Mile End Deli

Mile End Deli

53 Bond Street

New York City, NY 10012

(212) 529-2990

Noah and Rae Bernamoff opened Brooklyn's Mile End Delicatessen in 2010. Their goal was to share the classic Jewish comfort food of their childhood and they did this by using their grandmother's recipes - updating and tweaking as they went. Next, Mile End Sandwich opened May 2012 but has now renovated into Mile End Deli as well - lucky us!

The reason I wanted to visit was because I own a copy of their cookbook, also titled Mile End Deli. I didn't even know what the book would include when I bought it, but I was taken away by the book's design. Bold graphics, spot UV with matte lamination, and debossing. I couldn't resist taking the book home and it found a spot on my shelf. So when it came time to planning our trip to New York, I knew we would have to make a visit! One might think it's silly since we have Montreal's famous delis in our country, but places like this and Russ & Daughters (which we sadly didn't get to this year around) are making some noise in the culinary world and we wanted to taste what it was all about.

We went to have lunch or brunch on a Sunday afternoon and was greeted at the door by a friendly host. It looked pretty busy at first, but there was no wait (mostly people coming in for take out) and were seated right away.

We debated long and hard before deciding on what to order. My initial thought, Smoked Meat Hash, was thwarted because Howard was getting the Smoked Meat Sandwich. Plus, I really wanted to try their latkes, so by ordering the Classic Breakfast, I would get two eggs, potato latkes, and smoked meat.

We tried making latkes once and felt that we over fried them, but now seeing how the latkes were, I guess we didn't do so poorly at home! They were delicious with the sour cream. Amazing with the apple sauce. They were also great for mopping up runny egg yolk. And even better with the smoked meat.

Howard's order of the Smoked Meat Sandwich was off the chart. I mean, just look at that thing! A pile of cured and smoked brisket with mustard and rye. We tip our hats off to you Mile End Deli, you do smoked meat well!

And it wouldn't be a grand start to our New York City trip if we didn't upgrade the side to a Smoked Meat poutine with fries, cheese curds, brisket, and gravy. You might think that we had too much smoked meat, we learnt that there's no such thing as too much smoked meat here. It's delicious and we even recommended it to the table beside us when they were ordering.

When we returned home, I quickly flipped to the recipe to see how they make their smoked meat. Instructions indicate it would take us two weeks at home. And we would need a smoker. We suggest you visit Mile End Deli instead!