everything he did was for us,” said his wife, with whom he had two children. “His family always came first but he did what he had to do in order to make us all happy.”
Virtually every year during February school break, she said, they all vacationed somewhere warm, from Hawaii to the Caribbean. And after his cancer returned, “He took trips with each of the kids, so they would have memories with him.”
What made Conrad Pohlmann happy, in addition to family, was boating. His family owned a boat as he was growing up, and as adult, he and his own family had a boat and belonged to the Northport Yacht Club.
He also loved the New York Jets, for which he and his old childhood friends held season tickets some years. More recently, the group would spend an annual weekend together attending a road game.
And, said his sister, Lisa Warren, of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, “He had crazy love for a good crackling thunderstorm. As a child, he would sit at the end of the driveway in a beach chair with an umbrella in the middle of a thunderstorm. And his very last night at his home, we had a wonderful thunderstorm and he was able to watch that out the window, surrounded by his family. It was very special.”
In addition to his wife, father and sister, Pohlmann is survived by two children, Julia Pohlmann and Nicholas Pohlmann, both of Northport; a brother, Mark Pohlmann, of Kings Park; and several nieces and nephews.
A funeral Mass was celebrated Wednesday at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in Fort Salonga, followed by burial at St. Philip Neri Cemetery in East Northport.
Northport’s Conrad Pohlmann could be proud of many things. His family. Friendships going back to childhood. Owning a successful business. And preparing the perfect egg sandwich.
“He made the best egg sandwich around,” said his wife of 26 years, Wendy Pohlmann, referring to what the family business, the Bay Deli in Halesite, calls on its website eggs “cracked FRESH to order, NOT from a paper carton or cooked in a microwave … !”
“Every egg was made individually for each individual customer,” Wendy Pohlmann said. “That was the pride of the Bay Deli.”
No, it was only one of the points of pride, said many of the high school and college students who worked there throughout at the deli during the 27 years Conrad Pohlmann owned it. At his wake, said his father, Conrad F. Pohlmann: “People came up to me, parents of former and present workers and workers themselves, saying how much my son influenced them and helped get them get through various parts of their lives and steer them in the right direction. A mother there had had five kids who worked for my son, and she said he’d made such a difference in their lives.”
Conrad Pohlmann died Jan. 3, age 60, following a recurrence of a cancer for which he had been in remission for nine years. He spent his final days at home, and passed at VNS Hospice House in East Northport just hours after arriving there with his family.
“He was who he was and he wasn't afraid to put it out there,” said one friend since second grade, Jon Richman, of Manhattan. In the group of five childhood pals to which they both still belonged: “He very often said what we were all thinking. Most of us may have filtered it or not said it, but he would say it. And sometimes there were consequences. But he was authentic and he was genuine. And he made you comfortable. It was always a safe space to talk to Conrad.”
Conrad John Pohlmann was born Feb. 21, 1964, in the Bronx, the eldest of three children of now-retired civil engineer Conrad Frederick Pohlmann and the late Caroline Dittiger Pohlmann, a teacher's aide for Northport elementary schools. After graduating from Northport High School, Conrad Pohlmann briefly attended SUNY Brockport before obtaining a business degree from SUNY Old Westbury.
After working in restaurants that his family said included the now-gone Beachtree Cafe in Smithtown and the also-gone Canastel’s in Manhattan, where future film star Sandra Bullock was a co-worker, Conrad Pohlmann bought the existing Bay Deli, a business dating to at least 1964. Retaining the name, he took over on July 3, 1997.
“He worked seven days a week at that deli and missed a lot of stuff, but everything he did was for us,” said his wife, with whom he had two children. “His family always came first but he did what he had to do in order to make us all happy.”
Virtually every year during February school break, she said, they all vacationed somewhere warm, from Hawaii to the Caribbean. And after his cancer returned, “He took trips with each of the kids, so they would have memories with him.”
What made Conrad Pohlmann happy, in addition to family, was boating. His family owned a boat as he was growing up, and as adult, he and his own family had a boat and belonged to the Northport Yacht Club.
He also loved the New York Jets, for which he and his old childhood friends held season tickets some years. More recently, the group would spend an annual weekend together attending a road game.
And, said his sister, Lisa Warren, of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, “He had crazy love for a good crackling thunderstorm. As a child, he would sit at the end of the driveway in a beach chair with an umbrella in the middle of a thunderstorm. And his very last night at his home, we had a wonderful thunderstorm and he was able to watch that out the window, surrounded by his family. It was very special.”
In addition to his wife, father and sister, Pohlmann is survived by two children, Julia Pohlmann and Nicholas Pohlmann, both of Northport; a brother, Mark Pohlmann, of Kings Park; and several nieces and nephews.
A funeral Mass was celebrated Wednesday at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in Fort Salonga, followed by burial at St. Philip Neri Cemetery in East Northport.
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