Lower East Side's country cousin.

• Position: The Way Off Broadway Deli

Lower East Side's country cousin

Anybody got a recipe for borscht? If so, pass it on to the kids who run The Way Off Broadway Deli.

They have family recipes for chicken soup, stuffed cabbage and gefilte fish, but they're still using store-bought borscht.

Just one small struggle in the life of an eatery that bills itself as the world's only New York Jewish deli run by rural Tar Heels.

It's also the world's only deli started by four high-school kids from St. Pauls, a small town just off Interstate 95 about 20 miles south of Fayetteville. Begun in 1987 as an experiment to teach kids the ways of business, the deli has attracted the attention of educators as well as Yankee travelers anxious for some soul food that's not Southern -- pastrami, corned beef and bagels. Yearly revenues have reached about $250,000--not bad in a town of about 2,000 that's been hit hard by textile-mill closings.

"About 90 percent of our business is right off I-95," says manager John Dexter. An Arby's and Taco Bell veteran, Dexter was hired by the kids for a three-year stint to add some professional management to the operation. "I'm actively working myself out of a job here," he says.

The deli got off the ground with a $32,500 loan from the local schools and lots of advice from various community and state organizations. As part of their training, Dexter, co-owner Blake McDuffie and a student worker spent a week at a Broadway deli. Since then, Blake and the other three founders have graduated and continue to run the restaurant.

"Everyone is real pleased with our success," says McDuffie.

Well, not everyone. Someone's got his dander up over some ads that featured the faces of Col. Sanders and Ronald McDonald slashed with the now famous "say no" emblem. "Kentucky Fried Chicken contacted us and said we were infringing upon their rights," Dexter says.

Texas ain't the Loan Star State

"No 'Count New Boys" -- that's what some Texans call NCNB.

With a sputtering oil economy making defaults and foreclosures about as common as armadillos, just about any big bank is fair game in the Lone Star State these days. But when NCNB Corp. bought First RepublicBank Corp. of Dallas, it became a moving target for the potshots of Texas sharpshooters.

After all, here was an upstart Charlotte bank buying the biggest banking company in the second-biggest state in the union. "Not Closed, Not Broke" was about as much admiration as Texans could muster, even though NCNB brought stability to an ailing...