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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Circles will remain on the Square.</p><p>Circles on the Square, the sandwich shop and so much more that has been a fixture in the downtown for 32 years, is reopening Tuesday. And those fresh-made sandwiches with clever names will be back.</p><p>Tuesday&#8217;s menu, however, will be dedicated to Phil Rudy, the owner/operator of the delicatessen/emporium who died Thursday at the age of 68. His funeral service was held Sunday.</p><p>As life went on Monday morning, a UPS driver was delivering packages and a man was washing the store&#8217;s windows, where the neon sign &#8220;Boar&#8217;s Head Brand&#8221; brightened a corner. A sign on the front door was posted notifying those somehow unaware of Rudy&#8217;s death that the store will reopen Tuesday morning.</p><p>Here&#8217;s the lineup for Tuesday&#8217;s specials:</p><p>&#8226; Le Grande Fromage &#8212; that&#8217;s how Rudy signed all of his gift certificates, a/k/a The Big Cheese</p><p>&#8226; A Bright Star Dimmed</p><p>&#8226; R Hearts R Broken</p><p>&#8226; We Will Miss You</p><p>&#8226; Goodnight Shuga &#8212; that&#8217;s how Rudy said goodnight to his staff each day</p><p>&#8226; R.I.P. Phil</p><p>And at the bottom of the specials page, a simple, &#8220;Always in our hearts &#8212; from your gang.&#8221;</p><p>More memorials are planned to keep Rudy&#8217;s memory alive in the deli, including a picture of the unique owner/operator.</p><p>But all one has to do to remember Phil Rudy is step inside the door of Circles on the Square &#8212; Rudy is everywhere.</p><p>His incredible sense of humor can be found throughout the store, evidenced by the items that really can&#8217;t be found anywhere else.</p><p>As Billy Scholl and Kathy Alaimo busily went about the task of reopening the business, Rudy&#8217;s personal touch could be found in the items offered for sale.</p><p>&#8220;We would often wonder why Phil would order this or that, then somebody would come in and buy one,&#8221; Alaimo said, standing next to a bowl of self-sticking glow-in-the-dark critters &#8212; offered at the close-out price of six for a dollar.</p><p>The walls are adorned with signs that make you smile &#8212; sometimes laugh out loud &#8212; but somehow find their way to a wall in your house. Such as: &#8220;Beware pickpockets and loose women&#8221; or &#8220;Please do not throw cigarette butts in urinal. It makes them soggy and hard to light.&#8221;</p><p>You could almost see and hear Rudy laughing as he placed the order for those.</p><p>In one corner of the store there are T-shirts, mugs and hats that feature Wilkes-Barre. A sign attracting customers to the display shows Beatles legend John Lennon wearing a Wilkes-Barre T-shirt.</p><p>There are greeting cards, mostly funny, a few very suggestive. There are specialty food items &#8212; licorice, cookies and wafers, wooden &#8220;DCUKS&#8221; (the brand name of ducks made of bamboo), salsa, pickles, preserves, sauerkraut, shredded beets, candies, mints, chocolate and various teas. There are several varieties of soaps, including &#8220;Pope Soap.&#8221; There are busts of Beethoven, Mozart, all the classical composers, Shakespeare, Lincoln and more &#8212; and they sell.</p><p>Coffee mugs are everywhere &#8212; a customer favorite is one that reads &#8220;Freudian Sips.&#8221; Another features Curly of The Three Stooges &#8212; it reads, &#8220;NYUK University.</p><p>When you walk into Circles, you will hear all types of music. As Alaimo said, &#8220;Anything from Frank Sinatra to Frank Zappa.&#8221; But probably no Beatles tunes.</p><p>Phil Rudy died Thursday, but the world he created inside his Circles on the Square lives on, as will his memory.</p><p>He is everywhere in the delicatessen that his sense of humor created and that he molded into a reflection of who he was, what he liked and what customers wanted &#8212; perhaps not until they saw it in Circles. The only place Rudy can&#8217;t be found is in his black chair in the back room, where his mind constantly worked to create each day&#8217;s specials.</p><p>On the <a href="http://tlgets.me/kgq" target="_blank">Circles on the Square website</a>, it states: &#8220;We don&#8217;t advertise: our customers do that for us.&#8221;</p><p>And in the frequently asked question department, you will find vintage Phil Rudy:</p><p>&#8220;SOAP? In a delicatessen? So, being an &#8220;emporium&#8221; grants a bit of leeway in merchandising, eh? Well in a word, YES! But please understand that it does comply with our mission to bring products of high quality and aesthetic merit to our public. A fine soap is as intimate as a ham sandwich: both interact with our senses on an admittedly very personal level. Come. Smell. Imagine.&#8221;</p><p>And then: &#8220;High quality need not be without humor.&#8221;</p><p><ins>For other local news stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/category/local" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">&#8216;Le Grande Fromage&#8217; will be the first featured sandwich on Tuesday&#8217;s menu. Rudy always signed his gift certificates &#8216;Le Grande Fromage&#8217; &#8212; the Big Cheese. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_TTL030717Circles2-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>&#8216;Le Grande Fromage&#8217; will be the first featured sandwich on Tuesday&#8217;s menu. Rudy always signed his gift certificates &#8216;Le Grande Fromage&#8217; &#8212; the Big Cheese. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Circles-Specials-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">All the specials on Tuesday&#8217;s menu at Circles on the Square are dedicated to the memory of Phil Rudy, the 68-year-old owner who died on Thursday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Circles-Specials-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>All the specials on Tuesday&#8217;s menu at Circles on the Square are dedicated to the memory of Phil Rudy, the 68-year-old owner who died on Thursday. </caption1><photoCredit1>circlesonthesquare.biz </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_TTL030717Circles1-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Kathy Alaimo was in Circles on the Square on Monday with co-worker Bill Scholl to prepare for the store&#8217;s reopening Tuesday. Owner Phil Rudy died Thursday, and Tuesday&#8217;s menu will feature sandwiches in his memory. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_TTL030717Circles1-2.jpg</photo2><caption2>Kathy Alaimo was in Circles on the Square on Monday with co-worker Bill Scholl to prepare for the store&#8217;s reopening Tuesday. Owner Phil Rudy died Thursday, and Tuesday&#8217;s menu will feature sandwiches in his memory. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Circles on the Square set to reopen after owner’s death