There are few eating holes as iconic as Carnegie Deli. This joint is known around the world for serving up Jewish style deli sandwiches that are piled high with mountains of meat. I hadn’t been here since around 2000, so it was great to finally go back and really sink my teeth into some classic NYC shit.
My buddy and I split the Woody Allen combo, which is about a pound each of pastrami and corned beef on rye bread, but without the statutory rape. We ordered to go so we didn’t get nailed with the $5 share charge (and a tip) if you eat there.
This place still delivers high level quality like I remember. The meat is juicy and tender, sliced thin but not dried out, and piled high as fuck.
One sandwich can easily feed two, but I have to tell you – I was wishing that I had my own sandwich as I got down to my last few bites. So much meat, but I wanted more!
Now that I live nearby, I’ll be picking up sandwiches a lot more often. This place is totally worth the hype, and there are really only three places that still operate in this classic Jewish Deli fashion now: Katz, 2nd Avenue Deli, and Carnegie Deli. Get here. Even if you’ve gone many times. It still delivers a powerful punch of flavor.
This little corner Vietnamese bodega was a staple spot for me and my wife when we lived nearby.
They sell everything from Vietnamese variety show VCDs to music CDs, over the counter meds to dry goods and trinkets.
But they also sell banh mi sandwiches.
I grabbed two on my way home from jury duty, which brought me back into my old stomping grounds.
The classic: ham, pate and slices of pork roll with pickled veggies, cilantro, mayo and sri racha.
The spicy BBQ pork: BBQ pork with pickled veggies, cilantro, mayo, BBQ sauce and sri racha.
Both were really tasty and flavorful. The bread here is likely made early in the morning. When I arrived it was still being kept warm in a toaster oven type thing, but it may have dried out a bit in the hours it was there. The French bread was crispy and flaky, so much so that the roof of your mouth gets raped pretty hard, but the sandwich flavors make it worth the pain. These sandwiches are pretty solid for a cheap Chinatown deli shop. Stop in if you’re nearby.
SAU VOI CORP.
101 Lafayette St #3
New York, NY 10013
I don’t understand the infatuation with Black Seed Bagels. They’re small, incredibly overpriced, and taste no better than any other good bagel shop in Manhattan. This satellite location at Hudson Eats was understaffed. It took way too long for my bagel to come out, because there was only one person making orders (and there were only two people ahead of me on line when I walked up).
Complaints aside, I did like my bagel. I ordered an everything bagel toasted with cream cheese, salmon, tomato, red onion and capers. The bagel wasn’t very toasted and came to me kind of cold. Not the worst sin (I like my salmon and cream cheese to be cold), but a toasty bagel would have been titties.
BLACK SEED BAGELS
Brookfield Place
200 Vesey St.
New York, NY 10080
What better way to cap off a day of beer and burgers than to put down a massive, heaping pile of corned beef, sandwiched between two slices of rye bread? This baby was so excellent that it almost made me forget that I dropped nearly $20 for it. Check out what half of a sandwich looks like from the famous (but moved) 2nd Avenue Deli (on 1st Avenue, UES):
This little place makes some really great sang-witches. One day my wife and I went over there and picked up five different selections and brought them over to my parents so we could all try.
We tried the Louisiana Lightning (grilled cajun chicken with lettuce, tomato, onion and spicy stealth sauce), the Reuben (my favorite of them all), the Stealth (roast pork with lettuce tomato onion and stealth sauce), the Philly Cheesesteak, and the Big Steer (essentially a cheeseburger sandwich). All were excellent, but the Reuben really stole the show, with the Big Steer and Louisiana Lightning coming in close behind. Perhaps the Super Steak would have been the better choice than the regular Philly, as it comes on toasted garlic bread!
Louisiana Lightning:
Philly Cheesesteak:
Reuben:
Big Steer:
Stealth:
TJ’S HERO SHOP
524 Mastic Rd.
Mastic Beach, NY 11951
The crux of this entry is going to focus on two food stops we made while we were here: Morton’s and White House Sub Shop.
My buddy and I flew down like CEOs on a 30 minute flight from Long Island to check out a classic car auction that was going on at the convention center. I won’t bore you foodies with pics of the awesome cars. Instead I’ll get right to the good shit.
Had I known there was an Asian culinary battle going on down there, I would have registered to view/taste. Too bad I didn’t know until it was too late. This was right at the bottom of our elevator bank:
Morton’s
I haven’t been to a Morton’s in a long time but I remember them being really great. My memory served me well. We went to Morton’s on Friday after we checked in. The rib eye was nearly perfect, aside from some bits of inedible gristle. Evenly cooked, juicy, with that signature aged flavor. 9/10.
rib eyerib eye
My buddy tried the peppercorn strip steak. It was great too – really nice flavor, though I would go without the sauce. 9/10.
peppercorn strip
As a beef eater, I got my typical gin martini, made with Beefeater:
On the side we had some bacon and onion mac & cheese, which was really good. Creamy, good smoke flavor.
We also did a wedge salad – pretty standard:
But the highlight of the meal was the “bacon steak” appetizer. It was soft and tender – don’t let the grill marks and charred looks deceive you in this image. It was thick, smokey, and delicious. We went back for more on Sunday, but they didn’t open until 5pm and we had a flight to catch.
The service here was excellent. Our waitress, Nicole, knew her steak well and made great suggestions to us, and the management was good enough to come over and check in on us to make sure everything was to our liking. The price was right too: at only about $100 each we thought we got a great deal for all that food.
White House Sub Shop
This place is awesome. We went on Sunday morning at about 11am. I went with a cheesesteak loaded with the works: hot peppers, grilled onions, lettuce, and tomato. PACKED with flavor, not too salty or greasy, good quality bread. Just right. And for $8.66 you really can’t beat it. Check out all the pics:
Worst part of the trip: Noodle Bar at Caesar’s. We were excited to go the first time, especially since I saw pho on the menu. Too bad it sucked. It was bland, and the meat quality was low to poor at best. Also WAY too many noodles and not enough meat. Overpriced too, at $16 for a shitty bowl that is much better and costs only $6 in NYC.
On Saturday night we were starving since we skipped dinner and had $2 beers at Mountain Bar instead.
decor at mountain bar
The only place open nearby at 1am, that we knew about anyway, was the fucking Noodle Bar. So we went back in. This time I ordered salt & pepper pork chops. They were pretty good, but I didn’t expect them to be deep fried and DRENCHED in table salt. WAY too salty. I only ate about half after doing my best to dust all the salt off.
Lucky for us, we were able to salvage the night before with a good Bloody Mary at Phillips the next morning.
And some gelato at the hotel lobby:
And when I got home, my wife had this waiting for me – a new custom cell phone case with one of my logos on it. Best wife ever.
